A visual interpretation of “The Ethnomethodology of Sightseers,” from The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class by Dean MacCannell using my photographs from Pisa as punctuation.
//For Anne West’s Thesis Writing Workshop, Fall 2007
Our movement through the world is comprised of a series of temporal transactions. Bound by time and space, our experience of place is fleeting and transitory. We travel between destinations near and far, guided by our memory, and that of those who have been there before us. The collection and distribution of physical objects such as souvenirs, photographs and ephemera, is an attempt to commemorate, record and prolong experience as we continually seek out the authentic.
Sightseeing is an attempt to understand and participate in that which is unknown or foreign. In fulfilling the desire to see for ourselves, we collectively influence the nature of places by virtue of our presence. Experience transforms into myth, which then serves to entice others to go see. The reality of place transforms as a result of, and in anticipation of visitors.
