Chapter 4 - Realism

I had never really taken the time to understand what all is involved with realism, and art deemed to fall in this category. As mentioned in the opening page of the chapter, "realism has been linked to a surprisingly varied set of conventions and approaches". Reading this statement I was very surprised because, like many people (I would assume), I figured that realism just referred to art that looked "realistic". I had no idea that it involved so many different aspects, specifically in its use as political propaganda. I was surprised to learn that Stalin mandated specific uses of realism in the 1930's in order to promote Soviet nationalism. I've learned about this time in world history numerous times and seen many of these Soviet propaganda pieces, but like I mentioned before, I never really took the time to analyze their history in terms of art. Learning about realism as a concept in this chapter will really allowed me to view many different pieces of art in a different light then I have in the past.

Scott Adams Quote Response

Scott Adams's quote, "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.", is very thought provoking. Adams is basically saying that art can be defined as "mistakes" made through creative ways, or "creative mistakes". Art definitely has creative elements to it, so the first part I agree with, but I'm not sure that I would define art as "mistakes" per say. I think that in some cases pieces of art are made by "mistake" in that they don't always turn out the way the artist intends, or the meaning which they project on their audience isn't always what was the intention of the artist. However, I think that in most cases, art is more like "intentional creativity" rather than "mistaken creativity", in that the author usually has a purpose in creating a certain artistic piece, and that intention is usually fulfilled.

Voyeurism

I believe that to some extent everyone is a voyeur. For example, the entertainment industry is now centered around reality television and voyeurism. People will watch endless hours of television that deal with the private lives of other people. The term voyeur definitely has a negative connotation and I think that calling myself a voyeur is kind of disturbing. Like I said I think "people watching" and the fascination with the private lives of others is an alarming trend in today's society that I hope doesn't continue at its current rate. If it does, we may be deprived of all of our privacy in the near future.

The Power of the Gaze

In looking at the concept of the "Power of the Gaze" several things came to mind. I was immediately drawn to the concept of panopticism, and its relationship between images and power, as introduced by Foucalt. Likewise, the panopticon penitentiary structure really made this concept that much more real to me. Chapter 3 talks about how the gaze normally gives the viewer more power over the image and I think the concept of the panopticon penitentiary structure really illustrates that point well. Personally, I have thought about the concept of being under constant serveillance by cameras and whatnot during everyday life and it really is quite unnerving to think about. Psychologically and oftentimes emotionally, this concept really gets in your head if you consider that you may be under surveillance at any given moment by someone that you may or may not know. Much like the movie that we watched in class on Wednesday ("Rear Window"), you never know who could be out there gathering information from you that you may consider to be private. Also, if you think about yourself being viewed and under constant surveillance you may be more inclined to behave more properly than you would otherwise. Thus, the concept of panopticism really does give the viewer a great deal of power over the image being viewed. In dealing with the Power of the Gaze, I believe that there really is a great deal of power given to the viewer, especially when the gazing that they may be doing could be considered surveillance.