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September 23, 2005
No Longer Overlooking What We Look At
I thought that the introduction to "Practices of Looking" was actually quite interesting. It brought up some points we, or most people, do not normally think about. We look at "things" all the time, everyday, and rely on it to get us through life as we know it. Yet we rarely think about what these images that don't "seem" to mean anything, actually do to us. Images, now used more than ever in television, photography, computers, etc., have a powerful impact on our culture even though we may not realize it. Images affect what we think about ourselves, others, and the world around us... what we do in our lives, what we think is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, acceptable or not. In many ways images are very harmful to us. In advertising commericals, for example, they are used to create ideas that "you are not okay the way you are, you 'need' this", which makes people insecure and vulnerable consumers. It is actually quite disturbing when you think about how powerful images are in our lives, yet we do not let them register with us, or simply do not want to have to face the fact.
Posted by lcisthur at September 23, 2005 12:17 AM