Lecture 2 – 18/10/2012
The gaze and the media
‘according to usage and conventions…. ‘
evidence of womens body being looked had,
going back to nude painting of hans memling ‘vanity’. Womans face reflecting in
the mirror is rendered wrong. Strange distorted view of her face. Mirror placed in her hand as a distracting
device.
Image 2, focul point is inbetween the
knees, were lead to imagine shes thinking ‘how do I look’
Lectuer on depicting woman and how do they
look
Alexander cabanel ‘birth of venus’ 1863
Mythological painting, of woman as a
goddess of the sea. Sendimental and virginal picturing of the woman
Interesting position of the man, reclining
on a wave. Covers her own eyes and face with her hands – quite often used in
advertising and photography
Sophie dahl for opium – reclining figure, ¾
of picture taken up by the naked body
More contempory than the paintings
The advert was deemed too sexual
Image was turned when published because it
too emphasis off the body and concentrated more on the face
Titian’s Venus of Urbino 1538
Very casual, not active positioning for the
hand
Manet – Olympia 1863
Hand is assertive, refers her to a
prostitute, flower in the hair, neck tie, exquisite cloth, being offered
flowers, position of her body and the way she looks at us (head positions for
example) she lifts it as shes addressing us.
Ingres ‘le grand odalisque’ 1814
Made into a poster
Manet – bar art the folies bergeres 1882
Woman standing with arms open, perception
is us standing infront of the bar, with her behind it waiting to serve us. We
see her from 2 positions
Jeff wall ‘picture for women’ 1979
Rosling coward 1984
The camera in comtemporary media has been
put to use as an extension of the male gaze at woman on the streets
This kind of idea that’s repeated in
billboard insudtry – used so much that it now goes unnoticed. It’s in the
subconscious, acceptable.
Use of sunglasses means the figure, the
woman cant look back at us. Instead of the hand from years ago, the eyes are
now covered by a fashion accessory, glasses.
Eva herzigova, 1994
‘hello boys’
Rosling Coward 1984
The profusion of images which characterizes
contemporary society could be seen as an obsessive distancing of women, a form
of voyeurism
Peeping tom, 1960 – extension of idea of
where voyeurism can go.
Im in your movies …
Marilym: William travilas dress from the
seven year itch 1955
Cinema is a perfect environment for
voyeurism (the practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at sexual
objects or acts, especially secretively.)
Artemisia Gentileschi Judith beheading
Holofernes
Cindy Sherman ‘ entitled film still #6
1977-79
Includes mirror in her hand, but facing the
other way
Caught her in the act is not quite clear
Leave audience not quite sure where to look
at
Theres an awkwardness in the picture with
her hand by her chin
Know it Sherman in the image
Effective position as in we don’t know what
to think of the image
Barbara Kurger ‘your gaze hits the side of
my face’ 1981
Sarah lucas ‘eating my banana’ 1990
Self conscious
self portrait with fried eggs 1996
tracy emin – money photo 2001
gaze in media
Amanda knox trial
Amanda knox is a witch? Sorry, are we
living in 1486? – joanne smith, guardian 2011
Knox/sollecito case
Social networking is used to preputuate the
male gaze/the gaze of the media
The body is broken into gragments coud be
female
Plays on teenagers bodys image
Susan Sontag 1979 –on photography
Paparazzi shot of princess Diana
Reality TV
Appears to offer us the position as the all
seeing eye the power of gaze
Allows us a voyeuristic passive consumption
of a type of reality
Editing means that there is no reality
Contestants are aware of their
representation (either as tv professionals or as people who have watched the
show)
The Truman Show 1988 director Peter Weir
Discovers his life is actually a stage set
and everything that happens is a staged event.
Big brother, it’s the male and female bodys
we look at
Voyeurism therefore becomes everyday
People offer themselves as a passive
experience
Looking is not indifferent. There can never
be any question of ‘just looking’
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