{"id":5,"date":"2026-03-13T15:06:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/?p=5"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:28:56","slug":"chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/chapter\/chapter-1\/","title":{"raw":"How To See The Human Body, Jadi Darawi","rendered":"How To See The Human Body, Jadi Darawi"},"content":{"raw":"

Introduction<\/h1>\r\nJames Elkins and John Berger are two important figures in the field of Visual Culture. While Berger takes a broad approach to the field, giving an overview of Visual Culture and sight in his book, \u201cWays of Seeing,\u201d Elkins\u2019 book, \u201cHow to Use Your Eyes,\u201d is much more specific (Berger, Elkins). Elkins takes a very categorical approach, going in-depth on the topic of \u201chow to see\u201d a variety of things, both man-made and natural. In my study of Elkins\u2019 book, I particularly enjoyed his introduction to seeing. He contradicts the all-too-common instinct of humans to optimize aspects of our lives, and instead, encourages readers to slow down and consider the potential of what there is to see if we do so. In the spirit of Elkin\u2019s work, I will guide you through an exercise in seeing. I aim to apply this philosophy of slowed down observation to a specific subject \u2013 the human body \u2013 in order to achieve results that demonstrate the merit of this slowness.\r\n

Application<\/h2>\r\nIn order to see the body wholly, we must understand the quantity of change it goes through. Every movement of an arm or a leg, every blink of an eye. Over the course of our lives, our bodies grow and shrink in different areas, our hair changes texture and colour, our skin wrinkles, our bones shift, our muscles harden and soften. The sheer quantity of change a body undergoes can be overwhelming, and while much of that change is natural, there are also a variety of changes humans can make to their bodies and to each other\u2019s. In order to see the body, we must know that we are seeing only one iteration of millions that the body will take the shape of throughout its lifetime. Even within the span of a few seconds, the body has changed since we first saw it. This makes seeing the body different from seeing other, non-living things. Although it may make the gathering of quantitative data about bodies more challenging, this ever-changing nature of bodies makes seeing them all the more exciting. Because of the body\u2019s ephemeral nature, we have the opportunity to see a body at many points in time. We can see change happening before our eyes.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFigure I. The author in 2004.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFigure II. The author in 2025.\r\n\r\nOnce you have begun to grasp the impermanence of the body, you might then approach an individual human body and begin to observe it. It can actually be a hindrance to our seeing to look at a body that we are overly familiar with, because we may tend to skip over details or fill in the blanks with our minds, rather than seeing and remembering solely what is real. As such, I would recommend that you begin with a body that you do not know well. Now, this does not mean that consent should be foregone. Throughout the process of seeing, it is important to acknowledge the concept of consent and to remember that we may see people whether or not they want us to see them, in ways they may or may not want us to see them, and that our minds may extrapolate from our sight and make assumptions about the people we see.\r\n\r\nIf you have someone in your life who is willing to volunteer for this exercise \u2013 preferably not an immediate family member, a partner, or a close friend \u2013 that is an excellent starting point. If not, you may want to use an image of a human body, whether that be a photograph, drawing, or painting, in order to avoid staring at strangers in public. Public \u201cpeople-watching\u201d is an option, but it can be difficult to spend an extended amount of time looking at one person without them moving from your field of view, and if you are successful in this endeavour, the person you are watching may eventually realize that they are being watched in this way. Looking at a stranger for extended periods of time draws issues of consent once again, and so my recommendation is to find an image of a person to watch instead.\r\n\r\nAfter all these considerations, it is at last time to begin our exercise in seeing. The task is simple: to spend increasingly long amounts of time looking at a single human body, and to take notes on what you see. Begin with a period of only 30 seconds, then 60 seconds, then two minutes, then five minutes, then ten minutes. In between these periods of looking at the body, spend an equal amount of time writing down your observations. For example, you would begin with 30 seconds of looking at the body, followed by 30 seconds of writing, followed by 60 seconds of looking, 60 seconds of writing, and so on. Although I believe that ten minutes is enough time to grasp the point of the exercise, if you are feeling ambitious, you may wish to continue your seeing for longer periods of time \u2013 perhaps thirty minutes, or even an hour.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFigure III. Blank sample observation sheet.\r\n\r\nOnce you have completed your exercise, you may thank your participant and send them on their way. However, if your subject was a real person, and not merely an image, they may be interested to know the results of your exercise. You may even want to complete the entire exercise a second time in reverse, where you are the subject and the other person is observing you.\r\n\r\nI completed the exercise myself, but I would discourage you from looking at my observations until you have completed yours, so as to avoid impacting your results. I do not want to tell you what to see, but rather, give instructions for how to see. You can then use these techniques in your everyday life to see and experience any number of things.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFigure IV. Completed sample observation sheet.\r\n\r\nThe final step in learning how to see is the reflection on and application of our seeing. This is perhaps the most important step in the entire process of seeing. What did we learn from seeing? What do we do with these learnings? What does any of it matter? Can\u2019t we just see what we see and get on with life, already?\r\n\r\nAlthough these questions can easily become large and philosophical, far beyond the scope of a brief exercise, we will endeavour to answer them in simple terms by taking the same approach we took to seeing in our exercise: we will go slowly, and step by step. Learning to see is a slow process. If we approach seeing from a perspective of efficiency, with the goal of seeing and processing as much as we can in as little time as we can, we have missed the point entirely. This exercise in seeing is intended to slow you down. In a plain sense, you may already have come to the conclusion that when we spend more time looking at something, we will be able to see much more than we did initially. Even the simplest object \u2013 a paperclip, for example \u2013 has incredible detail that is missed when we give it only a passing glance. How much more so is this the case with something as complex, individual, and impermanent as the human body?\r\n\r\nBeyond this, however, I would encourage you to spend time reflecting on your observations. What did you see during the longer periods of time that you did not initially notice? Why do you think certain qualities of the body you observed stood out to you right away? What is more or less noticeable and why? Then, going further even than this tangible observation, we can begin to consider not just how we see a body, but how we perceive it.\r\n\r\nWere any of your observations not just related to tangible, visible qualities of the body, but observations that were influenced by your perception? For example, you may have observed that the body has brown eyes, curly hair, freckles, tattoos, or glasses. Barring the granular arguments that can be made about things like exact hair texture (what qualifies curliness as opposed to wariness or kinkiness, for example), these are objective observations. If ten people completed the same exercise of observation with the same human body, they would likely all observe that the subject had glasses. However, some observers might include in their notes that the subject looks smart. This is not something that was seen at all, but rather something that was influenced by the viewers\u2019 perception. It is an extrapolation of what was seen by the observer\u2019s mind, and is heavily influenced by past experience. Now, this was a fairly obvious example of the difference between observation and perception, but it is not always this black-and-white.\r\n\r\nYou might note in your observations that your subject has wrinkles on their forehead, a downturned mouth, a tattooed forearm, or prominent cheekbones. These are observations, things we can see, but they all shape our perception of a person. This becomes a growing phenomenon when you take into account the sheer number of people we might see in a single day. Especially for those living in urban areas, you might see hundreds or thousands of people at a time. What do we observe about them? How does our individual bias affect our perception? It is nearly impossible to separate what we see from how we perceive things, and especially people. I will not ask you to endeavour to separate the two, but rather to maintain an awareness of your own sight and perception.\r\n

