A Study On Jonathan Crary’s Visual Modernity

Visual modernity is an emerging dimension in the field of visual art and cultural research today,mainly referring to the confirmation of cultural and aesthetic modernity through the study of visual art and the examination of the history of media evolution.In the British and American academic community,research on visual modernity mainly focuses on fields such as film,media practice,mass communication,and painting art,with distinct cultural criticism characteristics and interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives.The visual theory of American scholar Jonathan Crary(1951-)is currently an important theoretical resource for the study of visual modernity in both China and the West.Although visual modernity has not yet formed a clear theoretical system,Jonathan Crary is still recognized as the core theorist in the discourse system of visual modernity theory.Jonathan Crary,who came from a background as an art historian,has a broad academic perspective and extensively delved into various fields such as19th-century European art history,visual culture,and media technology.Jonathan Crary has published four academic monographs,namely Techniques of the Observer:On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century(hereinafter referred to as Techniques of the Observer),Suspensions of Perception: Attention,Spectacle and Modern Culture(hereinafter referred to as Suspensions of Perception),24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep(hereinafter referred to as 24/7)and Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World(hereinafter referred to as Scorched Earth).The above four monographs collectively constitute the basic system of Jonathan Crary’s visual theory,and also clearly present Jonathan Crary’s internal logic from the perspective of art and technology analysis,that is,from the research perspective of art history and media evolution history to the criticism of mass culture in the late capitalist society of the West.This article takes Jonathan Crary’s four academic works as the main research object,and based on a systematic review of his visual culture theory,clarifies the inherent logic of visual modernity in Jonathan Crary’s academic research over the past thirty years.In the 1990 s,he mainly focused on the era of developed capitalism in Europe from the 19 th to the 20 th century,using the paradigm of observation and attention to examine the modern spectrum of human perception,and exploring the modern evolution of aesthetic experience from the perspectives of art and technology.After the 21 st century,he launched a sharp critique of the late capitalist cultural logic and popular culture,combining visual archaeology inherent in art history with dialectical modernity criticism.The study of modernity theory has a long academic history in the West,and the biggest feature of Jonathan Crary’s study of visual modernity is not to derive modernity from abstract concepts,but to analyze the occurrence,aesthetic experience transformation,and subject construction of visual modernity from the perspectives of art history and media technology archaeology,expanding the perspective of visual culture research.His theory involves philosophy,visual perception aesthetics Various fields such as art history present a broad perspective of interdisciplinary integration.This paper will summarize and extract Jonathan Crary’s theoretical construction path and main viewpoints on visual modernity,highlighting his contribution to contemporary visual modernity theory.At the same time,the paper also restores Jonathan Crary’s theory to the macro context of Western aesthetics,art history,cultural criticism,and other theoretical systems,highlighting the unique value of his visual modernity theory from the study of visual perception art experience to the criticism of late capitalist social culture,especially popular culture.This paper consists of the introduction,three chapters and the conclusion,totaling five parts.The introduction section lays the foundation for the discussion of the entire text.Firstly,the origin and significance of the topic selection of the paper are pointed out,and the main logic and content of Jonathan Crary’s four works are systematically reviewed.Then,the core terms of the text,"modernity" and "visual modernity," are explained.Finally,relevant research at home and abroad is systematically reviewed to clarify the main research methods and key and difficult points of the paper.The first chapter is Jonathan Crary’s Genealogy of Visual Modernity.This chapter is a diachronic investigation of the internal logic of Jonathan Crary’s academic research in the past 30 years.From two aspects of visual paradigm and attention,it presents the research process of his visual modernity theory on the observation and aesthetic experience of the 17 th century to the 20 th century.The second chapter is Technical and Artistic Dimensions of Visual Modernity.This chapter mainly presents Jonathan Crary’s modern critical path of modern culture,Spectacle and capitalist mass culture from the dimensions of technology and art.By introducing Western sociologist Anthony Giddens’ understanding of the institutional dimension of modernity,and differentiating modernity as a cultural and aesthetic concept,this paper highlights the uniqueness of Jonathan Crary’s critical practice of visual modernity,that is,by investigating the technological and art historical dimensions,exploring the visual perception basis of the formation of mass culture,to construct a theoretical system.The third chapter is The Subjective Modernity of Jonathan Crary.This chapter focuses on Jonathan Crary’s concern for "human" as the subject and his criticism of technological monopoly in post-industrial society.By analyzing his archaeological and genealogical examination of modern subjects,it is believed that what he has always adhered to is the non-prior nature of the subject,and it is clear that the reason for his outline of the evolution of perception patterns from the 17 th to the 19 th century to contemporary times is to reveal the complex technological and cultural situation in which modern subjects are exposed,and his theory demonstrates humanistic care.The conclusion once again summarizes the internal logic of Jonathan Crary’s research on visual modernity,affirms its research significance and value,and proposes prospects for the practical significance of his theory based on the current changes in media and perception.