The Primacy of Seeing

The Primacy of Seeing a group exhibition The Primacy of Seeing Ocularity is generally defined as “a measure of the num- ber of eyes needed to see something, i.e. monocular or binocular”. Basically it could be understood as the human capacity to perceive or recognize through the eyes what is usually called reality. “Seeing comes before words. The child looks Anton Larenz Only the eye is capable to capture at the same time the and recognizes before it can speak. But there images and schemata of systems and structures or the is also another sense in which seeing comes structure of hierarchies. Ideas and philosophical concepts before words. It is seeing which establishes our resemble much more often nets or webs. Pictures or im- place in the surrounding world; we explain that ages are frozen time, immutable and enduring, if they world with words, but words can never undo the have been once immersed into our brains, by that way fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation establishing their own truth. between what we see and what we know is never settled.” In the digital era images have become ubiquitous, the (John Berger, 1972: 7) human mind is flooded with pictorial information. The art historian W. J. T. Mitchell coined the term “pictorial turn” for describing the shift from a discourse that relies on “We only see what we look at. To look is an act words (verbal or linguistic culture) to a visual culture that is of choice.” shaped through images. There is an all-pervasive image- (John Berger, 1972: 8). making, but “we still do not know exactly what pictures are, what their relation to language is, how they operate on observers and on the world, how their history is to be understood, and what is to be done with or about them.”, as Mitchell (1995) remarks. he eye is the central organ for visual arts, what reminds us of the central position of the Pictures are open for manipulation, the distinction between sense of sight that shapes human perception T reality and deceptive delusion has become more and and minds. The relationship between viewer and more blurred. With the upcoming of virtual technologies artist is essentially constructed through the eye. like ‘Augmented Reality’ the difference between natural Objects in reality are translated by the artist into and virtual reality seems to be meaningless. Augmented visual metaphors, as the cornerstone or prominent reality (AR) is “a direct or indirect live view of a physical, part of art forms. Visual metaphors form a nexus of real-world environment whose elements are “augmented” imagery that artists have used across the centuries by computer-generated perceptual information, ideally to communicate without words. across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, audi- tory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory”. The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer speaks of a “worldwide primacy of seeing” in phi- Components of the digital world are build into a person’s losophy and its conceptualization, of the “ocularity perception of the real world, everything what is perceived of Greek philosophy” as a legacy to the humanisti- will be recognized as parts of a natural environment. Hu- cally-sustained culture tradition. mans will have a direct interface with computers through this AR technology by generating a three-dimensional The philosopher Hans Jonas describes the process image which appears to surround the user. of seeing as follows: “According to the paradigm of the ocularity, the object is the passive-given, The other side of seeing is being seen, or being watched, the subject is the free autonomous view, which controlled and surveilled. The all-seeing eye has been discovers the world as it is in itself, without the see- the symbol for God watching over us and caring about ing subject thereby being determined by the seen the universe. This mighty symbol is still visible on dollar object. Rather, in the paradigm of seeing, what notes, now actually representing the all-pervading power is seen and seen (object and subject) are in fact of money. indifferent to each other.”(Jonas 1997) Michel Foucault has recognized the panopticon as the But: ”Who sees, sees most of the differences in model for disciplining society, another French philosopher, reality.” (Jonas 1997) Guy Debord, described society as ‘spectacle’, - the public 2 The Primacy of Seeing The Primacy of Seeing 3 is a stage, where everybody is exposed and performs. Both more popular art forms. The connection between many links between surrealism, comics and street “As a result, until today, the art of mural has been becom- philosophers have analyzed the spectacular trends in the Surrealism and comics is obvious. The popularity art, - stylistically and politically. Street art provides ing a trend for many communities in the city of Yogyakar- evolution of modern society. of the comics and cartoons made it an accepted also an opportunity for independent adventurism