In the book, Ways of Seeing, Author John Berger writes his views on the different ways art can be viewed and interpreted and the different things the way we view art can tell us today. The book is based on Bergers views and shows many photographs and paintings illustrating his points sometimes to the point of overkill.
The book covers topics about how even though the art medium has changed, it is still the history of this art that depicts how we both view and create art and design today. Berger writes about original paintings by fine artists and how they were viewed, he then moves on to the sexes, and then to art as a social status. He discusses at length how art and design depicts the sexes. If you would like to read my opinion post on these chapters – see my extra credit blog “being viewed by men, being viewed by women”.
The material in this book was intuitive. I did have an AHA moment as to both why women view themselves as a man would (from seeing it depicted in paintings throughout history), as well as where the ideas of advertising originated (again historically, from viewing paintings of wealthy families). Seeing the truth in Berger’s explanations almost gave me a “duh” gut reaction to much of the material, even though it was not stuff I ever intentionally thought about.
I doubt I will look at art any differently from reading this book. It just reinforced my negative views of society as a whole (my dark side). I came away knowing that I must proactively design in the opposite way of what I see being designed today. I will continue to point out and speak my tiring opinion when I see others falling prey to popular pitfalls.
