Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Ways of Seeing


A number of years ago, I read a brilliant book by John Berger called Ways of Seeing. Originally produced as a series of visual essays for BBC television, the book raises serious questions about the power of visual imagery to instill ideological norms and behaviors into our collective mindset. Tracing these patterns through the traditions of Western art, Ways of Seeing demonstrates the ways in which these 'normalizing' traditions continue to act through the barage of marketing imagery we encounter every day.

In other words, it's a very interesting book - a favorite I revisit often.

Yesterday, while scanning the contents at UbuWeb, I stumbled across some video links to the BBC production (which I've never seen before) and thought a link would be worth sharing. So, if anyone else is interested, here it is: Ways of Seeing

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