Reading Response to "Ways of Seeing" 1971

The theme of this class has been developing a new perception of the world we live in today. Each reading and discussion we have had has pushed the walls of my understanding further and further apart, almost like the opening of the flood gates - any moment, I'll be drowning in overwhelming enlightenment.

"Ways of Seeing" by John Burger is an essay about how perception has be broadened by human discovery, the eventual adoption into popular belief, and the freedom of education. This is a circular action, that has speed up dramatically with the advent of a press, media, and in our lifetime, the internet.

The essay starts with perception of art in the middle ages, where staged realistic paints were scrutinized for small facial inflections. My 21st century mind regards this reading into basically nothing as a desire to get more from art but the society had not advance far enough to translate deeper meaning with a brush. That, and art was made for and controlled by only those that could afford it. Then with the advent of the camera which could accurately record time, and condense events down to a single frame, art was freed to explore perspective. Reversely, people looked back at early styles of painting with less reverie. The once awe inspiring curl of Mona Lisa's lip has been diminished in importance as the generations see world perception expand.

Works of art, fiction, and opinion that were once confined to one origin, and were reserved only to the upper class, have been reproduced and shared with anyone that has the ability to reach out and grasp it. For better or worse, we are now in an age where the computer savvy have access to infinite pictorial and textual resources. If one was to measure the internet from its beginnings as a long anticipated bang in 1991, and the rate that content is uploaded, would it be similar to the expansion of our universe? Is this act of freedom of choice by search and sharing making us more literate and enlightened? What we have been confronted with is the issue of authority. Anyone can share their uneducated opinion. This act of quick and senseless review and retort, though distorted and misleading, is yet another expansion perception.