Chapter 3 & 4

3

In Chapter 3, the authors discussed about the theories of Foucault and Lacan on the gaze and spectatorship. Foucault’s notion of the panopticon and surveillance can really be applied to the modern society. Nowadays, there are surveillance cameras everywhere, especially in large cities. It is true that we’re surrounded by the inspecting gaze, but how does that impact us? Do we internalize it and self-regulate our behavior? Or do we try to hide from it? Then I think about the webcam. The webcam is different from other kinds of cameras. Usually we use cameras to see other people and things, but when we use webcams, it is for other people to see us. So even though we are under so much surveillance already, we still have the desire for other people to look at us. Or we have become so accustomed to surveillance that we enjoy exhibitionism.

I also think Lacan’s concept of the gaze and identification is interesting. Like an infant in the mirror stage, the viewer tends to identify with the image on the movie screen. When we watch movies, most people identify with the protagonist. Or usually female viewers identify with female characters, and male with male. My question is: is this identification based on similarity or difference? It seems normal that we identify with characters similar to us, not just in terms of gender, but also age, ethnicity, personality, social class, and so on. But if such identification is like the mis-recognition of the mirror stage, it seems like we would identify with something that we don’t have—an image that is better/more complete than us. If the gaze signifies one’s lack and fragmentation, then we should be gazing at the opposite? When we look in the mirror, are we gazing at ourselves, or are we gazing at the other in the mirror?

4

Chapter 4 is about visual realism and perspective. The authors talked about how different approaches to realism are developed through the history of art. And by examining the different conventions of realism, we can learn about the culture and politics of a given social context. Then the authors turned to the role of perspective in art as a signifier of realism and the different ways of seeing across different times. For me, it’s easier to understand the historical difference in perspective, but I just wonder if there are cultural differences in perspective as well, like how does the perspective of ancient Chinese paintings differ from western paintings? Also, the advancement in information technology allows people to see things from new perspectives. In Second Life we can fly and look at things from the bird’s-eye view. Through the satellite view in Google Maps, we can also see our surroundings from a new perspective.

Now Google Maps even provides Street View at popular locations. We can see the Street View and satellite view at the same time, and use arrow keys to navigate the Street View.

With the Street View, we can also look up, down, left and right, so it really allows us to explore many different perspectives.