Thursday, 31 October 2013

Context of Practise 2: Lecture Notes- "The Media and The Gaze"

Thursday 31st October 2013
"The Media and The Gaze"
Helen Clarke 


"Men look at Women. Women watch themselves being Looked at"
- 'Ways of Seeing (1972) by John Berger

- Women internalise the Gaze- looking at themselves by how other women are interpreted in the Media

"Vanity" (1485) by Hans Memling
- Mirror shows an impossible reflection
- Painter painting a nude for his pleasure but the use of the Mirror blames her for the stance- a device 
  which blames the women and makes it out to be ok for her to be viewed in this way
- In advertising, Pre-occupation of model gazing at themselves gives us permission to view them
- Voyeuristic

"Birth of Venus" (1863) by Alexandre Cabanel
- Hand covering brow and waking from sleep- allows for us to gaze uninterrupted
- Invited by the artist to gaze- Implication that the women doesn't stop us from looking

Sophie Dahl for Opium Advertisement
- Reclining pose- deemed too overtly sexual when first released
- Turned from horizontal to vertical format- more emphasis on face rather than the body

"Venus of Urbino" (1538) by Titian
- Looks out of the side of her eyes- flirtatious invitation
- Curtain suggets private area to view her in
- Hand- sexual gesture or covering modestly?

"Olympia" (1863) by Manet
- Difference in the Gaze from "Venus of Urbino"- looks us in the eye challenging the Gaze
- Hand in a definite placement stopping the Gaze
- Women is prostitute- social outsider- symbols of being a Courtesan
- Celebrating the powerful Female Figure

"Le Grand Odalique" (1814) by Ingres
- Gorrilla Girls used this to produce a poster advertisement
- Challenging the facts through the re-apporpriation of the image

"Bar at the Folis Bergeres" (1882) by Manet
- Type of Self Portrait
- Shared perspective using the Mirror- put in the position of the Painter themselves
- Behind her is Paris Society- Look of exclusion and disaffected manner- superficiality of the Paris 
  nightlife

"Picture for Women" (1979) by Jeff Wall
- Reflection of "Bar at the Folis Bergeres"
- Reflection divided by 3 mirrors in the Background- photograph is a constructed scene
- Wall separated himself from the female figure- the use of space shown by the camera separating the
  male and female

"The Camera in Contemporary Media  has been put to use as an extension of the male Gaze of the Women on the Street"
- Rosaline Coward (1984) "The Look" Essay

The use of sunglasses in adverts- Stops the Gaze from being returned

Eva Herzigora for Wonderbra Advertisement (1994)
- Looking down means no return of the Gaze

"The Profusion of Images which characterises Contemporary Society could be seen as an Obsessive Distancing of women"
- Rosaline Coward discussing Peeping Tom (1960) film

- Distancing of women doesn't make them appear as Human Beings
- Objectification taken to the Extreme

Male body Objectification
- Amount of images- a lot more of Females rather than Males
- Males tend to return the Gaze- makes it more confrontational
- Representation of power, fitness and being a Machine

Marilyn: William Travillas dress from 'The Seven Year Itch' (1955)
- How bodies are chopped up for the camera making the film easier to follow
- Females in 1940-1950's filmes are passive and reacting to the Male leads (Patriarchal Male role and
  Passive Female role)
- Darkened rooms of cinemas will allow for looking without being seen

"Judith Beheading Holofernes" (1620) by Artemisia Gertileschi
- Active role of women in such a violent image
- Repositioning of Women in Art History

"Women are marginalised within Art History.. Women are suppose to be marginalised"
- G. Pollock (1981)

"Untitled Film Still #6" (1977-79) by Cindy Sherman
- Challanging the Gaze
- Upright image to focus on the face
- Holds mirror but it is facing down on the bed- viewer denied narrative to view
- Unnatural pose makes it awkward- staged

"Your Gaze Hits the Side of my Face" (1981) by Barbara Kruger
- Use of word 'Hits" challenges due to the violence behind the word

"Eating a Banana" (1990) by Sarah Lucas
- Humourous Work- Has sexual undertone
- Returning the Male Gaze- What are you looking at?
- Serious connection to Women Perception

"Money Photo" (2001) by Tracy Emin
- Commenting about how 'her work can't be real from the money she is getting from it'

Use of Page 3 Models
- Still prevalent in 2013
- Caroline Lucas MP challenging this in Parliament
- It is available everywhere and can be seen by everyone
Attack of women speaking out against the Objectification and Page 3
- Criado-Perez campaign to re-instate women onto British bank notes
- Use of social media to attack her 50 times a day with threats of Rape and Murder
- Attempts to silence voice ad oversight of women

Use of Social Media used to perpetuate the Gaze
- Plays of the body consciousness of teenagers, carrying these criticisms into adulthood

"To photograph is to appropriate the thing being photographed"
- On Photography Essay (1979) by Susan Sontag

- More like Passive Observing- how the Paparazzi shoots others
- Drive to get to see celebrities like normal people

Reality TV
- Appears to offer a position of power as an all-seeing eye
- Voyeuristic passive consumption of a type of Reality
- Contestants are aware of their representation and editing means that there is no Reality
"Big Brother"
- Equality of men and female being gazed upon
- Making voyeurism an everyday activity- The Gaze at its worst
"The Truman Show" (1988) by Peter Weir
- Everything he does is filmed
- His world is just a show, fake and set up

"Looking is not indifferent. There can never be any question of 'just looking'"
- Victor Burgin (1982)

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