In the first chapter of his book Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century, Jonathan Crary (1992) begins to shape for the reader the essence of the new vision and the formation of the modern subject. He notes that vision "had been taken out of the incorporeal relations of the camera obscura and relocated in the human body" and cites Foucault, who stated, "Our society is not one of spectacle but of surveillance...we are neither in the amphitheatre nor on the stage but in the Panoptic machine" (Crary, 1992, pp. 16, 17). These insights suggest that in the modern environment, the person no longer merely formulates vision as an exercise of the mind but recontextualizes it as part of himself. He is not on the outside of his vision but part and parcel of it. Formerly dependent upon his senses to tell him what he was seeing, he is now free from them and able to frame new points of reference that have nothing to do with the natural eye (Crary, 1992, p. 19). Thus, perception is no longer merely the visual seeing of an object, nor is it solely an inner awareness of it; it is instead a synthesis that incorporates both the visual and the awareness with who one is, what one does, how one feels, and what one is living. It is integral to the person.
Gergen (2000, p. 31) points out that the Bauhaus school of arts and crafts in 1920 created a rarefied environment for arts workers of every ilk, from architects to weavers, in which they could explore aesthetic design. He pointed out that what the Bauhaus anticipated from this amalgamation of art forms and artists was not a series of different styles but just one style-"an International Style" (Gergen, 2000, p. 31). Gergen's insight echoes that of Crary except that he is viewing the modern vision as a communally formed one that is a synthesis of multiple art styles producing a new, original style that is in a sense a composite of them all. Gergen's p...