For an introduction to this post see introduction to post no. 70
3. Do you think that an audience can become desensitised to images, such as those used in the banner, through repeated or prolonged viewings?
This is a very interesting question but one that it is extremely difficult to answer without really carrying out some kind of controlled research project with audiences. I wouldn’t want to speculate on this at all. I think we all talk a lot about how we have become desensitised to images because of how we are bombarded by so many visual signs every day. I think it really depends on what the image is and how we look at it. Also, of course, and crucially, on the context in which the images are presented to us. I can now look at the Hirschhorn images quite easily compared with how it was when I first stood before the banner. But I wouldn’t call this ease desensitisation. I was thinking the other week about how I think I am now less afraid of dying a violent death because I have looked this (indirectly, very indirectly of course) in the eye, so to speak. But maybe this decrease in fear is as a result of an intensification of sensitivity to the images. Maybe my body has adjusted its ability to consider its own potential differently? Even if I say the question about whether an audience can become desensitised can’t be answered, I have to admit that it’s a really interesting question to speculate upon because the increased ability to look could have such different reasons depending on whose looking one is talking about.
