Abstract

The making of Micro-district II, a digital film made by the author in the edgelands of Tbilisi, Georgia, is used as a vehicle for exploring the tourist gaze and the observer’s paradox amongst ethnographic filmmaking methods and documentary modes of observation. The observer’s paradox describes how the receiver of the gaze may become influenced through the processes of being observed, altering the quality of observing ‘naturalistic’ events. The tourist gaze is a similarly two-way process where the pursuit of the authentic is negotiated or constructed according to the type of gaze encountered. Whilst this article is more about the observation of urban landscapes, architecture and street ephemera, than human subjects, the mode of observation and the gaze play a vital role in the author’s personalised accounts of ways of ‘avoiding the gaze’ and getting to what is perceived as filming an ‘authentic’ experience of the ex-soviet micro-districts of Tbilisi. Through a process of autoethnography the author examines ways of avoiding the tourist gaze including navigating the streets, filmmaking techniques and by experimenting with documentary styles of realism. Drawing on the field notes of the author/filmmaker, the problematic quest for the ‘authentic’ and ‘naturalistic’ experience of the tourist are discussed, in terms of the complex elements which determine the constructive gaze, with a conclusion that suggests the impossibility of avoiding the tourist gaze.

摘要

微区II的制作，作者在格鲁吉亚第比利斯边缘地带制作的一部数字电影，被用作探索游客目光和观察者在民族志电影制作方法和纪录片观察模式之间的悖论的工具。观察者的悖论描述了凝视的接受者如何通过被观察的过程受到影响，从而改变观察“自然主义”事件的质量。旅游者的凝视是一个类似的双向过程，在这个过程中，对真实性的追求是根据遇到的凝视类型协商或建构的。虽然这篇文章更多地是关于城市景观、建筑和街道蜉蝣的观察，而不是人类主体，观察和凝视的方式在作者对“避免凝视”和获得被认为是拍摄第比利斯前苏联微区“真实”体验的方法的个性化描述中起着至关重要的作用。通过自我民族志的过程，作者研究了避免游客注视的方法，包括在街道上航行、电影制作技术以及尝试现实主义的纪录片风格。根据作者/电影制作人的现场笔记，根据决定建设性凝视的复杂元素，讨论了对游客“真实”和“自然主义”体验的问题追求，结论表明不可能避开游客的目光。通过自我民族志的过程，作者研究了避免游客注视的方法，包括在街道上航行、电影制作技术以及尝试现实主义的纪录片风格。根据作者/电影制作人的现场笔记，根据决定建设性凝视的复杂元素，讨论了对游客“真实”和“自然主义”体验的问题追求，结论表明不可能避开游客的目光。通过自我民族志的过程，作者研究了避免游客注视的方法，包括在街道上航行、电影制作技术以及尝试现实主义的纪录片风格。根据作者/电影制作人的现场笔记，根据决定建设性凝视的复杂元素，讨论了对游客“真实”和“自然主义”体验的问题追求，结论表明不可能避开游客的目光。