This paper contributes to the conception of visual art as a material culture artefact produced through a work process. Art-making work processes condense economic factors (raw material exploitation, labour organization, etc.), technological factors (materials, tools, techniques, etc.) and cognitive factors (knowledge, values, visual perceptions, etc.), all of which are inextricably linked in the creation of visual images. The paper argues that the analysis of such work process is a key element in understanding and interpreting the role of visual images within the social contexts in which they were made and used (displayed/worn, viewed), insofar as many of their functions, meanings and effects stemmed from such production contexts and from the different affordances of image-making techniques. These concepts are applied to the research of the body paintings created and worn by the Yamana/Yagan, whose ancestral territory is located in the southernmost region of Tierra del Fuego, where traditions of bone artefact decoration and pigment use have been documented along seven millennia. Body painting is analysed using a ‘visual archaeology’ approach, through the systematic study of a photographic record of 76 images taken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, combined with information from the written record (50 historical-ethnographic sources from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, which are summarized for the first time in this publication). Results show that (a) the affordance of image-making techniques was flexibly exploited in order to generate design repertoires of higher or lower variability according to the type of situation of body painting display and (b) part of the visual and social effects of these images stemmed directly from their production contexts (e.g. domestic versus ceremonial, public versus secret) and from their techno-visual and performative affordances. Thus, the paper shows that art images-objects should not be interpreted only as final products, since many of their material and social qualities were deeply rooted in the very production processes that led to their existence.

中文翻译：

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制作图像的艺术：火地岛（南美南部）雕刻手工艺品和人体彩绘生产中的技术承受能力，设计可变性和劳工组织

本文为视觉艺术的概念做出了贡献，视觉艺术是通过工作过程产生的物质文化人工制品。美术创作过程凝聚了经济因素（原材料的开发，劳工组织等），技术因素（材料，工具，技术等）和认知因素（知识，价值，视觉感受等）。），所有这些都与视觉图像的创建密不可分。本文认为，对此类工作过程的分析是在视觉图像的许多功能，意义范围内理解和解释视觉图像在其制造和使用（显示/佩戴，观看）的社会环境中的作用的关键要素。效果源于此类生产环境以及图像制作技术的不同需求。这些概念被应用于Yamana / Yagan创作和佩戴的人体彩绘的研究，Yamana / Yagan的祖传地区位于Tierra del Fuego的最南端，该地区已有七千年的历史记录了人工骨装饰和色素使用的传统。使用“视觉考古”方法分析人体彩绘，通过对19世纪末和20世纪初拍摄的76张图像的摄影记录进行系统研究，并结合书面记录中的信息（17世纪至20世纪的50个历史民族志资料来源，在2002年首次进行了总结）本出版物）。结果表明：（a）灵活利用图像制作技术的能力，以便根据人体彩绘展示的情况来生成较高或较低可变性的设计表目；（b）这些视觉和社会效果的一部分图片直接来自其制作环境（结合书面记录中的信息（从17世纪到20世纪的50个历史民族志资源，在本出版物中首次进行了总结）。结果表明：（a）灵活利用图像制作技术的能力，以便根据人体彩绘展示的情况来生成较高或较低可变性的设计表目；（b）这些视觉和社会效果的一部分图片直接来自其制作环境（结合书面记录中的信息（从17世纪到20世纪的50个历史民族志资源，在本出版物中首次进行了概述）。结果表明：（a）灵活利用图像制作技术的能力，以便根据人体彩绘展示的情况来生成较高或较低可变性的设计表目；（b）这些视觉和社会效果的一部分图片直接来自其制作环境（（例如，家庭与仪式，公共与秘密），以及技术，视觉和表演能力。因此，本文表明，艺术图像对象不应仅解释为最终产品，因为它们的许多物质和社会品质深深植根于导致其存在的生产过程中。