Week 3

Please pick ONE question below on which to base your 2-page synthesis for Thursday, January 29. Please type two pages, single space, Times Roman 12 (forgive me for not reiterating this last week). Feel free to cross-reference the readings and build on discussions we’ve already had. (These questions are also posted on our website).

1. Berger, John (1990). Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series (Paperback) New York: Penguin
2. Lanham, Richard (2006). Preface, and "Stuff and Fluff." The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information (pp. xi-41). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. Lanham, Richard (2006). "What's Next for Text". The Economics of Attention. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4. SUPPLEMENTAL: LaGrandeur, Kevin (2005). Digital Images and Classical Persuasion. In Mary E. Hocks and Michelle R. Kendrick (Eds.), Eloquent Images: Word and Image in the Age of New Media. Boston: MIT Press.

1. Berger discusses art images in terms of their duplication, the cultural depictions of the nude, the legacy of oil painting, and the functions of advertising (and in between offers a number of really interesting visual essays). What is the relationship he establishes between the subject (or object) portrayed in the image or painting, and the person viewing the object? And to add one more layer of analysis, how can you tie in the perspective of the person who originally created the piece of art?

2. What significance does history and context have in viewing the images around us? Summarize how Berger shows us that seeing establishes “our place.”

3. According to Lanham, what are some of the key elements that characterize the “economics of attention”? Give some examples of stuff and nonstuff, (from Lanham or from your own experience) and describe this idea of oscillating between these two worlds.

4. In what ways do the expressive decisions that dominated print (such as…) emcompass a much wider domain? Discuss some of the specific examples Lanham uses, and any examples you know of as well.