The New-Age Voyeurs

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Text: Maria Carneiro
Photography (except Mona Lisa): Caroline Hargreaves


How many Mona Lisa(s) have you come across so far in your life? How many Greek vases have you ‘copy-pasted’ for the cover of an Art History or Classical Studies course work? Have you thought about how it is possible to have this huge and varied range of images available, just a click away? How many Louis Vuittons or Diors have you seen in the last street-market you went to? Well, that’s what I am here to discuss.

For my very first Generation C Magazine article I want to think over our role as new-age voyeurs in this contemporary, post modern world of reproductivity and the internet. Apart from copyright laws, authenticity and originality, what has been worrying me is the voyeurism we are subjected to these days. We take visual part in a variety of events and happenings, those we are not in control of. We end up watching still or moving images we do not wish to recall. In the end of the day, are we fatal voyeurs?

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Many of us watched the Twin Towers collapse in New York, eight years ago. Saddam Hussein’s death execution is all over the internet. We were witnesses of the Tsunami in South East Asia in 2004. Images are becoming so cheap and appear to have the property of easy, fast and uncontrollable spreading.

An artist – by many considered the greatest artist of the 20th century, Marcel Duchamp – did think over this question of voyeurism and the role of the spectator. Being a voyeur directly implies that we are held responsible for this performative moment we are in. The last piece of work Duchamp presented in life is a wood door with a small opening in it, from where people can look inside. It is known in English as: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gás, 1946-1966, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Duchamp took a long time to present this piece right because of the complexity of the questions it presented. Looking through the little hole, the spectator sees a female naked body lying on the ground, holding an oil lamp. Behind the body there is a fairytale, wood-like landscape.

The action we take when looking through the hole, directly affects the person we are looking at. The existence of another human being is not just entitled in itself, as we are also sharing the moment. Imagine the times when you looked through a keyhole. The process is similar. When spying, we are holding a Tyranny of Sight. We are not giving the
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chance to those who are behind the keyhole to be alone, to freely perform without an audience. This quiet presence can be thought of as the last form of domination. It is senseless, anonymous, disembodied.

This line of thought embraces an ethical question. When looking, what do we steal from the piece of art, the newspaper photograph or the street billboard? What are our responsibilities on using printed slogan T-shirts, or watching our daily Youtube videos?

From the time of Duchamp and on, many artists took on the responsibility of creating works of art which considered the role of the spectator towards the piece of art. Conceptual Art, Minimalist Art, American Abstract Expressionism; all included the spectator in their planning and preparation of the pieces. It is known we live in the era of image but also of sound. The means of image reproduction are still growing and are even more democratic. It is up to us to make a rational selection of what is appropriate and I dare say sustainable; knowing that we watch and are being watched.




Maria Carneiro is Portuguese and is a Performing Arts student at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. This is her first article for Generation C Magazine, you can read her second here.