Visual Arts, Columbia University, New York

This course examines ways of looking and ways of seeing, both personally & professionally as artists and in a larger cultural context. Through field trips to contemporary art and other cultural sites, conversations with visiting critical thinkers and practicioners, readings, discussions, and visual & written responses, we will examine how we look, think, act, create and respond--critically questioning our own artistic practices and ways of looking at the world.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Looking is desire


There is nothing to see:

 I didn’t know the phone was taking pictures, but when I went back to the camera roll, there were all these random shots. I looked at them. And then I decided to collage them into a slide. There is nothing to see—they make no particular sense. But in looking at these random fragments that bear no intentions of being anything in particular, my interest began to linger with the lines and textures and colors. I began to see something(s). 




Seeing is the state of apprehension of meaning. Looking is the process of generating meaning. We ourselves are separate from the object of our vision when we look (“for”, “at”, “in”, “around”, “beside”, “to”, “between”, “on” or even “upon”). But when we see, visual input unites with the associations formed from looking to imbue our vision with meaning. In this way, looking is a journey and seeing is an arrival. There is nothing to see, so you look. And after you have looked, you may in fact see “nothing,” but that would then be a meaning and not a statement about the visual field. Looking is a desire for meaning. Seeing is meaning made.

Looking is desire.

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