The Event of Seeing: A Phenomenological Perspective on Visual Sense‐Making

Abstract

As critical discussions of ocularcentrism have revealed, many of the modernist accounts of reality have been based on Descartes’ idea of a disembodied and rational eye as an instrument of order and control. This paper moves on from the critique of ocularcentrism and lays foundations for an expanded conception of vision based on Merleau‐Ponty’s phenomenology. I argue that the practice of looking can be conceptualised as a deeply embodied and pre‐reflective involvement with the surrounding world and others where all senses intertwine, rather than form a hierarchy, to create a lived‐out experience. This phenomenological proposition is further explored through illustrative material drawn from a larger study of commercial images.

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