Gaze

Gaze means "to look steadily, intently, and with fixed attention."

In one sense, it is a term popularized by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan for the anxious state that comes with the awareness that one can be viewed. The psychological effect, Lacan argues, is that the subject loses a degree of autonomy upon realizing that he or she is a visible object. This concept is bound with his theory of the mirror stage, in which a child encountering a mirror realizes that he or she has an external appearance. Lacan suggests that this gaze effect can similarly be produced by any conceivable object such as a chair or a television screen. This is not to say that the object behaves optically as a mirror; instead it means that the awareness of any object can induce an awareness of also being an object.

It has also been called an aspect of one of the "most powerful human forces"; that is, "the meeting of the face and the gaze" because "Only there do we exist for one another."

History of the Lacan concept

Numerous existentialists and phenomenologists have addressed the concept of gaze beginning with Jean-Paul Sartre.Foucault elaborated on gaze to illustrate a particular dynamic in power relations and disciplinary mechanisms in his Discipline and Punish. Derrida also elaborated on the relations of animals and humans via the gaze in The Animal That Therefore I Am. The concept of a male gaze was originally theorized by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, and has since been applied to many other forms of media and technology, such as advertisements, the work space, and video games.

The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins (alternately known as simply Smashing Pumpkins) is an American alternative rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1988. Formed by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar) and James Iha (guitar), the band included D'arcy Wretzky (bass guitar) and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums) in its original incarnation. It has undergone many line-up changes over the course of its existence, with the current lineup including Corgan, rhythm guitarist Jeff Schroeder and Chamberlin.

Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, the Pumpkins have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal,dream pop, psychedelic rock,progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter—his grand musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land".

The Everlasting Gaze

"The Everlasting Gaze" is a song written by Billy Corgan and recorded by The Smashing Pumpkins. It is the opening track from the band's 2000 album Machina/The Machines of God. The song was released as the lead North American single on December 9, 1999. It was also originally going to be released internationally on January 2000 but despite the heavy rotation of the Jonas Åkerlund-directed music video, it was rejected in favor of "Stand Inside Your Love".

Song information

The unique guitar sound in the song was achieved by using a small Crate practice amp. Corgan has said that this song "has a lot to do with spirituality and trying to find my place in the universe and sort of humbly accepting limitations and the things I've been graced with. It's more of a humanistic world view. I'm not writing anymore for the tortured teen—both me and whoever was listening. I'm writing with the idea that everybody's experiencing these things all the time, and even if they're not experiencing them personally, they're affected by them. You can live in the street and write about the garbage, or you can try to get up a little higher and look down and try to see the bigger picture."

The Everlasting

The Everlasting may refer to: