Journal #3

I think that the difference between looking and seeing is very interesting. This language is really something to think about. Seeing is actually a sense that we are born with. The sense of sight is a default sense. Looking is not something that we are born with. Looking is an act or an action. However, looking by definition in the dictionary means to look in the direction of something or just direct your gaze. Seeing on the other hand, by definition is to perceive and to discern. When you tell someone, “look at me when I talk to you.” What you mean is for the person to just stare in your direction. But when you ask someone,” do you really see me?” then you want a lot more than a look. You are asking them if they really know who you are and if they see you for who you really are. In this sense, the language seems somewhat contradictory and that is interesting to think about.
The show lie to me examines conventional codes of seeing by showing us what we don’t see and by giving us the chance to see the way Lightman sees. He has a heightened sense of seeing. The structure of the show and the director create this extremely heightened visual reality. First of all, when Lightman is trying to figure someone out, he looks for certain physical actions that people do subconsciously. We see them because we get a slow motion, blown up, zoomed in, close up view of the action that Lightman catches. For example when he is trying to figure out a crime, he may notice a small chin thrust, or wrinkle, or maybe a snarl. These little actions are ones that we normally don’t notice at all, nor do we think about them. This shows that Lightman sees things out of the ordinary and he breaks conventional codes of seeing. We also then think more about the way that we normally see, after watching this show. I also think it is very interesting that after showing an action, they often follow it up by cut scenes of famous people doing those same actions in various situations that we are aware of. Some of these people were past presidents Nixon, and Bush, and also celebrities like Jessica Simpson. This also ties in our ways of seeing because this relates what we see in the show to what we have seen in real life. We have seen these actions and interpreted them in their contexts of each situation.
The show is also very focused on fragmenting of the bigger picture, which is shown with the zooming in which I commented on earlier. It is also shown with the mapping and breaking down of faces, which is shown in all of Lightman’s studies, including the videos and the pictures on the wall of his office. Also since the show is primarily a mystery theme, it is about the bigger picture through theme because that is what we are trying to see since the beginning. We put all of the little parts together to see the bigger picture. This is very interesting to think about in conjunction with the way that we see things.