Scott Adam's Quote

I think Scott Adam's meant that art isn't necessarily what you had invisioned in your mind. Sometimes artist just "freestyle" and see what they come up with. Mistakes are a part of art and I think it just adds to the creativity if artists can build off a mistake. Once a mistake is made, the outcome is going to be completely different than what they had expected, but that mistake could have made the artwork more than what they had imagined originally. I agree with his quote to some extent. Some artist's mistake could have lead to another artists master piece. But I do agree that artists need to make up that decission on whether to keep the mistake or discard the work and start over. One time I made a cake; and when I transfered it out of the pan onto a plate to ice, it fell apart. I decided to just cut the cake in half and make a double layered cake. I used the icing to cover up the "mistake". The cake didn't turn out how I had originally planned, but it still looked good (if not better) and tasted the same that it would have if it hadn't fallen apart. I think there is much to be said about artists who can turn a mistake into something better than they planned.

Voyeurism

I think it is safe to say that we are, to some degree, all voyeurs. I wouldn't go around telling people that I was a voyeur, that sounds creepy. I think everyone enjoys people watching and wondering what is going on in other peoples lives. People do it on a daily basis, both consciously and subconsciously. I don't think people are embarassed unless the person they happen to be looking at looks back up at them. The natural reaction is just to look away and act like you weren't just looking at them. We avoid eye contact for fear that they might see us looking at them.

The Power of Gaze

In class, we discussed the acts of looking; where images give those who look at them a sense of themselves as an individual human subject in the world. We, as the viewers, make the meaning of the artwork. We are interpellated on a daily basis, whether we are aware of it or not. Something that I was interpellated by was the idea of an inspecting gaze. This is the idea that people are going to act more appropriately when they are under the impression that they are being watched. The gaze gives a sense of relationship to power. We are constantly being watched every day. Our book talks about being watched in grocery stores, elevators, parking garages, and other public places. In class, we talked about cameras above traffic lights and at intersections. When people see these cameras, they have the sense that someone is watching them, so they slow down or stop at the red light. We have no idea if these cameras work, or are even turned on; but that is not the purpose for the cameras. For the most part, it doesn't even cross peoples minds that they may not even be turned on. Another idea of inspecting gaze was Jeremy Bentham's invention of the Panopticon Penitentiary. Our book discusses three key components for the purpose of this idea: panopticism, power/knowledge, and biopower. Bentham's brilliant plan consisted of one gaurd tower in the center of a circular prison, that was capable of seeing into every cell and hearing everything going on, however; none of the cells could see into this tower. I was even more fascinated when we discovered that the tower was never actually used. This was there for the inmates to feel as if they were being watched. Humans have a fear of being watched, and will act differently if they feel that sense of inspecting gaze.