Tuesday, January 22

Chapter 3 Reading Notes
-This chapter looks at the role of the spectator of the image and the ways that the gaze (of images, subjects, and institutions is a fundamental aspect of the practice of looking.
*Subjects- a term that defines those aspects of human individuals that individuals are not in control of and that are actually shared among humans.

~Psychoanalysis and the image spectator~
*spectator- a term derived from psychoanalytic theory that refers to the viewer of visual arts such as cinema.
-The spectatorship theory does not refer to a flesh-and-blood individual viewer or a member of a particular viewing audience- instead the spectator is an “ideal subject”

*subject position- a term used to define those ways that images, whether as films or paintings, etc., designate an ideal position for their intended spectators.

-Metz and other French theorists who wrote about film in the 1970s described the process of spectatorship as: the viewer suspends disbelief in the fictional world of the film, identifies not only with specific characters in the film but more importantly with the film’s overall ideology through identification with the film’s narrative structure and visual point of view, and puts into play fantasy structures that derive from the viewer’s unconscious.
-Early theories of spectatorship were based on psychoanalytic theories from Freud and Jacque Lacan (French psychoanalyst)

*mirror phase- a stage of development, according to psychoanalytic theorist Jaques Lacan, in which the infant first experiences a sense of alienation in its realization of its separatness from other human beings.
*alienation- In general, it refers to the sense of distance from nature, separation from others, and helplessness that is an effect of modern existence. In psychoanalytic theory, it refers to the split subjectivity and the discovery of the fact that one is not in control of one’s thoughts, actions, and desires because of the existence of the unconscious.

~The Gaze~
Lacan used the term “the gaze”

In common parlance, the gaze is to look or stare often w/ eagerness or desire, but in psychoanalytic film criticism, the gaze is not the act of looking itself, but the viewing relationship characteristic of a particular set of social circumstances.

-Laura Mulvey released “visual pleasure and narrative cinema” in 1975 where she proposed that women were represented in films as subjects of the “male gaze” and thus images were for male viewing pleasure. She used terms such as scopophilia and voyeurism.
*Scopophilia- In psychoanalytic terms, the drive to look and the general pleasure in looking.
*Voyeurism- the erotic pleasure in watching without being seen
*exhibitionism-the pleasure derived from being looked at.

To her, the camera is used as a tool of voyeurism and sadism.
“Rear Window” with Jimmy Stewart was used as an example.
However, this male power is not without limits.
This is also seen in art where women are often nude and are clearly objects of the male gaze.
-John Berger also wrote on this topic and said that in the history of images, “men act and women appear”

~Changing concepts of the Gaze~
-The concept of the male gaze is changing as female roles are changing and men are also becoming subjects of the gaze.
-In “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, both women and men were subjects of the gaze

In contemporary images, there is a broad array of gazes and implied viewers.
-The desires that spectators have in looking and being looked at are caught up in relationships of power.
-Traditionally, the spectator was perceived to have more power, but this not always the case. For instance, in many ads, men are often shown as either confronting the gaze or turning away from it, which gives them a great deal of power.

~Discourse, the gaze, and the other~
-images are elements in the functioning of institutional power (they can both exert power and act as instruments of power)
*discourse- generally, it is the socially organized process of talking about a particular subject matter. Michel Focault (French philosopher) used the term discourse to describe a group of statements which provide a means for talking about particular topic at a particular historical moment.
-To him, discourse is a body of knowledge that both defines and limits what can be said about something.

*modernity-refers to the time period and world view beginning approximately in the 18th century with the Enlightenment, reaching its height in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when broad populations in Europe and North America were increasingly concentrated in urban centers and in industrial societies of increased mechanization and automation. Modernity is a time of dramatic technological change that embraces a linear view of progress as crucial to humankind’s prosperity.
*The Other-a term used to refer to the category of subjectivity that is set up in binary opposition to dominant subjectivity. The other refers to that which is understood as the symbolic opposite to the normative category, such as the slave to the master, the woman to the man.

~Power, Knowledge, and Panopticism~
*power/knowledge- a term used by Foucault to describe the ways that power impacts what gets to count as knowledge in a given social context, and how in turn knowledge systems within that society are caught up in power relations.
*biopower- a term used by Foucault to describe the processes through which institutional practices define, measure, categorize, and construct the body.
*panopticism- a theory used by French philosopher Michel Foucault to characterize the ways that modern social subjects regulate their own behavior.

