How to Use Your Eyes

by James Elkins

James Elkins's How to Use Your Eyes invites us to look at--and maybe to see for the first time--the world around us, with breathtaking results. Here are the common artifacts of life, often misunderstood and largely ignored, brought into striking focus. With the discerning eye of a painter and the zeal of a detective, Elkins explores complicated things like mandalas, the periodic table, or a hieroglyph, remaking the world into a treasure box of observations--eccentric, ordinary, marvelous.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Philosophy, Science Nature

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 19, 2000

About the author

James Elkins (1955 – present) is an art historian and art critic. He is E.C. Chadbourne Chair of art history, theory, and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also coordinates the Stone Summer Theory Institute, a short term school on contemporary art history based at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

من توقع دیگه‌ای داشتم با توجه به اسم و مقدمه‌اش. برای من خیلی کاربردی نبود و هر فصل در حد یه سرچ کوتاه ویکیپدیا محتوا داشت. در کل چیزی نبود که من دنبالش بودم؛ هرچند چیزهای جالبی نوشته بود، ولی برای من کاربرد نداشت. اگر یکم با دید هنرمندانه‌تر یا شاعرانه‌تری نوشته می‌شد بیشتر ارتباط برقرار می‌کردم.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a series of short chapters, each talking about how to see the details in something we previously would have overlooked. For example, there are chapters on the cracks in paintings, on sand, on grass, on culverts. I had a 60-70% strike rate with chapters, most being found interesting but the occasional one resisting even my stubborn efforts to find delight in the subject matter. This book had the potential to really grab me, but it didn't and I am not sure why. I think it has something to do with everything being good but not great; the writing and the insights are what I'd expect, not exceptional. It seems strange to be disappointed by something that met expectations, but there we go. I'm an unsatisfiable trivia loon, go figure.

[Hassan Hekmat Ravesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

راستش بیشتر از اینکه درباره نگاه کردن باشه، درباره ساز و کار سوژه‌هایی بود که بهشون نگاه می‌کنیم. از اشیاء پیش پا‌افتاده‌ای مثل یک تمبر تا اقلام تاریخی و مهم. منتهی اینقدر روی جزئیات تخصصی (از نحوه قرارگیری و کارکرد تک‌تک چرخ دنده‌های یک چرخ ماسوره بگیر تا شمردن تعداد دنده‌ها از روی عکس اشعه x و اسم عضلات صورت و ...) ریز می‌شد که از یه جایی به بعد عطش خوندن بقیه مطلب از بین می‌رفت. برای همین به جای اینکه به هدف نویسنده یعنی تغییر نحوه نگرش ما به این سوژه‌ها منجر بشه، خواننده رو به خاطر حجم زیاد مطالبی که خیلی براش کاربردی ندارن سردرگم و کلافه می‌کنه.
این وسط مطالبی هم یاد گرفتم که شاید اگه این کتاب رو نمی‌خوندم هیچ‌وقت سراغشون نمی‌رفتم‌. برای همین به نظرم بهتره این کتاب رو گذاشت یک گوشه کتابخونه و هر از گاهی که دوست دارید مطلبی درباره موضوعاتی بخونید که در حالت عادی و در زندگی روزمره باهاشون برخوردی ندارید و حتی بهشون فکر نمی‌کنید، بهش رجوع کنید و چند صفحه‌اش رو بخونید.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is analyical not poetic, that was my problem with it. If you think like an engineer you will love this. If you think like a poet you will not. I did not care much for it, though for some readers I see its value.

[Iman · Rating 3 out of 5]

توضیح کوتاه How to use your eyes .در عنوان فرعی کتاب مقداری گمراه کننده است

[Hannah Geil-neufeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderful, but you really only have to read half of it and then you will want to stop reading and go out and use your eyes elsewhere.

[Sigrun Hodne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book, eye-opening ...

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

از پیش گفتار کتاب:

«چشم‌هایمان بیش از آنچه تصور می‌کنیم برای ما مفید هستند. حجم چیزهایی که به ما نشان می‌دهند به حدی است که نمی‌توانیم همهٔ آن‌ها را دریافت کنیم، بنابراین ما درواقع از دیدن بخش عظیمی از جهان محروم می‌مانیم و فقط سعی می‌کنیم که در همه چیز تا حد ممکن به‌گونه‌ای سریع و گذرا نظر افکنیم.

اگر لحظه‌ای بایستیم و با دقت بیشتری به اطراف نگاه کنیم، چه رخ می‌دهد؟ خواهید دید جهان مانند گلی، از هم شکفته شده و سرشار از رنگ‌ها و شکل‌هایی می‌شود که تا کنون به آن‌ها بی‌توجه بوده‌ایم.

بدون داشتن اطلاعاتی مختصر، بعضی چیزها را واقعاً نمی‌توان دید. من انتظار ندارم از مانیتورهای مرکز فرماندهی ناسا یا ابزار عجیبی که در مطب پزشک خود می‌بینم، سر درآورم. وانمود نمی‌کنم که می‌توانم بفهمم در داخل ساعت دیجیتالی‌ام یا ایستگاه برق نزدیک محل زندگی‌ام چه می‌گذرد. کتاب‌هایی هستند که می‌توانند برای فهم این مسائل به شما کمک کنند اما کتاب حاضر از آن دسته کتاب‌ها نیست. این کتاب به شما نمی‌گوید که چگونه یخچال خود را تعمیر کنید و یا بارکدها را بخوانید. یک کتاب راهنمای موزه هم نیست ــ به شما چیزی درباره‌ی نحوه‌ی درک آثار هنری، پیش‌بینی وضعیت آب و هوا، سیم‌کشی منازل و یا چگونگی ردیابی حیوانات در برف، نمی‌آموزد."

