Mind Treachery Of Images
In this age of intense and numerous visual stimuli, seeing has certainly become much more than believing. Upon my recent visit to New York City, I could easily see that the line for the virtual New York ride at the Empire State building was much longer than that for the observation deck. This mania for visual experience has taken over, resulting in increasing conviction in what we see as what is, despite the difference between the two. Yet, this tendency is no new-found novelty. It can be argued that before the Impressionists (who added the crucial element of human perception and experience to their work), all artwork could be considered to be “imitations of nature”, which brings to mind Treachery of Images, a piece that reminds us that although
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With these labels, we generate concepts and categorizations that can be filed away and used on a wider scale, allowing those who live in China and those who live in the United Kingdom to easily recall or synthesis the signified through a similar signifier . As our world becomes more populated and our days busier, these concepts and categorizations allow us to become more efficient. Because these concepts and categorizations transcend space, and often time, they are familiar to successive generations and allow us to succumb to the natural basic instinct of avoiding what is foreign and seek safety and security. Gender, race and sexuality are a few categorizations that we tend to apply toward other people at first encounter. Is it surprising, then, that the visual culture of the human species only exacerbates categorizations and labels? Consider that this visual culture emphasizes, even worships what can be seen or what is seen. But the reality is that what we see is incredibly limited, yet the moment we see something or someone, we have already numerous assumptions and judgments based on pre-existing notions or categorizations. The most persistent example of this phenomenon is the long and persistent assumptions regarding the male and female identity. The man has always been the presence that “suggests what...is capable of doing to you” while the woman has always been relegated to “what can and cannot be done to her” . While these assumptions are certainly a result of, in part, the humanistic reality that stemmed from the
With these labels, we generate concepts and categorizations that can be filed away and used on a wider scale, allowing those who live in China and those who live in the United Kingdom to easily recall or synthesis the signified through a similar signifier . As our world becomes more populated and our days busier, these concepts and categorizations allow us to become more efficient. Because these concepts and categorizations transcend space, and often time, they are familiar to successive generations and allow us to succumb to the natural basic instinct of avoiding what is foreign and seek safety and security. Gender, race and sexuality are a few categorizations that we tend to apply toward other people at first encounter. Is it surprising, then, that the visual culture of the human species only exacerbates categorizations and labels? Consider that this visual culture emphasizes, even worships what can be seen or what is seen. But the reality is that what we see is incredibly limited, yet the moment we see something or someone, we have already numerous assumptions and judgments based on pre-existing notions or categorizations. The most persistent example of this phenomenon is the long and persistent assumptions regarding the male and female identity. The man has always been the presence that “suggests what...is capable of doing to you” while the woman has always been relegated to “what can and cannot be done to her” . While these assumptions are certainly a result of, in part, the humanistic reality that stemmed from the