Foucault wrote that modern societies are structured on a basic relationship of power/knowledge. (modern societies function not through coercion but cooperation)
Foucault explained that expertise is a fundamental aspect of power relations.
-Modern power produces knowledge.
*docile bodies- citizens who participate in the ideologies of the society through cooperation and a desire to fit in and conform.
-photography helps produce docile bodies.
-We internalize a managerial gaze watching over us that causes us to conform.

~The gaze and the exotic~
-The person looking is often thought to possess more power than the person being looked at.
*binary opposition- the oppositions such as nature/culture, male/female, etc. through which reality has been traditionally represented.
*unmarked-the norm
*marked-other
ex) male is unmarked and female is marked
*Orientalism- a term defined most recently by cultural theorist Edward Said that refers to the ways that Western cultures conceive of Eastern and Middle-Eastern cultures as other and attribute to them qualities of exoticism and barbarism.
-Seen in political policy and pop culture (ex- films where Asian women are highly sexualized)
*Aura- a term used by German theorist Walter Benjamin to describe the quality of unique works of art that exist in only one place.

Key Words
*Gaze- (from Artlex) To see steadily, intently, and with fixed attention. Or, any looking done in this way. Artists typically put effort into anticipating the gaze of those who will view their work.
(from textbook) In common parlance, the gaze is to look or stare often w/ eagerness or desire, but in psychoanalytic film criticism, the gaze is not the act of looking itself, but the viewing relationship characteristic of a particular set of social circumstances.
(from Wikipedia) The concept of gaze (often also called the gaze or, in French, le regard), in analysing visual culture, is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. The concept of the gaze became popular with the rise of postmodern philosophy and social theory and was first discussed by 1960s French intellectuals, namely Michel Foucault's description of the medical gaze and Lacan's analysis of the gaze's role in the mirror stage development of the human psyche. This concept is extended in the framework of feminist theory, where it can deal with how men look at women, how women look at themselves and other women, and the effects surrounding this. Laura Mulvey criticized such gaze (in films) as "male".
*Elements of design/Elements of Art- The basic components used by the artist when producing works of art. Those elements are color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space. The elements of art are among the literal qualities found in any artwork.
*Principles of Design/Principles of Art- Certain qualities inherent in the choice and arrangement of elements of art in the production of a work of art. Artists "design" their works to varying degrees by controlling and ordering the elements of art. Considering the principles is especially useful in analyzing ways in which a work is pleasing in formal ways. How any work exhibits applications of these principles can further or modify other characteristics of a work as well.
*Sally Mann- an American photographer born in 1951. Her photos have appeared on The New York Times Magazine and she was Time’s photographer of the year in 2001.
Many of her photographs are of her children nude.
*Laura Mulvey- Mulvey was born in 1941 and is currently a professor of film and media studies at the University of London. Mulvey is most famous for her article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in 1975 where she uses psychoanalytic theory to propose that women were represented in films as subjects of the “male gaze” and thus images were for male viewing pleasure.
*Michel Foucault- was a French philosopher who lived from 1926 to 1984. Michel Foucault is best known for his critical studies of various social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences, and the prison system, as well as for his work on the history of human sexuality. Foucault's work on power, and the relationships among power, knowledge, and discourse, has been widely discussed and applied.

~Reaction to Reading~
-This chapter, which primarily focuses on “the gaze”, is extremely interesting. Firstly, I found Mulvey’s arguments very persuasive and there are a number of clear examples to back-up her argument. I found the example of “Rear Window” very persuasive. I have seen this movie several times and I actually noticed the fact that the woman was often objectified and Mulvey’s argument provides me with greater understanding. I also agree with the fact that “the gaze” has expanded to include both men and women now. It is nearly as easy to open a magazine and find a picture of a nearly-nude male as it is a female. I also found the section on “the gaze and the extoic” to be quite interesting because there are so many pictures, still today, where persons from other cultures are objects of the gaze and are made to look exotic.

~Reaction to Images~
-I must admit, I was initially surprised when I looked at Sally Mann’s images simply because our society is so insistent on assuring that “child pornography” is regulated. This has resulted in any image of a child nude being questioned. However, Mann’s images are in no way sexualizing the children and are simply an accurate portrail of the human body.