This text number is 6422 and the estimated reading time is 15 minutes.
The book shared today is How to See the World.
The author is Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. One of the founders of the visual culture discipline, he is the author of "Introduction to Visual Culture" and "Visual Culture Reader". His book, Watching Babylon, which discusses the war in Iraq on film and television, has been hailed by art historian Terry Smith as "the most ingenious and broad-minded pioneer of visual cultural analysis in the world today."
From Google Pictures to Instagram, from selfies to virtual games, visual images have exploded in numbers. We are experiencing an unprecedented visual revolution. Confusion, disorder, release, anxiety arise at the same time, all of which leads us to where?
This book is about illustrating how we can sort out these changes and understand what they mean for our visual world. We will see what is rising, what is declining, and what is being hotly debated.
Nicholas Miltsov Discuss with us: What is visual culture? How can I find useful information from a huge number of visual images? How does visual culture shape and define our lives and help us change the world?
01, watch the world
First, let's start with looking at the world.
1. The function of viewing
Usually we think of watching as a cognitive ability, but in the author's view, the fundamental purpose of watching the world is to manipulate the world, or more accurately, to manipulate the progress of what is happening in the world.
For example, war, war is the most extreme behavior of human society. In the author's view, whoever gains the ability to watch the battlefield can win the war. Napoleon had a special feature in his wars, he paid special attention to maps, and before each war, he had to collect as many maps of the war as possible for him, especially those that were drawn accurately. He looks at the map to fight, so what is he thinking when he looks at the map?
He rehearses the course of a war in his mind, and then according to this process he will lay out and deduce the arrangement of the entire battlefield, and then he can control the whole process of the war.
That is to say, the real battle has not yet been fought, but as long as Napoleon has a map, he can rehearse the process of the war in his mind. This is the ability of a great general. So, watching is the starting point of "control".
In this sense, getting the map was the most important thing for Napoleon, it was the starting point of his victory, and each of us had the same visual resources, but because of our different status and abilities, we did not have equal access to these visual resources. As Emperor of France, as a famous general, as a genius of war, Napoleon's ability to possess maps was much more powerful than that of ordinary people.
"Drawing" was a form of warfare whose use reached its zenith at the Berlin Conference in 1885. At this meeting, the rulers of the European powers took out a map of Africa and completed the territorial division of Africa on the map.
There is no need to touch the real land, as long as the land is seen virtually through the map, the great powers have completed the absolute control of the land. They visually treated african lands according to their own needs, that is, they regarded these African lands as "terra nullius" that could be freely occupied according to the requirements of the Roman law that prevailed in Europe at the time, while the needs of the indigenous people living on this land were completely ignored.
Of course, after Napoleon thought about the map, of course, he had to put his soldiers, weapons, logistics supplies, etc. into the battlefield, and only through real battles could he get real victories. After the European colonists had divided the map of Africa, they still had to send troops and officials to govern their previously demarcated lands.
What the author wants to emphasize here is that "watching" is the guidance of action, and without watching first, power is useless. In this respect, whoever controls the watching will master the victory.
Therefore, the author presents a very profound insight: on the battlefield, whoever has the visual resources about war, that is, the images of war, wins.
2. Watch the city
What is the way we ordinary people look at their daily lives? For most of us, watching the world is primarily about looking at the city we live in. However, in this day and age, the more we live in developed cities, the more we cannot understand the cities we live in by seeing them with our own eyes.
We need some professionals and media intermediaries to watch for us, and we are based on the images of the world that they have screened for us, and then we know what the nature of the world we live in is. We need to follow behind the visual media's understanding and interpretation of the city, and look at it again, so that the truth of the city can be presented to us.
These professionals are painters, photographers, film and television workers, who first see the city for us, and we build our own impressions of the city based on the images they show us. In the past and in the present, cities have shaped the way we see the world.
For example, the once glorious "imperial city". Paris, London, Madrid, these are the typical imperial cities. They were once the capital of the British, French, and Spanish Empires, with global, world-class influence.
