A modern observer is not a passive receiver of the external objects that meet the eye. A modern observer explores an internal way of perception that does not have to involve the object one is witnessing. In the eyes of the modern observer, the object can be completely irrelevant to his perception and it allows the observer to perceive things in an abstract manner. Rather than seeing things in terms of the fundamental models that have been given to the observer, the modern observer does not take into account any disciplinary models that was once crucial to his perception. 

Ruskin presents the idea of "the innocence of the eye" which is a form of childish perception that eliminates any conciousness of what the object may signify, he says "as a blind man would see them if suddenly gifted with sight" (quoted in Crary, 95). This portrays in some way the idea of a modern observer who has an innocent perception of the world around him. A sunset could be seen in a million different ways through the eyes of the modern observer.