La capacità visiva dello spettatore. Qualche riflessione sulla dimensione socioculturale del guardare

Abstract

The “visual capacity” of a spectator, of a subject in front of an image,
depends both on fisiological elements and on socio-cultural ones.
Starting from the idea of a “social costruction of the gaze”, discussed
by W.J.T. Mitchell, and proceeding with the well known assumptions
about the “period eye” by Michael Baxandall, this article will focus on
the comprehension of the decoding processes of an image by an historically
and culturally situated individual. Referring to this theoretical
basis, Noël Burch’s thoughts on the relation between the evolution of
representational codes (in the cinematic language in particular) and the
transformation of the reception resources of the spectator over the time
will be taken into consideration. Finally, we will use this methodological
approach to analyse the contemporary interaction between cinema and
new digital media, and to assess the ways in which the socio-cultural context
connects with the production and reception of these “new” images.