Power Of Gaze Research Articles

НЕКЛАССИЧЕСКИЙ СУБЪЕКТ ВИДЕНИЯ. ЧАСТЬ I

This article explores a fundamental shift in the humanities called the «visual turn». We are talking about the transformation of visuality in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The difficulty of analyzing this phenomenon is due to the fact that the modern humanities have not yet developed a single subject and method for studying the visual turn. In this article, the turn as a transition from the classical to the non-classical observer is analyzed as a transformation of the very human presence in the world. The change in visuality is primarily associated with a change in the concept of the classical transcendental subject and the transition to understanding the affected and temporal subject of our time. In this article, we analyze the transformation of subjectivity based on the three-part mechanism of the power of distance, the power of gaze, and the power of memory, which was proposed by W. Benjamin. We show that at the beginning of the 20th century there takes place rethinking of a person’s presence in the world through the understanding of the destruction of the distance between the subject and the object (the world), a change in the power of gaze and a change in the role of memory in the perception of what is seen. The visible no longer acts as directly given to the subject, but presupposes the power of visual perception and the special role of memory in what is seen. This means that in modern non-classical concepts of visuality, an attempt is made to understand the act of seeing as an event of the formation of a subject. In this three-part mechanism of visual distance, the power of gazing into the visible and the role of memory in what is seen, the act of seeing becomes the very presence of modern man. However, in this case, the presence in the act of seeing eludes the subject of experience himself. Thus, visual experience in the form of a present consciousness of the world that is eternally and always does not correspond to it, is an unconscious atrophy of the most apathetic «narcissist» of vision. The article concludes that the lack of understanding of this moment of presence of the modern subject results in the fact that both the return of distance within the framework of the concept of the classical observer and the complete destruction of the aura within the concepts of the non-classical observer lead to a theoretical impasse in understanding the very experience of non-classical vision.

The Power of Gaze in Music. Leonard Bernstein’s Conducting Eyes

The paper argues for the importance and richness of gaze communication during orchestra and choir conduction, and presents three studies on this issue. First, an interview with five choir and orchestra conductors reveals that they are not so deeply aware of the potentialities of gaze to convey indications in music performance. A conductor who was utterly conscious of the importance of gaze communication, however, is Leonard Bernstein, who conducted a performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 using his face and gaze only. Therefore, a fragment of this performance is analyzed in an observational study, where a qualitative analysis singles out the items of gaze exploited by Bernstein and their corresponding meanings. Finally, a perception study is presented in which three of these items are submitted to expert, non-expert, and amateur participants. The results show that while the signal for “start” is fairly recognized, the other two, “pay attention” and “crescendo and accelerando” are more difficult to interpret. Furthermore, significant differences in gaze item recognition emerge among participants: experts not only recognize them more, but they also take advantage of viewing the items with audio-visual vs. video-only presentation, while non-experts do not take advantage of audio in their recognition.

Processes of Corporeal Corruption and Objective Disfiguration in Tatsumi Hijikata's 1960s Butoh

The radical reassessment of performance conceived by Tatsumi Hijikata calls into question the body informed by dance systems and society. While exploring a wide range of corporealities, Hijikata focused his attention, in particular throughout the 1960s, on the nikutai (carnal body). This specific corporeality is corruptible, pluralistic, metamorphic, ungovernable, intrinsically political and anti-capitalistic. The nikutai permits the performer to access and explore gaps between reality and fiction, to uncover the quality of deformation and malformation inherent within reality, while resisting systems of knowledge and forms of monolithic identity. As Hijikata states, the nikutai is shattered at the moment of birth. Hence, it may be said that disfiguration is at the very root of the carnal body, which oscillates between the rotting corpse and living body. In his 1960s dance aesthetics Hijikata experiments with corporeality by challenging image, reproduction and representation, and dismisses the figurative outcome of the performative act. Central to this enterprise is the corruption of the body and of the standardised body-object relation disciplined by language and quotidian behaviour. In this essay, I examine aspects of Hijikata’s artistic strategy to undermine choreographic methodologies and framed corporeality. With reference to James Gibson’s theory of affordances I also argue that the challenge in butoh’s movement process and corporeal work disrupts affordance. In relation to this alternative economy of movement, and of attention and exhibition, is highlighted the question of how Hijikata, in his earlier experimentations, avoids ‘the aesthetic consciousness of those who dance’ and switches off the power of gaze.

