The Way of Seeing

This reading was very interesting to me. I found it especially interesting because I think that the text mirrors the point that the author is trying to convey. John Berger discusses "ways of seeing" and provides information about how when we look at artwork, we are looking at something through the lens of the artist. This text that we are reading, is through the lens of John Berger and his opinion on the subject. He even notes that the world is not objective but it is affected by our individual consciousness. Berger goes in depth to describe perspective which I find to be very helpful. Perspective is a term that I have been familiar with for a long time across a variety of subjects. This is why it helps to have it redefined specifically for the context of art. He states, "Perspective makes the single eye the centre of the visible world" (Berger, 16). This perspective is particularly ego-centric if carried over to every context but it makes sense for viewing and understanding art.

Due to the complex nature of art and its many contributors/benefactors, an egocentric perspective is necessary. I agree with Berger in viewing art through the artist's lens but I also think that most art needs our own individual semantics for full pleasure/distaste/etc. Sometimes it can be challenging to immediately place yourself behind/with the artist and understand exactly where they were coming from in their design whether it be intentional or accidental. This is why we must use our own experience and knowledge to understand. An example of this is the phenomena of Cubism. Because of my knowledge, I know that many of the pieces considered under the genre of Cubism are visual representations/reproductions of World War II. If I lacked this knowledge, I might not understand truly what was happening and the situation that the artists were in. Despite this, I still would have been able to appreciate the mood of the lens that the artist produced the work in.

Throughout the duration of the article, I was reminded of a current social media obsession; Instagram.  Berger mentions the revolution of the camera. He notes how the camera changed the way that people saw and includes that "there was no center". I do not necessarily agree with this. Modernly, Instagram is used for people to share their view/perspective/lens of what happened at a certain time/place/etc. There are numerous different accounts and hashtags all on the theme of "@fromwhereistand". Instagram allows the tagging of locations for users to see how their perspective of a place differs from others. I think that Instagram does still allow for a center, and specifically an individual based center (i.e. ego-centric). As much as it allows for the sharing and comparison, one's individual profile is majority egocentric and can even be somewhat described as narcissistic. This comparison makes me wonder how the sharing of one's own images/artworks has changed throughout time. Is there currently more or less promotion of others and do we still encourage others to use their own interpretations when viewing our images?

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