Everyone's a voyeur. Watching and being watched in the 21st century

Our gaze on the people, animals and things around us shapes our relationship to the world. Looking is being looked at and less obvious than it seems.

This book is about our visual relationship to things and to each other. In a playful essayistic way, ideas derived from the philosophy and psychology of looking are discussed. In a fascinating combination of anecdote and theory, the author dissects our viewing behavior in our direct environment, on the streets and squares of the city, while traveling and in virtual space. She also discusses the growing narcissism in our culture and the increasing need for surveillance (the watchful eye of the security camera). The book concludes with a penetrating discussion of the ethics of our looking at animals and strangers.

Ike Kamphof (1959) teaches philosophy at Maastricht University. She received her PhD in Leuven on the sublime and has previously published on art and the role of media and technology in care networks.