Reflection<\/h2>\r\nThe exercise in seeing that I described is not an original one. It is actually a technique I learned from the field of Fine Arts that is used for life drawing. I took this approach and adapted it to create this exercise in seeing. I believe this approach applies well to the field of Visual Studies because, as Elkins notes in \u201cHow to Use Your Eyes,\u201d it requires the observer to slow down (Elkins). As difficult as patience may be in the age of the attention economy, this renders it all the more valuable. What a privilege it is that we are able to see at all, and what wonderful things we might be able to see if only we take the time to look for them.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nBibliography<\/strong>\r\n\r\nBerger, John. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. 1. publ. 1972 by\r\n\r\nBritish Broadcasting Corp. and 1977 by Penguin Books, British Broadcasting Corp, 1997. https:\/\/monoskop.org\/images\/9\/9e\/Berger_John_Ways_of_Seeing.pdf<\/a>\r\n\r\nElkins, James. How to Use Your Eyes. Taylor & Francis, 2008.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/monoskop.org\/images\/9\/92\/Elkins_James_How_to_Use_Your_Eyes_2000.pdf\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nImage Credits<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFigure I. The author in 2004. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographer unknown.\r\n\r\nFigure II. The author in 2025. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographed by Audrey Persaud.\r\n\r\nFigure III. Blank sample observation sheet. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographed by Jadi Darawi.\r\n\r\nFigure IV. Completed sample observation sheet. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographed by Jadi Darawi.","rendered":"

