Ways of Seeing

Students of the department of Applied Photography and Time-Based Media investigate their own gaze, how it is informed by knowledge and beliefs, how it is distracted and corrupted by the hyperactivity of images themselves. Drawing from John Berger’s "Ways of Seeing" (1972), we explore the differences between seeing, looking, watching, observing, surveilling, and gazing, asking what remains invisible, and why. How do we engage in visual thinking? What role does imagination play in shaping and producing visual concepts? In the works, focus lays on seeing as an active practice—one that precede conception and production. Looking (again) as an essential tool for the photographic process and as a necessity to stay in touch with our present environment and conditions: IRL, in company, through our eyes and hands, physically and emotionally engaged, constituting what is present to us as we are. Studio 1 – frames Individual works coexist democratically with equal space. The collective presentation brings together different ways of looking and highlights how images influence each other. Studio 2 – dorm The installation explores on how we consume images—whether we find them or they find us—and how they shape our perception. Turning the space into a bedroom filled with screens, it reflects media use between attentive looking and passive scrolling. Salon – paperwork Publication of the outcome of the Exercises program