The Judging Spectator in the Image

Abstract

The proclaiming of judgment and, even more so, the experience of being judged has become one of the main dramatic devices in contemporary television. Television is permeated with judgment: of performance in The X Factor (2004–) and Idol (2001–), of behavior in Paris Hilton’s New Best Friend Forever (2008–2009), Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend (2009), and Paris Hilton’s Dubai Best Friend (2009–2011), of love interests in The Bachelor (2002–), Bachelorette (2003–), and A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila (2007–2008), of objects in Top Gear (2002–), of matter in MasterChef (2005–) and Come Dine With Me (2005–), and so on. In these, what I call judgment shows, affect, emotion, and suspense are generated solely through the spectacle of judgment. These judgments usually take the format of a competition and generate binary and hierarchical pronouncements. The protagonists readily accept that they are contestants and submit to the verdict on “the most important moment in their life,” while the viewers see a proliferation of the exceptional. While, in The Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant discusses aesthetic judgment only as external to a work, that is, the spectator judges the work from outside, in judgment shows aesthetic judgment has become the main content of the work, and it takes place in front of the camera. On television, the judges of aesthetics have moved into the images and are judging them from within. The spectator has become the judge and she is in the image.KeywordsSubjective JudgmentActive SpectatorAesthetic JudgmentSensory TasteReality TelevisionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.