Techniky pozorovatele - O vidění a modernitě v 19. století – Crary Jonathan (2025)

In this work, American theorist and art historian Jonathan Crary focuses not primarily on images, but on the construction of the observer and the subject and their historical transformations. He challenges the traditional interpretation of a divide between the “older” and “newer” modes of representation at the end of the 19th century, when painting and realistic depiction supposedly split apart and photography assumed the role of a faithful image of the world. Through an archaeological investigation of ideas about vision, Crary demonstrates the importance of the physiology and psychology of perception at the beginning of the century, as well as of new observation techniques and forms of mass visual entertainment such as the stereoscope and phenakistoscope. He connects visuality with processes of attention and distraction. Modern visual experience thus emerges through new forms of subjectivity, communication, consumption and power. This 1990 book is regarded as a foundational work in visual culture theory. It also inspired media and cultural theorists, film and literary studies, and anticipated approaches associated with media archaeology and contemporary discussions of the attention economy.