§60 Ways of being, seen

Visit any of Europe’s art museums or sites of historical interest and you will find hordes of people who flew hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles to see works by Rembrandt, da Vinci, Monet, Van Gogh, Michelangelo. Having thrown their entire being across the world, these philistines insist on observing their experience through their personal digital devices. A majority, it now seems, flock to stand in front of these original works despite a copy being available a few clicks away through the same technology they extend by arm or selfie-stick.

This practice makes it clear that such tourists are less concerned with actually seeing these works and sites as they are being seen with them. As gaggles of them line up to take selfies with the Mona Lisa, or self-portraits of Dutch masters, we are witnessing the most recent phase in mass tourism’s ruination of any capacity to appreciate an art work: to stand before a picture in awe, consideration, disgust or indifference. It is becoming increasingly impossible — whatever time of morning you make it to an exhibition or popular historical site, to see the thing without being faced by those that have come to capture their own seeing.

In Note §35, Martin McNulty brought attention to the way that the material reproduction of works of art has taken on an intensified register in the age of digital reproduction. Digital media’s capacity for visual trickery has removed a work from its natural or curated context. In extending Berger’s case, the likes of Instagram and other highly visual platforms impact on the way we see and ultimately understand images. This trend is becoming even more intensified as the use of such technologies become the foremost medium through which our everyday is experienced, and our culture’s concern is more with that we are seen and can perform our seeing rather than see the thing itself.

/Pete Watt

Originally published at anowmedia.com on September 14, 2018.