The article based on three movies discusses voyeurism in modern society and the problems behind this phenomenon, including alienation of urban life, surveillance on people’s privacy and gender inequality. Among these social issues, the existence of widespread cameras and systems of surveillance has been highly controversial. On the one hand, surveillance is efficient in finding criminals as well as recording the real situations when dangers happen. This function of cameras lead to a decrease in crime rate to some degree. For example, in Sliver, through video-surveillance system installed by Zeke, he have the chance to find out a girl being

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

The crux of the reading to me is power imbalance, whether it be voyeurism or ‘flaneurism.’ Throughout history, voyeurs adapt to yet more advanced means to observe their subjects, from binoculars, one-way mirrors, surveillance cameras, to the smart devices everyone possesses nowadays. Distance between the observer and the observed increases, from a visible distance (binoculars) to thousands of miles away (smartphones); yet the monitoring and documentation of one’s private life become more comprehensive than ever. The observed, by enjoying a higher degree of convenience, gradually surrender their last bits of privacy and security. Voyeurs become gods and their subjects are

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

After reading this essay, I began to think about the identity of voyeurs in our daily life. The author comes up with a different word, flaneur, to distinguish between these two idiosyncrasies. By taking voyeurs’ behaviors in different countries as examples, this essay expounds the behavior modes, personality characteristics and evolution process of voyeurs in films. The writing of the essay is also very clear, following a chronological sequence of the development of the voyeur. It shows the development of snooping devices from the man who peeks through binoculars in the movie to the current surveillance system. In today’s society,

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

After reading this text, I want to talk about my thoughts with respect to the real and reel. The real and reel complement each other. We can take the lens as an example of the reel. In the movie Rear Window, although the monitor behavior replaces most of the social life of Jeff with other neighbors, it also creates a new kind of connection between Jeff and others. Even though it’s only visual contact, they indeed facilitate interaction between people who might never be in touch, which also enables the rise in levels of social interaction. However, can we use

Continue readingReading response: Nezar Alsayyad

In the beginning, Nezar AlSayyad declared the concepts of voyeur and flaneur, then further discussed the “male gaze” with Elizabeth Wilson’s argument. To get a better understanding of this particular type of voyeurism, I tried to analyze films introduced in this reading from three perspectives of the male gaze: the man behind the camera, the male characters, and the male spectators. Zeke in Sliver (1993) viewed women through the video-surveillance system before making relationships and having sex with them, which shows that man as a character is in control of the action, and as a character, director and spectator consume

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

Viewing the city at the top from the highest point of the tallest skyscraper, buildings are no longer seen as “spaces” that surround us, but simply “places” as if a small lego block on a map for Gods. As much as it gives a comprehensive full picture of the city, it also hides the city’s dynamics. Without the people, architecture is but a hollow and empty shell of infrastructures. What gives a city its colors is not only its landscape, but what also lies inside such buildings. Through advancement in technology, movies bring viewers on a journey as both voyeurs

Continue readingReading Response: Michel De Certeau

The ubiquity of surveillance systems has deprived people of their privacy and empowered those who monitor them. In Rear Window, the neighbors’ rooms are in front of the protagonist Jeff’s apartment, all within Jeff’s sight. The semi-private architectural space exposes the relationship between the voyeur and the ones being watched. The voyeur is always in the dominant position and possesses a sense of control, while whose being observed remain unaware. This leads to ill-matched rights, which enables Jeff to discover a crime. This inequality of power is magnified in The End of Violence since voyeurism is not limited to individual

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad

This essay is titled Voyeuristic Modernity: the Lens, the Screen, and the City, which was written by Nezar AlSayyad in 2006. When viewing the writing method, the author mainly examines and exemplifies the character of the “voyeur” in the films. The essay can generally be divided into three sections–introductory part, analysis of three films, and the conclusion drawn from the former sections. The author presents a series of citations of people from different careers and nations, making the essay more persuasive. As I read beyond the writing form, I entirely agree with the statement that gaze can be served as a

Continue readingReading Response: Nezar AlSayyad