Now that we've talked about essays and poetry, I want to move forward and think about the visual arts a bit. Remember, the idea of the course is that "the world is a text," something that can be creatively and constructively "read." This applies as much to the visual arts as it does to traditional forms of written communication. I thought poetry would be a good transition between linguistic and visual arts because poetry is so densely imagistic (especially the poems we looked at by Williams, Davidson, Bishop, McHugh, and Koch, which were all defined by their vivid, visual imagery).
With this in mind, read Chapter 1 in Berger's Ways of Seeing, paying close attention to his ideas regarding belief and perception, text and context, and the relationship between art and mechanical reproduction. Compared to what we've read so far this semester, the ideas in this essay are a bit more dense and complicated, but don't let that frustrate you. If something is unclear in your reading, just write down a note and we can talk about it in class. Part of all constructive reading is friction and frustration; we only learn by going beyond what we don't understand.
When you're finished reading this section, answer these 4 questions:
1.) In what way is how we see the world affected by what we believe or know?
2.) Why does Berger argue, "today we see the art of the past as nobody ever saw it before"?
3.) According to Berger, how does actual written text around a painting change the text of the painting itself?
4.) Do you think mechanical reproduction has changed how we see art? How? Why?
Post your answers in the "COMMENTS" section of this post. You might also bring a printed copy to class, so that you have something to refer to when we are discussing the reading.
