Katie Dickison

LBST 330

Sean Ashley/Josema Zamorano

October 8, 2018

                                                              Response Paper 1     

While reading Berger’s essay “Ways of Seeing” the common theme is the difference between seeing the world around you through your own eyes compared to looking through a lens; seeing the scope of the world through images that have been presented to you by another source. The idea that you are getting someone’s perceived image of how they see the world rather than your own. In relating the reading to topic #5 on the Fields of Interest Assignment it is quite apparent that this topic is very relevant to one of my suggested areas of research. The reason why I say that is because one of my topics looks at the society behind the art; the great impact that a society has on the art and architecture of that time.

The issues that will be presented to me will be very similar to that expressed in Berger’s essay. In Art History you are analyzing art from a specific period dating back centuries and a lot of the art being studied are very famous works of art that are housed in museums all around the world. It would be impossible to see the real thing so what we are looking at most of the time is a replication of the artwork or in the case of architecture, it would be a photograph. In terms of my topic of research, I want to go behind the scenes and look at the people who created the works of art to get a better understanding of what society was like at the time. My goal would be to make a connection between what the society was like and how it directly affected the art that came out of that particular period. With that being said a lot of my research will be analyzing images and reading history books and scholarly articles, which are all methods involving looking at information through someone else’s point of view. The fact is, that who you are and where you come from will always influence the way that you see the world. Your background and your experiences will always be present and be with you no matter where you go and no matter what you do. So with that being said each and every one of us will look at the world in a different light, just as I read each book or scholarly article my personal experiences and incites will shape the way I interpret the information. That’s why it makes sense as to why those factors would be involved in the way that a picture is taken or why an artist chooses to paint a certain subject.

When I really think about it I understand that it will be a challenge for me. All my sources will be knowledge passed down through centuries and I will never be able to reach the specific source. Ultimately, I know that my research will have to be pretty extensive and I will have to compare many sources rather than just pulling from one, but to me hopefully, it will be even more gratifying to know that I will have more evidence to support my hypothesis.