The Mobilized and VirtualGaze in Modernity

Anne Friedberg

Anne Zozo, szoz3534@uni.sydney.edu.au, SID 310061377

Flâneur / Flâneuse

• Phenomenon ofurbanisation in 19th century

• French = the stroller• Observer and participant• The bourgeois gentleman

Ref.: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft296nb17v&chunk.id=d0e1814&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress

Modernity

• Urbanisation & technology• Accelerated time & shrinking distances• Commodity form & the visible• Shift in power relations• New ways in communication and art

= a new gaze

The

Pan

optic

on

The masses (women, outcasts)

Control and observation

Light to disclose

Spacial closeness; time: now

Enclosed look

The state (male)active

The few

Spacial distance; time: past

The few (artists, the state)

The masses

passive

Light to decept

Illusion

Powerless pleasurein the virtual

Imaginary expansion of look

Control?

The

early

cin

ema

The Panorama

• First “movie theatre“ in 1787• Assumingly inspired by Panopticon• “New realistic techniques of perspective

and scale“• Illusion of travel in time and space

Panorama of Edinburgh by Robert Barker, 1787http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/PANORAMA.html

Cross sectionhttp://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/PANORAMA.html

Asisi Panometer in Leipzighttp://www.asisi.de/de/Panometer/Amazonien/

The Diorama

• Successor of Panorama in 1822• “Moving pictures“

– Transparency– Light manipulation– Rotation of auditorium platform

• Illusion of travel in time and space

Diorama diagramhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diorama_diagram.jpg

Diorama painting by Daguerrehttp://www.midley.co.uk/

Other “Cinematic“ Forms I

Laterna Magicahttp://www.magiclantern.org.uk/events/events3i.html

In the 1600‘s

Camera Obscurahttp://micaphoto.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/camera_obscura_principle.gif

Aristoteles...

Phantasmagoriahttp://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/lanterns/lantern2.htm

Late 18th century

Other “Cinematic“ Forms II

Diaphanoramahttp://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/kultur/aktuell/gemsjaeger_am_gletscherwasser_1.3440703.html

1815

Eidophusikonhttp://www.edmstudio.com/eidophusikon/gallery01.html

1781

Phenakistiskophttp://www.filmmuseum-hamburg.de/filmtechnik_geraetschaften.html

1832

Theoretical analysis

• “Illusion of unmediated referentiality“• “Mastery over constraints of space and

time“• Virtual mobility vs. physical immobility• Encloser in dark room• Limited view

Discussion

• Taking the Panopticon as a metaphor:How would you draw the diagram fortoday‘s participatory culture?

• Talking about power relations: Is takingthe guard‘s position in the central towermaybe even more critical? Whatimplications does it have?