Introduction<\/h1>\n

James Elkins and John Berger are two important figures in the field of Visual Culture. While Berger takes a broad approach to the field, giving an overview of Visual Culture and sight in his book, \u201cWays of Seeing,\u201d Elkins\u2019 book, \u201cHow to Use Your Eyes,\u201d is much more specific (Berger, Elkins). Elkins takes a very categorical approach, going in-depth on the topic of \u201chow to see\u201d a variety of things, both man-made and natural. In my study of Elkins\u2019 book, I particularly enjoyed his introduction to seeing. He contradicts the all-too-common instinct of humans to optimize aspects of our lives, and instead, encourages readers to slow down and consider the potential of what there is to see if we do so. In the spirit of Elkin\u2019s work, I will guide you through an exercise in seeing. I aim to apply this philosophy of slowed down observation to a specific subject \u2013 the human body \u2013 in order to achieve results that demonstrate the merit of this slowness.<\/p>\n

Application<\/h2>\n

In order to see the body wholly, we must understand the quantity of change it goes through. Every movement of an arm or a leg, every blink of an eye. Over the course of our lives, our bodies grow and shrink in different areas, our hair changes texture and colour, our skin wrinkles, our bones shift, our muscles harden and soften. The sheer quantity of change a body undergoes can be overwhelming, and while much of that change is natural, there are also a variety of changes humans can make to their bodies and to each other\u2019s. In order to see the body, we must know that we are seeing only one iteration of millions that the body will take the shape of throughout its lifetime. Even within the span of a few seconds, the body has changed since we first saw it. This makes seeing the body different from seeing other, non-living things. Although it may make the gathering of quantitative data about bodies more challenging, this ever-changing nature of bodies makes seeing them all the more exciting. Because of the body\u2019s ephemeral nature, we have the opportunity to see a body at many points in time. We can see change happening before our eyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Figure I. The author in 2004.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Figure II. The author in 2025.<\/p>\n

Once you have begun to grasp the impermanence of the body, you might then approach an individual human body and begin to observe it. It can actually be a hindrance to our seeing to look at a body that we are overly familiar with, because we may tend to skip over details or fill in the blanks with our minds, rather than seeing and remembering solely what is real. As such, I would recommend that you begin with a body that you do not know well. Now, this does not mean that consent should be foregone. Throughout the process of seeing, it is important to acknowledge the concept of consent and to remember that we may see people whether or not they want us to see them, in ways they may or may not want us to see them, and that our minds may extrapolate from our sight and make assumptions about the people we see.<\/p>\n

If you have someone in your life who is willing to volunteer for this exercise \u2013 preferably not an immediate family member, a partner, or a close friend \u2013 that is an excellent starting point. If not, you may want to use an image of a human body, whether that be a photograph, drawing, or painting, in order to avoid staring at strangers in public. Public \u201cpeople-watching\u201d is an option, but it can be difficult to spend an extended amount of time looking at one person without them moving from your field of view, and if you are successful in this endeavour, the person you are watching may eventually realize that they are being watched in this way. Looking at a stranger for extended periods of time draws issues of consent once again, and so my recommendation is to find an image of a person to watch instead.<\/p>\n

After all these considerations, it is at last time to begin our exercise in seeing. The task is simple: to spend increasingly long amounts of time looking at a single human body, and to take notes on what you see. Begin with a period of only 30 seconds, then 60 seconds, then two minutes, then five minutes, then ten minutes. In between these periods of looking at the body, spend an equal amount of time writing down your observations. For example, you would begin with 30 seconds of looking at the body, followed by 30 seconds of writing, followed by 60 seconds of looking, 60 seconds of writing, and so on. Although I believe that ten minutes is enough time to grasp the point of the exercise, if you are feeling ambitious, you may wish to continue your seeing for longer periods of time \u2013 perhaps thirty minutes, or even an hour.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Figure III. Blank sample observation sheet.<\/p>\n

Once you have completed your exercise, you may thank your participant and send them on their way. However, if your subject was a real person, and not merely an image, they may be interested to know the results of your exercise. You may even want to complete the entire exercise a second time in reverse, where you are the subject and the other person is observing you.<\/p>\n