The Spanish Empire once spread across the globe, so in the 16th century it was often referred to as the "Empire of the Sun Never Sets", a term that was later used to describe the British Empire. What is the Empire of the Rising Sun? It is that in twenty-four hours a day, in the territory of Spain or England, there is always a place where the sun can be seen, so it is called the Empire of the Sun Never Setting.
So, what is the most important thing to see in the Imperial City? It's "looking at change." The imperial city is the first place where drastic social changes have occurred in human society, is a specimen of historical changes, viewing and understanding changes, and is also a new visual experience after human beings entered industrial society from agricultural society, and new visual experiences can bring new cognitive judgments.
Paris, for example. The rise of Paris is a symbol of European industrialization and modernization, so it was called the "capital of the 19th century" by the famous German thinker Benjamin. In the 19th century, the urban landscape of Paris underwent great changes, and this change originated from a famous urban transformation event in Paris at that time, that is, the French ruler Napoleon III appointed the then Paris Police Chief Hausmann to transform the old city of Paris.
Hausmann's transformation of Paris was actually to deal with the uprising in Paris at that time, and he wanted to completely solve the tradition of the people of Paris who revolted at every turn. In order for the government army to facilitate the suppression of the uprising, Hausmann demolished a large number of old buildings in the old city of Paris and transformed the small streets and alleys into "boulevards", but this transformation fundamentally changed the appearance of Paris, and the medieval style of the ancient city of Paris disappeared, and the Paris we see today was basically built at that time.
This is a huge change, a huge change in the city's landscape, and then the style and temperament of the entire city have also undergone a major change.
Changes in urban landscape have brought about changes in the content of urban life. As early as the 18th century, Street lights were installed in Paris, and the night in Paris was lit up, it was called the "City of Lights" at that time, and large shopping malls were built in the city, and night shopping became a fashion. Fashionable girls have appeared in the city, and popular news media have appeared that are always paying attention to what they are dressed up, such as tabloids, fashion magazines, and so on. That is, new contents of life appeared.
For ordinary people, these contents are very mysterious, and it is difficult for them to understand how Paris has changed just through their own viewing, so the "professional viewer" appears.
For example, the earliest professional photographers appeared at this time, and they took a series of photos of the imperial city, which were actually the most valuable parts of the city that these professional photographers were viewing for ordinary people. Then, the painters of this period also changed the way they painted, and the brightest star of French painting in the 19th century was Impressionism, and one of the most important values of Impressionism was that they began to record reality and record changes with their own brushes.
The Impressionists no longer painted gods, heroes, emperors, and aristocrats like those who had come before them, they painted exactly what their eyes saw, painting landscapes, painting cityscapes, painting ordinary people.
And when we look at their paintings today, we can also feel a change of the times, which reminds us that under the impetus of the rolling wheel of the times, as viewers, our visual ability should also move forward with the times, no matter what methods are adopted.
02, watch yourself
The authors say that seeing a goal is a prerequisite for reaching that goal. In the same way, seeing oneself is a prerequisite for understanding and grasping oneself.
1. The way to shape the ideal self
The most convenient way for human beings to look at themselves is undoubtedly to look in the mirror, but after all, looking at the mirror is only a short, staged process, when each of us looks in the mirror, we see a self in the reality of this moment and the present, and human beings realized a long time ago: the true self is a process that is repeatedly shaped in the long river of time.
Therefore, we must not only look at the past self, but also look at the future self, that is, the idealized self. Such an idea leads to a very important image of the human being about the self, which is self-portraiture.
For example, a very famous painting by the famous painter Velázquez, "Gong'e". The picture of the painting is not complicated: in the center of the painting is a small princess, facing the audience, next to some palace maids, attendants, etc., and a large dog lying on the ground. The painter was very clever, and he drew himself into this painting, and he stood diagonally behind the little princess, his face facing the same as the little princess.