ta. Today, we can see murals painted on the walls in many profession for young artists “…who cut their teeth in mainly urban environments. Pop Surrealism is corners of the city, at the alleys and outer walls surround- Modern states have already started to install all-seeing on Surrealism, the comics could be a place of the generally associated with street art. But both terms ing schools. These mural projects are initiated and carried cameras in public places for controlling society. Public dark imagination where hybrid and carnivalesque are equally problematic -- being both too broad out by the communities themselves. (in: Anusapati) control increases especially in China, where all kinds of inversions occur and the personal and the ideo- and too specific at the same time. Formerly subver- data about individual citizens are collected and kept. It is logical collide. “ (Hadler2011) sive styles have already entered and influenced the Two of the participating artists in this exhibition, Wedhar the “final imposition of a grid of control on the planet”, mainstream, they are now publicly accepted. Riyadi and Gilang Fradika, have been involved with and as Donna Haraway once wrote in her Cyborg Manifesto Surrealist ideas and concepts can now be found in influenced by this Yogyakarta street art movement. As (1991), so predicting the future. fiction, comic books, TV comedy, advertising and Street art could appear in the most obscure public Asmudjo Jono Irianto notes: film, as well as three-dimensional design, continu- spaces, and could be seen as legacy of the Situ- “One of the post Reformation young artists’ greatest What once sounded like Science fiction, has already being in the tradition of the obsessional, fantastic and ationist Internationalist (founded by Guy Debord) influences is the industry of popular culture. Low brow come reality, an infinitely malleable world of virtuality and strange in visual arts. and their concept of psychogeography, although tendencies in the form of comics, illustrations, graffiti and other emerging technologies. this has not always been pursued systematically. It advertising are quite ‘fashionable’ with young artists now.” But, as Rick Poynor (2008) commented, “… is a kind of Surrealist exploration of the city. Under (in: Wilson 2016) Surrealism’s assimilation into everyday life is so current conditions, - like ecological disasters, Surrealism’s pioneer function complete that characterising something as ‘sur- globalization, the ubiquitous ‘Society of the Spec- real’ has become a routine, rather obvious way of tacle’, and all kinds of fundamentalisms – street art The All-Present Eye The Surrealists had made the eye a subject of their art, for suggesting its peculiarity. When used this casually, is an approach to articulate opinions and mes- example Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali with their film Un the word no longer bears any fruitful relationship sages freely, an open channel to reach the public Wedhar Riyadi creates with his art an atmosphere that is a Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) in 1929, which will to the artistic and social aims of the movement’s eyes. It also takes advantage of the new possibili- mixture of reality and fantasy: ”What I’m trying to do now always be remembered because of the famous scene in founders.” ties of social media to spread the word at a blink is to blend them together more seamlessly. I want it to feel which an eye is slit with a razor. This represented perfectly of an eye. Fantasy and humor are often enough more real but alien at the same time.” (Thee 2017) the Surrealist search for new visual experience, an attack Surrealism still persists in other ways as a mean- the essential ingredients. on visual and moral conventions. It was about the adop- ingful reference for a particular visual category, He perceives his art as a reflection of the conflicted world tion of the visionary model, or visionary illumination. because of the Surrealist quality as metaphor for we live in. He asks if painting is still relevant in the digital spontaneous and free interior expression. The Street Art in Yogyakarta era and questions the relevancy of paintings made in the Martin Jay, who saw the Surrealist movement as a sign “over-use of ‘surreal’ as a synonym for ‘weird’ digital era. With the possibilities of the webworld and all for “the crisis of ocularcentrism”, described the Surreal- or ‘strange’ might seem to be an insuperable In Yogyakarta, the city of culture, education and of its involved technologies a new playfield for artists has ists’ relationship with the eye as follows: “…Edenic purity problem, No creative person wants to be identified tourism, the discourse of street art arose after the evolved. of the “innocent eye,” an ideal which had been defended with a term that has been trivialised and rendered year 1998, with the art group named Apotik Komik by the Romantics, if not earlier.

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