Summary
John Berger argues that seeing, not language, establishes our primary relationship with the world, a relationship that words cannot fundamentally alter. This perspective is central to understanding how we look at images, particularly paintings, and how this act of looking shapes our perception of reality. The book challenges conventional ways of seeing by suggesting that our interpretation of what we observe is never definitively settled by our knowledge.
Berger's work, based on a BBC television series, aims to alter how viewers engage with visual art, demonstrating that "seeing comes before words." The fundamental idea is that our visual experience precedes and underpins our verbal understanding of the world, implying that visual literacy is crucial for comprehending our environment and the images within it.
Key concepts
- Seeing precedes words — The initial and fundamental way we interact with and understand our environment, established before linguistic comprehension.
- Place in the surrounding world — Seeing is the means by which we establish our physical and existential position within our environment.
- Relation between what we see and what we know is never settled — The ongoing, unresolvable interplay between visual perception and intellectual understanding.
From the book
Description: How do we see the world around us? The Penguin on Design series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever."Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.""But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled."John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic…