art

Plate from An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe by Thomas Wright, 1750.

Berger examines the impact of photography and reproduction on our appreciation of art. 

Some highlights: 

Manipulation by sound, movement, context

Reproductions have allowed images to come to us, vs us going to them. There is no longer one unique position an image belongs to. They are seen through millions of reproductions, in millions of contexts - e.g. through your screen, surrounded by your own furniture etc. 

Paitings modified by movement and sound 

Meaning is liable to be manipulated and transformed. no longer a constant 

Silence and Stillness

The images in paitings are silent, still 

the lines on your screen, even pages of a book are ever moving, never still. 

But paitings demonstrate silence.

Occasionally, this uninterrupted silence and the stillness of a painting can be very striking. 

Corridoors through time 

The paiting, absolutely still, soundless becomes a corridoor, connecting the moment it represents, with the moment at which you’re looking at it. Something travels through that corridoor at a speed greater than light - throws in thw question of the way of measuring time itself 

Unfolding of time 

In a film sequence, the details are selected and re-arranged into a narrative, which depends on unfolding time. In paitings, there is no unfolding time as all elements are present simultaneously. 

Accessibility of meaning 

While reproductions make paitings accessible, the text (usually by experts) begins to make them inaccessible to our own interpretations. Kids interpret images directly as they are. 

Reproduction as a languge beyond images

Using the means of reproduction as though they offered a language, as though pictures were like words rather than holy relics 

A need for dialogue 

He finishes off saying the images may be like words, but there is no dialogue yet - limiting the possibility of active interperation - he calls out the need for 

‘access to tv to be extended beyond its present narrow limits’ for this to be born (1972) and invites the watcher to stay skeptical of the arranged programme he just presented.