What makes an observer modern; Clare
To observe is to perceive; to use our senses to distinguish and interpret our environment (TAG). A modern observer expands this idea one step further by examining how we perceive, the physiological and physical ways in which we can observe our surroundings. This can include anything from the movement of an eyelid to the projection of the rays of light entering our sight. This means that our perception is rooted in reality, in the properties of the objects surrounding us and in the limits of our bodies. Without a tangible stimulus and a physical reaction to them, observation is not possible.
As Crary states this concept is a "reversal of the classical model of the apparatus as a neutral device"(p.72, Techniques of the Observer) - that what we observe affects the way in which we observe it - because "the viewer's sensory organs and their activity now are inextricably mixed with whatever object they behold" (p. 72, Techniques of the Observer). There is a relationship between the stimulus and the sensation, what we 'observe' is partly based in what is there to be perceived and partly due to the way we physically see it. The way we see can be defective at times, such as when our perception of color is altered by fatigue. This means that it is not just our personal perceptions which alter the way we see things, based on memories and past experiences, but there is a physical reason for the way we see things as we do.
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