This video made me question what really is “seeing”? Is it just viewing something by any means, or does it include experience, as well as feelings? Nowadays, it’s extremely easy to view basically whatever you want. I personally love social media, and the convenience of it, but watching this video made me sit back and think about how people often consume media so quickly and involuntarily, images, videos, and art, can all lose their meaning.
When you go to an art museum, and look at a painting, really look at it, it has a feeling of authenticity. But why can’t everything have that feeling? Originality still exists, no matter how many times the Mona Lisa is reproduced, the circumstances of viewing are always different. The feeling seeing hundreds of copies of her face, printed on t shirts, is different than seeing the original painting, in a quiet gallery, surrounded by a frame.
There are infinite ways of seeing, and along with that, infinite feelings, circumstances, and experiences. I like how when John Berger played different songs over a painting to show how each one gave off a different energy. I don’t think reproducibility is hindering our ability to see an original work as it was “supposed” to be, but opening our minds io new ideas about old things.