I completed the exercise myself, but I would discourage you from looking at my observations until you have completed yours, so as to avoid impacting your results. I do not want to tell you what to see, but rather, give instructions for how to see. You can then use these techniques in your everyday life to see and experience any number of things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Figure IV. Completed sample observation sheet.<\/p>\n

The final step in learning how to see is the reflection on and application of our seeing. This is perhaps the most important step in the entire process of seeing. What did we learn from seeing? What do we do with these learnings? What does any of it matter? Can\u2019t we just see what we see and get on with life, already?<\/p>\n

Although these questions can easily become large and philosophical, far beyond the scope of a brief exercise, we will endeavour to answer them in simple terms by taking the same approach we took to seeing in our exercise: we will go slowly, and step by step. Learning to see is a slow process. If we approach seeing from a perspective of efficiency, with the goal of seeing and processing as much as we can in as little time as we can, we have missed the point entirely. This exercise in seeing is intended to slow you down. In a plain sense, you may already have come to the conclusion that when we spend more time looking at something, we will be able to see much more than we did initially. Even the simplest object \u2013 a paperclip, for example \u2013 has incredible detail that is missed when we give it only a passing glance. How much more so is this the case with something as complex, individual, and impermanent as the human body?<\/p>\n

Beyond this, however, I would encourage you to spend time reflecting on your observations. What did you see during the longer periods of time that you did not initially notice? Why do you think certain qualities of the body you observed stood out to you right away? What is more or less noticeable and why? Then, going further even than this tangible observation, we can begin to consider not just how we see a body, but how we perceive it.<\/p>\n

Were any of your observations not just related to tangible, visible qualities of the body, but observations that were influenced by your perception? For example, you may have observed that the body has brown eyes, curly hair, freckles, tattoos, or glasses. Barring the granular arguments that can be made about things like exact hair texture (what qualifies curliness as opposed to wariness or kinkiness, for example), these are objective observations. If ten people completed the same exercise of observation with the same human body, they would likely all observe that the subject had glasses. However, some observers might include in their notes that the subject looks smart. This is not something that was seen at all, but rather something that was influenced by the viewers\u2019 perception. It is an extrapolation of what was seen by the observer\u2019s mind, and is heavily influenced by past experience. Now, this was a fairly obvious example of the difference between observation and perception, but it is not always this black-and-white.<\/p>\n

You might note in your observations that your subject has wrinkles on their forehead, a downturned mouth, a tattooed forearm, or prominent cheekbones. These are observations, things we can see, but they all shape our perception of a person. This becomes a growing phenomenon when you take into account the sheer number of people we might see in a single day. Especially for those living in urban areas, you might see hundreds or thousands of people at a time. What do we observe about them? How does our individual bias affect our perception? It is nearly impossible to separate what we see from how we perceive things, and especially people. I will not ask you to endeavour to separate the two, but rather to maintain an awareness of your own sight and perception.<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/h2>\n

The exercise in seeing that I described is not an original one. It is actually a technique I learned from the field of Fine Arts that is used for life drawing. I took this approach and adapted it to create this exercise in seeing. I believe this approach applies well to the field of Visual Studies because, as Elkins notes in \u201cHow to Use Your Eyes,\u201d it requires the observer to slow down (Elkins). As difficult as patience may be in the age of the attention economy, this renders it all the more valuable. What a privilege it is that we are able to see at all, and what wonderful things we might be able to see if only we take the time to look for them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. 1. publ. 1972 by<\/p>\n

British Broadcasting Corp. and 1977 by Penguin Books, British Broadcasting Corp, 1997. https:\/\/monoskop.org\/images\/9\/9e\/Berger_John_Ways_of_Seeing.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Elkins, James. How to Use Your Eyes. Taylor & Francis, 2008.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/monoskop.org\/images\/9\/92\/Elkins_James_How_to_Use_Your_Eyes_2000.pdf\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image Credits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Figure I. The author in 2004. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographer unknown.<\/p>\n

Figure II. The author in 2025. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographed by Audrey Persaud.<\/p>\n

Figure III. Blank sample observation sheet. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographed by Jadi Darawi.<\/p>\n

Figure IV. Completed sample observation sheet. Image provided by Jadi Darawi. Photographed by Jadi Darawi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-5","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-standard"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5\/revisions\/182"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}