The concept of voyeur and flaneur is discussed in this week’s tutorial.
In the first movie Rear window, the main character is more like a flaneur instead of voyeur in my opinion, because the relationship between the main character and his neighbors seems to be two-sided. When he peeks through the window to see what his neighbors are doing, the neighbors could also see him through the window. However, in the second movie Sliver, the owner of the building observes what the people in his building is doing through cameras. This is an unbalanced relationship cause the residents have no idea they are being observed. This makes the owner a voyeur.
This makes me wonder if we are being observed too in our daily life by some other people. There is plenty of news about the discovery of cameras in hotels or apartments. As technology develops, the cost of voyeurizing other people’s privacy is becoming less. Anyone can buy a pinhole camera to observe others. This kind of violation of the right of privacy should be stopped. Not only we ordinary people should be more careful, but also the government should take effort to stop this kind of movement.
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You have made a good summary of the reading. The understanding of surveillance is often two sides of a coin – violation of privacy or a means to protect and safeguard people and property.