In Ways of Seeing, which is a book adaptation of the short television show by the same name from 1970s, John Berger talks about the importance of seeing in the daily life and art. From childhood, people learn to recognize and place themselves in their surroundings based on what they see around them. Understanding the reciprocal nature of seeing allows people to relate to other perspectives, while inevitably viewing everything around them based on their established beliefs and expectations. Throughout the years of history, art and depiction of the finer things in life has been an integral part of societies. The way people depicted their surroundings shaped their understanding of it, as the pictures outlived the people and landscapes they were copies of originally. While at the beginning artistic representations allowed people to express their imaginations, create things that did not otherwise exist, they then turned into a way of representing a certain perspective.
During the Renaissance days, perspective painting and drawing became especially popular. With that style of drawing, the spectator played the role of God, with everyone he could see on the picture being tailored to his eye. It presented people with a view in which they were central, and the focal point was loud and clear. However, with the invention of cameras, the perspective became shifted. The camera pictures presented its viewers with the concept of time, by only showing them a perspective from a particular time and place. This immediately became obvious in art, with the Cubists, for example, shocking the viewer with a concoction of perspectives and views, rejecting time as a limiting concept.
The invention of the camera affected not only the temporal but also the physical aspect of art appreciation. When before the painting, sculptures, and other works of art were often tied to a single location, they became mobile, transportable. Instead of being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a treasured instance of meeting with something greater than oneself, they became replicable and easily accessible visually. Therefore, as the works of art move from location to location, being accessible by thousands and millions of people at the same time, their “meaning is diversified” (Berger, 1977). In that, their meaning is diluted, as it is no longer unique in its existence and instead becomes “the original of a reproduction” (Berger, 1977). The art is therefore both demystified and devalued, as millions of people regardless of their intentions, knowledge bases, or location, have access to various reproductions and copies of it. It loses its original meaning, no longer having any based significance.
The Internet has also played a significant role in diminishing the value of the concept of authenticity and, simultaneously, increasing it. As the painting and works of art have become easily accessible and replicable, the overcompensation for the loss of authenticity has resulted in placing the value of the painting in the hands of the market. If people are willing to pay millions for it, it remains valuable in its authentic form. It is not about the painting itself but about the artificial monetary meaning people put on it. Instead of being a work of art for the sake of it, authentic works today are symbols of status, education, and money. The “mystery of wealth” (Berger, 1977) can no longer be seen just on the paintings but on its spectators. Therefore, although art has lost its original mystified authenticity that tied it to a physical location and a point in time, it has gained new meaning and purpose.
Berger concludes the chapter with the sentiment that although art has become a public good, with almost anyone having access to it, it has not changed the attitudes of the masses towards it. The loss of authenticity is the loss of history that is required for identity building. Therefore, while technology increased access, it has decreased meaning of the works, perhaps irreversibly. Berger mentions that the issue of art from the past has become a political issue, and yet it always has been, in my opinion, but it is only now coming into this light.
References
Berger, J. (1977). Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books.