Staring how we look sobre la mirada.pdf - artecolonial

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A Cultural History
Because the eye loves novelty and can get used to almost any
scene, even one of horror, much of life can drift into the vague
background of our attention.
—Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, 235
Culture regulates all human behavior, including physiological processes:
sex, eating, elimination, comportment, eye behavior—indeed, everything
our bodies do. How we look at each other begins as instinct but quickly takes
its place alongside other natural bodily functions as a carrier of social meaning.
In this sense, all visual behavior, especially the intense urge to stare, has
a cultural history.
THE UNEASY PRIMACY OF VISION
The modern world, in particular our era, is ocularcentric 1 ; it depends on
sight as the primary sensory conduit to the world. 2 We relish looking, produce
endless images, and root our understanding of the world in observation.
Indeed, most information comes to us through sight in this intensely
technological world saturated with advertising and crowded with computer,
television, and video screens. Yet our reliance on seeing as believing has bred
a spirited skepticism. From the Protestant distrust of graven images to our
secular fascination with magic, sleight-of-hand, or ghosts, we avidly question
the truth of what we see. 3 Vision is celebrated and scorned, pronounced to be
manipulative, liberating, rapacious, pornographic, gendered, or dominating.
Nearly everyone seems to agree that vision shapes the modern citizenry. 4
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