WAYS OF SEEING (first episode) 4/4

[nattybumbum2]

terriffic film

[Fendefadst]

great

[alekid]

Brilliant

[henceseventytwo]

I am so glad that eyeearbrain.webs.com sent me here. excellent!

[MsCooperse]

one of the best books i've read in my time ! the videos just enhance the experience. thanks for sharing these episodes.

[Elvinauk]

We can't interact with Berger but we can interact with each other as viewers and if Berger was a member if youtube he could add his own thing too, that would befabulous. Love this series and am hoping it will crop up whne I do two arts courses with the OU from next October.

[joyandian]

this was superbe . : )

[hilarymaurice]

"access to television must be extended beyond its present narrow limits." Ironic to hear that on youtube. Looks like his dream has come true.

[kurtzjosh]

@hilarymaurice Not really. We still can't interact. Youtube is another medium for television but it is still television in the same form as Berger's day.

[octemberfury]

@kurtzjosh can't interact? what are you doing then, in responding to another person's comment, and allowing other people to see it? don't be so silly.

[kurtzjosh]

@octemberfury I am doing the same thing you are, admittedly.

What are we really doing though? Are we interacting? If that is so, then I stand corrected.

[octemberfury]

@kurtzjosh that is so

[anuvamp]

great program! i like that he asks us to be skeptical of his words, that shows his humility and academic preparation. Although he is not a scientist his is indeed using the scientific method.

[robertadamplant]

I have received the images and messages, but it is I who gave those images and messages meaning: An interpretation based on my own existing values and culturally constructed belief systems.

[Whip0fAlchemy]

Mind blown!

[worotan]

I love that he tells the viewer to be skeptical of what he says. All very interesting, and he's a dude.

[AClarke2007]

A forward looking program utilising traditional media.

[xxmuraxx]

This is Some Good

[jamestaane]

"This is mystification" perfect.

[crazyclive]

This was a wonderfully thought-provoking series on art and art criticism, but after watching this again, I think Berger is wrong. He strongly implies that if art is placed in its original context, it cannot be manipulated. This is wrong: it can be manipulated by one's own imagination, as well as by the opinions shared by anybody else I view it with. "That Caravaggio girl looks like someone I shagged two years back" could change my image of the painting without any intervention from a camera.

[painxtreme]

@crazyclive Do you make no distinction between manipulation and interpretation?

[crazyclive]

@painxtreme Not really, no. In any case, my point stands if my view of the art I'm looking at 'in its original context' is changed by the person I'm viewing it with. Berger makes no mention of this.

[painxtreme]

@crazyclive He certainly doesn't, and you make a good point.

[frogbuster20]

this series is brilliant. I mean even more if compared to the shit produced nowadays.

[newellgirl]

thanks for posting this brilliant and very relevant series...interesting how john says tv should be more accessible..the net has done all that and more.. we can now respond to the messages communicated...skeptical of your take on things mr berger? that's difficult with the arguments you put forth!!!

[berkc]

@thibaulthalpern

By saying it is only a western viewI think you are being skeptical.. that is what he wants :)

I don't think he is not taking into that account. But to say something, anything, you have to start froma point of view, and if you want to cover all points of views than the documentary should he 99 episodes.

But yeah, by just saying "be skeptical", he can escape from any objections :P

[chucksmeegle]

wow very interesting.

[LittleMissEvel]

JESUS IS A WOMAN!!!!

i always thought that =p

[Gromilo]

Now I am overcoming a barrier of television and contributing to this set of reproductions by giving it a new meaning by means a new medium - the Internet. Wow, it feels great:)

[polymath7]

Ah, now Berger is finally beginning to say something.

Perhaps I'll watch the rest of the series after all.

[Bc2ast]

Yeah, Walter Benjamin.

[schneee]

This is awesome, thank you for uploading.

"I hope you consider what I arrange. But be skeptical."

Best stance ever.

[tellyisrubbish]

Approbation for the publisher not just for the videos but for disabling all ratings, particularly the meaningless stars.

[meaninglessmovies]

5:45 - He describes what sounds like the Interent. Cool. Thanks for uploading..

[perceival]

Yeah - It's interesting how his summation of how tv is a top-down media without feedback relates to his "corridor" movement when describing the time-stopping capability of painting. So what about interactive media such as YouTube? How does this media change our perception of time?

[leevioutrageous]

berger really sticks it to the art contingent even today, art is for everyone! berger is the god of art.... "but be skeptical"

[thibaulthalpern]

It's funny how in one statement you both democratise art ("art is for everyone"!) to mythologise and deify ("berger is the god of art"). This is going from one extreme of populism to aristocracy.

[tykemeawaywyou]

this is great, i was unaware this series was out there. i first read the book during my freshman year in college and still reference or reread it every now and again because it somehow causes yet another realization about something i had overlooked in the world. it is quite a reassuring feeling that others have found this as well!

[Shadowlinx]

Thank you so much for uploading this. Fantastic.

[Oscar301]

that was excellent. very postmodern

[textilelady]

Thanks for taking the time to upload this - I am reading Berger's short book and this makes it make sense!

[RebelVoDKa]

He he! I thought at first the kids were saying, "He hasn't got any Bristols."

[rgval]

Yes, awesome. He's talking about a dialogue between the viewer and the screen, just what youtube offers.

Many thanks for sharing!

[jawsquid]

Yes, wonderful. I'd love to see a reworking or addendum to Ways of Seeing considering the impact of the Internet on our consumption of images (and media of all kinds). It'd be quite an undertaking, though; information has changed an awful lot in the last few decades.

Not to say that Berger is no longer relevant: just the opposite. This should be shown in 8th or 9th grade to everyone. It's incredibly important to understand how we USE images, etc., in making arguments and forming opinions.

[thibaulthalpern]

And let's not forget though that this is a Western perspective on objets and art. There are other ways of seeing that this programme and much of literary and art criticism does not present. To that, you have to turn to scholars who deal with visual culture outside of the western world. Collectively, they're known as AOA (Africa, Oceania, Americas) scholars.

[Bc2ast]

Berger acknowledges this 'perspecive' in the first episode in his own way.

[thibaulthalpern]

He acknowledges and then the whole show goes without actually taking into account how this is a western perspective. Hmm...?

[Bc2ast]

True, true...

[joaoag23]

ive been a member for a year or two, and have never commented on a video until i saw this one. Thankyou so so much for uploading, I find berger refreshing and very insightful into how art is still being kept in a semi vice grip by those who would try and alienate it from 'common' viewers, i am off to do history of art next year and am taking so much on board from this video about over complicating art and art analysis.

thanks again

[badmantra]

This is awesome! Isent the internet now moving into the realm he describes at the end?

[pixiniarts]

Thanks for uploading....

[voorface]

Thanks for uploading this