Albert PRYCE / 33702661

First Year BA Design

Contextual Studies – Ways of seeing

For the purposes of this chapter there are three relevant time periods: after painting but before
cameras, after cameras but before social media, after social media. With each of these eras
comes a change in how we see the world and with it a shift in power.
When I refer to power, I am referencing the power to capture time, not only this but to
manipulate the past and, by extension, the present. The power of controlling history, the
privilege of manipulating reality, comes in many different forms and has undergone many
changes, especially between the three eras. I am going to refer to this as tempacity.
Era 1: Before the camera
The concept of the artist did not exist. There was instead the painter, one who captures the
essence of a scene or object or subject with realism and with as little room for interpretation as
possible. Painters were the medium through which the wealthy showed their superiority; the
upper class not only had financial power but also type of power referred to previously -
tempacity. These paintings (like everything) have two main forms of bias, of untruth; one is in
the form of selection, by only portraying and emitting certain specific realities. Choosing to paint
people in expensive clothes or with lots of land behind them is form of filter that blocks out a
large part of the truth.

(Reynolds, 1780)
Sir Joshua Reynolds’ ‘The Ladies of Waldegrave’ (1780) features the three daughters of the
second Earl Waldegrave. They are immaculately dressed, their garments, that look to be made
of silk, are white and regal (evidence of their class, status and financial position). As well as this,
all three sisters look to be getting along and enjoying each other's company, two of them are
collaborating on a piece of needlework (Lady Charlotte and Lady Anna (left and middle,
respectively)), and the other (Lady Anna (right)) is engaged in her own work, seeming to have
joined her sisters simply for the pleasure of their company. Within the four sides of the piece
these are the only truths, the only realities of that moment in time. Outside of this frame,
however, there is more story to tell. The painting does not show us the difficult times, the
arguments between siblings, it does not show that the sisters were at times unattractive and
uncomposed as all people are. These are facts that we must consciously remind ourselves of in
order to be aware of this selection bias.
The second form of untruth is that of changing the instant captured, replacing frowns with
smiles, substituting bare branches for bright blossom. The creator was the only person who was
able to bridge these gaps between fantasy and reality (I say creator because a great writer has
as much tempacity as any great painter but for the sake of this analysis I am referring to
painters). This is more difficult to diagnose as it would require a contradictory report of the same
scene at the same time.

(Oliver, 1601) (Gheeraerts, 1595)

‘[Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I] were carefully designed and served as a tool to manipulate the
public image of the queen. However, only a few portraits of Elizabeth were painted from life. Instead,
once a design or portrait pattern was established, artists made multiple versions and copies to meet
the significant demand for portraits of the queen.’ (National Portrait Gallery, n.d.)
These mass-produced portraits (left) were a form of propaganda, twisted and changed to
manipulate her image in the public eye, to portray her as fair or kind or strong or generous,
whereas in reality, at the time of her death, her teeth were rotten and her skin was pockmarked
and damaged from the white makeup which was thick and contained large amounts of lead
(Crocker, 2020). The queen's portrait on the right was painted several years earlier than the one
on the left, however, wasn’t approved for reproduction.
Era 2: After cameras but before social media
The first successful camera was made by Nicéphore Niépce in 1816 however it wasn’t until
circa 1885 that George Eastman brought this technology to the third estate. During this time and
for some years after there was a shift in tempacity, and a shift in how we perceive, discern and
assess. The creative was no longer the only person who could capture time, the narrative of
history changed perspective, anyone could take a photograph of anything.

