The modern gaze developed through a network of changes to perception during the nineteenth century. A significant element within these changes is Walter Benjamin's concept of the 'aura'. This research paper examines the social aura contained in the space of a nineteenth century European city, the aural perception of an individual mobile gaze, and the decay of the aura that results from the decline of experience in the contemporary metropolis. I have linked the decline of experience and loss of aura to the arrival of photography in the 1840's. This new technology had the ability to fix a visual image into a permanent record and as recorder of reality, had a large impact on perception. For example, it had the ability to bring the exotic near, and provide close-ups of natural objects not possible with the naked eye. The camera 'sees' in a different way to how the eye 'sees'', yet photographic seeing is accepted as being the normal mode of perception. It is a way to capture an experience, and to relive this at a later date by providing a reference point for memory; the modern gaze looks back, it lacks a lived experience in the now / Master of Arts (Hons)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/235824 |
| Creators | Griep, Babette C, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Faculty of Visual and Performing Arts, School of Design |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Source | THESIS_FPFAD_SD_Griep_B.xml |
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