The Power of Gaze: Some Remarks on the Orientalizing Perspective in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine

Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine has been frequently criticized for the Orientalizing representations of Indian women and India, which can perpetuate the stereotypical dichotomy between the East and West (violence and barbarism vs. peace and modernity). However, the analysis of the bidirectionality of gaze in the narrative, that is, the Westerners’ Orientalizing gaze cast on the protagonist (female immigrant from India) and, more importantly, the protagonist’s gaze back on Americans, can lead to a conclusion that reading the novel in terms of binary oppositions is not valid. In the very act of looking critically at American reality the protagonist denies the stereotypical image of an Oriental female (passive, silent, obedient). Moreover, a variety of representations of India and America are brought to the fore with a particular focus on how the image of America as the Promised Land is challenged.

Telepresence and Tele-absence: A Phenomenology of the (In)visible Alien Online

Proliferating media forms, from tablets to Twitter, are changing communicative practice, delimiting new experiential horizons, and thus providing phenomenological research with novel variations on the experience of self and other. Videoconferencing via Skype or FaceTime offers prominent examples of these changing forms. Despite the use of these communication technologies in both educational contexts and everyday life, educational videoconferencing has been described in the research literature as “a hidden mode of delivery, employing invisible pedagogical techniques.” In this study I address this situation of simultaneous familiarity, invisibility and uncertainty by focusing particularly on the lived experience of space, the body and eye contact in videoconferencing contexts. This study suggests that the disruption of spatial coherence and power of gaze and mutual gaze are all but unavoidable features of this experience. It concludes by emphasizing the importance forms or expressions of absence, such as the diminution of eye contact, or the importance of not always being perceived as performing or “on” in videoconferencing contexts.

Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power and the Nation in Postliberalization India (review)

Reviewed by: Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power and the Nation in Postliberalization India Debarashmi Mitra Susan Dewey. Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power and the Nation in Postliberalization India. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008. 245 pp. In Making Miss India Miss World, Dewey provides a persuasive account of the complex interconnection between globalization, nation and gender through the detailed analysis of Miss India pageant, particularly in the years following the economic liberalization in India. Dewey’s analysis in this book is drawn on a careful distinction between “beauty as an oppressive and hegemonic concept and beauty as empowering practice” (4) as these seemingly contradictory and yet complimentary performances are enacted within the institution of beauty pageants. Focusing on Miss India pageant as a site of “beauty, power, and class” (6), Dewey examines the ways in which femininity as a cultural performance and a capitalist phenomenon is manifested and reinforced through the interaction between global standards of beauty and national identity. The book’s central argument is that Miss India pageant in post-liberalization era has made available a socially approved space to urban middle and upper-class women, who challenge their identities, negotiate their feminine beauty, and exercise [End Page 1097] their agency to achieve social mobility, although such opportunities only last for a short period of time. The seven chapters in this book present an in-depth and well documented analysis of cultural performance of beauty as an embodiment as well as commodification of national identity and femininity. Organized around three key themes, part one of this book includes two chapters on the central idea of the “power of the gaze.” Part two focuses on “gender,” and part three is organized around the main issue of “globalization.” Dewey brings these three themes together in her analysis by drawing on rich ethnographic data collected through participant observation and several interviews conducted during her field visits to India. The book also includes visual illustrations of the performative nature of beauty as embodied by former Miss India contestants, Miss World, and Miss Universe. In Chapter One, Dewey briefly presents a historical overview of the Miss India pageant and highlights the growing popularity of the pageant in recent years which was especially apparent following the success of a few contestants in winning the coveted Miss World and Miss Universe titles. With her focus on Miss India 2003 pageant, Dewey sheds light on the process through which standards of beauty are created, shaped, and reproduced in defining “what a Miss India should be” (23). This chapter also provides a closer look at the rigors of Miss India training program that transforms young women to beauty queens. Dewey emphasizes that the contestants of Miss India pageant make conscious efforts in creating beautiful bodies with a thorough awareness of cultural performance of beauty and gender identity that conforms to both international standards and established gender norms within Indian national culture. In Chapter Two, Dewey points to the importance of the “power of gaze” and analyzes the influence of cultural performance of beauty as it shapes the lives of contestants. This chapter draws attention to the process in which beauty is cultivated and constantly performed by the contestants in their pursuit to construct and present the “self” as Miss India. Dewey explains the struggle of contestants by analyzing the simultaneous processes of the framing of success as an individual accomplishment and the promotion of predefined objective standards of beauty, which are internalized by the contestants. The chapter also illustrates how Miss India contestants undermine the culturally constructed models of idealized femininity and use the available social networks in achieving success and autonomy. [End Page 1098] Chapter Three continues to discuss the power of the gaze, and looks at the Miss India pageant as a “Foucauldian total institution” (99), as being central to the creation of Miss India. As the contestants participate and navigate through the training program under the observation, control, and supervision of their chaperones, Dewey explores the ways these contestants negotiate identities and realize their agency. Discussing the connection between technological innovation and the growing consumption of beauty products in post-liberalization India, Dewey compellingly argues that...