That is to say, he and the little princess are both facing the audience, looking at things outside the picture frame. It can be seen that he is not painting the little princess, but the person who is outside the picture frame and is looking at the painter and the little princess.
Behind the little princess, the painter, and many others, there was a wall, and there was a mirror hanging on the wall, and the mirror reflected the portraits of two people—they were the people the painter was painting, these two people were the king and the queen, and they looked majestically at all the people in the frame, and these people were watched by the king, and they were a little nervous, so for a moment, it was as if everyone was frozen there.
The famous Twentieth-century French philosopher Foucault made a very profound interpretation of this painting. He believes that the greatest value of this painting is that it shows a "order of power" through the layout of the picture, and the king and queen in the mirror are the core of power, so that all eyes are directed at the two of them. But at the same time, the painter cleverly placed himself on an equal footing with the king and the queen, because in the case of this painting, the painter saw the same landscape as the king, so the painter had the same power as the king by painting the painting.
At this time, the painter in the painting is not really a painter, but only part of the painter's own idealized projection, and we can even think of it this way, the painter's heart at that moment, he regarded himself as a king. For what his eyes saw was exactly the same as what the king saw.
Through this painting, he constructs a present me, a past me, and a future me. The "past me" is the "me" he is painting, the "present me" is the "me" he is looking at the painting after he finished the painting, and the "future me" is the "me" in the picture who thinks of himself as a king. With this painting, Velázquez constructed a history about himself, which is the ability of the painter, and this is the power of the painter.
The essence of self-portraiture is to find a suitable space for an ideal self, and in the final analysis, it is to create a better self that is above reality.
For example, a painter painting a self-portrait is to create an ideal space, and this ideal space is very complex and has super charm. For example, among the Impressionists there was a painter with a physical disability who painted a painting called "Self-Portrait in front of the Mirror", in which the painter used the "mirror" as a prop to shape the ideal self—he also depicted his own image in the mirror.
In the painting, he deliberately contrasts his height with the height of the frame, leaving a large blank space above the mirror. In this way, when the viewer looks at the painting, it is obvious that his legs are very short, and they know that this is a disabled person, and everyone can see this painting in the book. However, after the painter suggests that he is a disabled person in this way, he depicts an idealized self in the process of painting, which is the self-image that the painter shows in the mirror.
The painter in the mirror is very confident from the look to the body, his posture is very confident, especially like a hero. The painter's strategy for drawing self-portraits was as follows:
First, he does not shy away from his own physical disability, nor does he feel that he has any problems with this physical disability, he truly shows them;
Second, what he wants to express is that he is an independent person, a person who has a true self, especially a dignified person, he wants to show a dignified state and momentum, which reflects a super self-confidence of the painter, he has a subjective initiative - I am my own master.
Today, we have an easier and more realistic way to self-image, and that's selfies. Selfies are probably one of the largest forms of image production in the world today. Selfies are also subverting the production mechanisms and logic laws of traditional photographs.
In the book, the author cites a photograph of Danish Prime Minister Schmidt, U.S. President Barack Obama, and British Prime Minister David Cameron taking selfies. After the photo was released by the media, some critics questioned the decency of the scene, that is, the scene was not very polite and not very decent.
Why? Because in public, it seems that big people can't "hiickie" in such an unserious way, right? This shows that there is a very stubborn idea in our hearts: shaping ourselves in the ideal direction is a process of self-cultivation, it is okay to look in the mirror and modify ourselves in private, it is also possible to paint self-portraits silently, and of course, it is also possible to take selfies. It's okay to draw a self-portrait, take a selfie and show it to others, but it's still a little weird to openly appreciate yourself.
Today, we're very used to taking selfies. Whether we take selfies in public or we watch other people take selfies in public, we even offer some convenience for selfies, for example, when someone is taking a selfie you avoid their selfie shot. This shows that the selfie behavior brought about by selfie technology is shaping a new visual culture, and this culture is reasonable.
