The Blind Spot of the Blind Spot

Conspiracy theory as 'illustration'

Shapiro, Carolyn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2987-8111 (2025) The Blind Spot of the Blind Spot. The Journal of Illustration, 12 (2). ISSN 2052-0204 (In Press)

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Abstract / Summary

: In this essay, I deconstruct the metaphysical idealism that embraces the “blind spot” as the same value system from which the emanating ‘seeing spot’ derives, a provenance shared by the function of illustration, which also conjoins light and vision in order to introduce knowledge. I trace the fantasy of the ‘transparency’ invoked in contemporary American politics back to the 18th century All-Seeing Eye disseminated through the symbols of Freemasonry. Depicted atop an Egyptian pyramid, the All-Seeing Eye is characterised by emanating lines of light. This highly discursive image bears interlocking significations of enlightenment, illumination, and of the revelation of something hidden. However, en-lightening the exposure of a revealed blind spot may be though, the trope of the blind spot, fused with the persistence of light, poses an energetic ambivalence which leads to an uncomfortably close convergence between the operations of illustration and conspiracy theory.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© Carolyn Shapiro, 2025. The definitive, peer reviewed and edited version of this article is published in the Journal of Illustration, 12 2, pages, 2025, DOI link].
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Blind spot, illustration, conspiracy theory, transparency, Freemasonry, public secret, unheimlich
ISSN:	2052-0204
eISSN:	20520212
Subjects:	Art History & Theory
Department:	Falmouth School of Art
Depositing User:	Carolyn Shapiro
Date Deposited:	08 Oct 2025 13:58
Last Modified:	08 Oct 2025 13:58
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6195

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