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.

Key words:

• Phenomenology
• Semiotics
• Visual sense‐making
• Event of seeing
• Embodiment
• Lived experience

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank Dr Ian King from Essex Management Centre at the University of Essex and Dr Jonathan Vickery from the Centre for Cultural Policy studies at Warwick University for their very helpful comments on the earlier draft of this paper. I am also grateful to anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions. Any remaining deficiencies, however, are my sole responsibility.

Notes

1. Examples of how the English language is permeated with visual metaphors are available in Jay (1993: 1); Tyler (1984).

2. “Ils [les fruits] viennent à vous dans toutes leurs odeurs, vous parlent des champs qu’ils ont quittés, de la pluie qui les a nourris, des aurores qu’ils épiaient”.