On the surface, most people take selfies to beautify themselves and make themselves more beautiful. But sharing a selfie may be more important than a selfie.
2. Build an idealized self-viewing space
Selfies are shared in the circle of friends, and the reason why we want to take selfies is actually to build a viewing space that highlights the "idealized" self. And this kind of viewing is not only for "me" personally, but also for my friends and the larger society. As soon as I entered my own circle of friends, it highlighted my master identity, which is my circle of friends, and everything is controlled by me.
Therefore, rather than saying that we like to beautify ourselves in selfies, it is better to say that we are building an environment to beautify ourselves in selfies, and we will introduce those factors that can enhance our image into our selfies, and those unfavorable factors will be eliminated as much as possible.
In short, producing one's own images is a visual representation of one's own idealized self-expectations.
03, how to see the world
With the development of society, our viewing behavior is becoming more and more complex, and the difficulty of viewing is getting higher and higher. As a result, we increasingly need to use technology and tools to help us watch. On the one hand, technological tools expand our horizons and improve our viewing ability, but on the other hand, viewing technology itself controls and dominates our viewing. We want to watch freely, and instead we become less and less free.
1. The two-sided nature of technological development
For example, trains. The invention of the train greatly expanded people's viewing ability, and even inspired people to create a variety of new ways of viewing. People invented the movie in fact because they were inspired by the train, and he believed that the picture flowing on the movie screen and watching the scenery passing outside the window of the train car are the same experiences. So, people first watched the scenery on the train, and then people invented movies, and then they watched the screen in the movie theater.
The author believes that the train opened up the basic structure of modern people's viewing vision. In the 20th century, many visual media invented to control our viewing, including movies, television, video games, computers, mobile phones, etc., which, like trains, construct a fixed viewing space, which is enclosed.
It first binds people, and then people see the ever-changing and colorful external world through a small "window" in this space, from train windows to movie screens, to TELEVISION screens, to computer screens, and then to the small windows of our mobile phones, which is what people in the information society are accustomed to watching. We were framed by this screen, but we didn't realize it ourselves at all.
Technology allows us to see more, but it also makes us more closed. After the popularization of radio and television and other media, the earth seems to have become a global village, and people have the ability to see more and more information from afar and even from all corners of the world. However, in the beginning, there were very few TV programs, and everyone could only watch the same radio and television programs. In this way, everyone's way of thinking and thinking will become more and more homogeneous because of watching TV and listening to radio, and more importantly, because of watching TV programs, people ignore other activities such as reading and communicating with their families, and watching TV makes our living space smaller.
In such an unfreedom, the illiberality of people's minds may become even more serious. Because of watching TELEVISION, people increasingly do not understand the rich outside world. In other words, people watch too much virtual information on TV to understand how the real world works.
2, control leading technology dominates everything
The authors say it's not ourselves, but the people who design and control vision technology that end up controlling our viewing, and they control our viewing first. They can then further control our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and judgments.
Video games, for example, seem to be a colorful world. But in fact, when we enter video games, every step we take, every scene we see, is carefully crafted for us by the game designer, or rather, determined by the game algorithm.
Where our eyes should be cast, and what kind of action we should have with this kind of viewing, is actually determined by the game's algorithm, it can be said that when we enter the digital world like video games, the algorithm determines our viewing. Our eyes are no longer our own, our brains can't direct where our eyes look, and it's the designers of vision technology who really control our eyes.
People who master technology not only see the world more and better, they can even control others more effectively through viewing, which is a particularly worrying point in the future.
Take Google Glass, for example. When you're chatting with someone wearing Google Glass. Without your knowledge, the person wearing Google Glass may have scanned your face using the software in the glasses, and his search system will conduct a web search of you based on the scanned information.
At the same time, he made a full audio and video recording of the content of the conversation between you and him, and put your whole audio and video into a software, conducted word frequency analysis, effect analysis, and then based on this to derive the judgment of your personality, etc., are you willing to associate with such a person?