(Imperial War Museums., 1881)

(Cezanne, 1881)
 (Picasso and Braque, 1912)

Both this portrait of Winston Churchill and Paul Cezanne's four apples were produced in 1881.
The Invention of the camera made traditional painting obsolete in terms of functionality, this
gave birth to the artist as someone who was not confined to realism and could thus go beyond
traditional ways of seeing. Cezanne's apples are composed of thick, visible brush strokes, and
the edges of the painting are incomplete, it is not realistic. But on the other hand, the way that
the shadows and the arrangement contribute to the perspective almost enables the viewer to
see the apples from multiple points of view (something a camera cannot do), artists such as
Pablo Picasso’s used cubism as a more extreme degree of the same concept. In terms of
photography there is still an issue of representation within the image but doctored/edited
photographs from this time are rare.
Era 1: The rich had power and artists were the medium through which they showed it
Era 2: Everyone had power but not everyone but not everyone was an artist
Era 3: After social media
In 1997 Six Degrees launched, the first social media site. In 2006 Facebook was made available
to the public and with it came another shift of power (Jones and Hardy, 2015). Social media lets
the individual curate their own reality, to control how they present themselves as the protagonist
within the narrative of their life.
Curate: verb - ‘to select items from among a large number of possibilities for other people to
consume and enjoy; applied to many areas including music, design, fashion, and especially
digital media’ (Macmillan Thesaurus, 2022)
When a person is in control of coding and curating their memories (before exporting them to be
decoded by the masses), they feel the need, often on a subconscious level, to contort their
representation as to appear more socially ‘valid’. With the digital age there have come digital
artists, who use tools such as photoshop to create works just as intricate and beautiful as
physical pieces, however, as this software became more accessible, less knowledge was
needed to edit digital photos. The power originally held only by painters was given to the public.
In 2013 the application Facetune was released:
“..if you are taking a picture of a human being and want to make that picture as close to perfect
as possible, Facetune is your best friend.” (Fuld, 2013)
Users were able to smooth their skin, whiten their teeth and take in their waists.

(Shamsian, 2019)

(Fuld, 2013)

The concept of perfect in itself is problematic and riddled with contradictions, but celebrities and
role models edit photos so consistently that they create an unrealistic standard for beauty. The
existence of this technology serves as motivation to seek unattainable perfection, a clear path to
body dysmorphia and an internal voice that is in a perpetual state of demoralizing comparison.
 (Shamsian, 2019) (Shamsian, 2019)

Photograph manipulation in modern media is more than common, more than standard, it is seen
by the distributors as a baseline necessity. When these alterations are so extreme that they are
no longer believable it calls into question what else in the image is not as it seems, what other
lies are we being fed? Both examples above include blatant impossibilities; the man on the left
is missing half a torso, and Oprah Winfrey (on the left of the right image) appears to have three
hands.
The social media Snapchat was released in 2011, and feature named ‘Lenses’ was added in
2015. This feature applied a filter to the camera that added to and changed portraits in real time.
Facebook alone currently has 2.9 billion active monthly users, 27% of the world's population
(Dean, 2022). This combination of curation and digital manipulation of our reality has led to the
creation of a separate one. A parallel universe, a work of fiction, a utopia that mirrors society as
it is and filters out, not the negative but the mundane. It creates a world that is superior to our
own, colours are brighter, people are more conventionally attractive, every moment has a clear
and obvious point that is easy to decode and thus holds value. It is very seldom that people post
on social media about paperwork or eating breakfast or vacuuming, because these moments,
although just as valid, are monotonous and unexciting. It is easy to get lost in this fabricated
reality, 1.9 billion people access Facebook daily, for many the online world is merged and
melded with the world outside their door, the illusion is so real and constant that mundane tasks
seem fruitless and worthless in comparison.
Through a more political lens: Capitalists exploit social media. Being lied to by large
corporations comes as no surprise, lying to ourselves also comes as no surprise but it is more
interesting to analyse.
‘Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as
narrowly as possible. (…) Today in the developed countries It is being achieved by imposing a
false standard of what is and what is not desirable.’ (Berger, 1972)
With the cameras ability to record an image as a foundation, social media puts both the curators
power of selection bias and the painters power of manipulation into the hands of the masses,
giving them the tempacity to make reality what they want it to be.

Bibliography:
Berger, J. (1972) Ways of seeing. London: BBC and Penguin.
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Crocker, S. (2020) The Truth About Queen Elizabeth I's Iconic Look [online]. Available from:
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January 2022).
Dean, B. (2022) How Many People Use Facebook In 2022? [online]. Available from:
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Oliver, I. (1601) Elizabeth I Rainbow Portrait. Hertfordshire: Hatfield House.
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