kiji The Archaeology of Vision: Jonathan Crary’s “Techniques of the Observer”
Jonathan Crary's Techniques of the Observer is an archaeology of modern vision. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) The shift from the "camera obscura" model to an "embodied," subjective vision (e.g., afterimages); 2) How 19th-c. devices (stereoscope, zoetrope) trained the viewer's "attention" and "distraction"; 3) The disciplining of attention as a form of manageable labor; 4) How the modern gaze internalized the logic of commodity circulation. A foundational text for visual culture and the "attention economy."