[MoYaL · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the name of the book suggests this book is to remind you the beauty of the wonderful world out there. There are so much detailed beauty in both the natural and artificial crafts and elements that we miss out and which get unnoticed through our lifetime.

The book basically comprises of a series of around 32 chapters divided into two sections viz: Man Made things and Natural things. The book have discussed about the patterns, the colors, the co-relation, the details, the craft and the artistry present in the various objects like paintings, special effects in videos, roads, butterflies, crystals, sunsets, culverts, grass, engineering drawings, sand , face, fingerprints etc.

The book is not a complete technical guide to understand the working of the mechanisms of the objects, it is just a reference to the observations and knowledge that the author had on the topics. The book is full of new insights into the wonderful creations that remain ignorant in our lives. The book will remind us that there is so much to learn and understand about the world around us.

[spiritual pudding]

great book, but i wouldnt recommend reading cover to cover as that can get quite overwhelming. id recommend only reading the intro then the chapters youre interested in and then the conclusion. if you wanna read more then you can but this way you also get a feel of the book.
it really captures the essence of things being more interesting than we give them credit for. it can have too much detail in some chapters so thats why id recommend not reading it cover to cover.
sometimes you should just look at a picture and let it speak to you, then to read the accompanying text.
overall i will be reading parts of this again just to remind myself that even common things can be wonderful to look at and id recommend it.

[Ketab Dozd · Rating 3 out of 5]

بالاخره به حول و قوه الهی این کتاب تموم شد. من دوستش نداشتم چون با توجه به اینکه نویسنده‌ش استاد دانشگاه هنر بود انتظار به قول بقیه یه چیز شاعرانه‌تر داشتم. این برام بیشتر شبیه یه کتاب اطلاعات عمومی راجع به چیزای مختلف بود که خیلیاش هم اصلا برام جذابیت نداشت. یه نفر هم اینجا اشاره درستی کرده بود که انگار داری ویکیپدیا میخونی‌. شاید چون تو سال چاپش هنوز ویکیپدیایی نبوده این براشون جالب بوده ولی در حال حاضر فقط واسه کسایی که از خوندن اطلاعات عمومی متفرقه لذت میبرن ممکنه جالب باشه و بنظرم حتی چندان به اسمش ربط نداره.

[Hubert]

Cool art book - teaches one how to look at details of muscles of the body, scripts of various languages, and other things like halos, sunsets, and leaves.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some chapters of this book were better than others, but overall it met my expectations. The author chose topics that interest him and spent 3-5 pages on each one explaining how to see them. Everything from butterfly wings to cracks in a painting to sunsets.

I do love the idea of knowing enough about something to really see it, and the author seems to have explored many things to this level of detail. Something I wish I had more time for. I find the more I know about something, the more fascinating the seeing of it, and so I will not look at a sunset or a butterfly wing in quite the same way again, and I've been walking around looking at twigs much more closely during this springtime season.

[Ali Kabiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب در باب مشاهده، بر خلاف بعضی از نظرات به خوبی ایده‌ نویسنده را بیان می‌کند که چطور معرفت به چیزی با دیدن، توامان می‌شود و می‌توان با کنکاش در اطلاعات نگاه دقیقی به ابژه داشت و علت و معلول آنچه را که می‌بینیم، درک کنیم. شیوه دیگر نویسنده که می‌شود دریافت کرد، این است که به هر چیز باید به فراخور خود آن نگاه کرد. که این شیوه درگرو همان دیدن و حلاجی اطلاعات و دانسته‌ها است.
این کتاب شاید بتواند حساسیت مشاهده‌گری را بالا ببرد و به همین سبب مثل ماده خام می‌ماند که مخاطب با آن تعامل می‌کند.
از خواندن این کتاب لذت بسیاری بردم، بی‌دغدغه در راستای زندگی قرار می‌گیرد. با آن کمتر فکر می‌کنیم و بیشتر مداقه.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book won't tell you how to repair your refrigerator or read bar codes. It's not a museum guide, either you won't learn how to understand fine art. And you won't learn how to predict the weather by looking at clouds, or how to wire a house, or how to track animals in the snow.
In short, this is not a reference tool. It's a book about learning to see anything, learning to use your eyes more concertedly and with more patience than we might ordinarily do. It's about stopping and taking the time simply to look, and keep looking, until the details of the world slowly reveal themselves.

[Harry Red · Rating 5 out of 5]

So-called 'vision' is highly relevant in every important decision we make. Not having clear vision - or having the same vision as everybody else - thus means you run the risk of making sub-optimal or simply stupid decisions.

That's the core of what I take away from this book - not some mental toolbox for thinking about art per se, but rather a way of looking at one's own perception and appreciation of subtlety.

Work through this book carefully - you may get bored at times, but you'll learn how to 'see' better.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an intriguing and entertaining book. I learned a lot about all kinds of odd things, like culverts and postage stamps. After a while the series of short essays starts to feel a bit repetitive in format, but individually they are quite interesting. It would make a great gift for any curious person.

[Michael Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a delightful book, good sober or stoned. Short esssys, full of images, by a wonderful teacher. What is a stamp? How does a culvert work? Why does asphalt crack the way it does? Elkins helps you see what you've already seen, but not always thought about.

[Hom Sack · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating book. Each of the 32 subjects discussed really requires more extensive study to be fully appreciated.