EJMDCS · Volume 1 · Issue 2 · 2026

THE DISTANCE OF THE GAZE, SEEING WITHOUT POSSESSION: VOYEURISM AS A TRANSMEDIAL STRUCTURE OF VISUAL EXPERIENCE. FROM KIEŚLOWSKI TO NEWTON AND MANARA, WITH TITIAN AND RODIN IN BETWEEN

Abstract

Through a qualitative and comparative analysis, this research investigates five case studies across different media: Kieślowski’s Dekalog VI (cinema), Titian’s Venus of Urbino (painting), Rodin’s The Kiss (sculpture), Helmut Newton’s photography, and Milo Manara’s comics. The study demonstrates that voyeurism operates as a constant relational structure between observer and observed, while its ethical and cultural implications vary depending on the medium and its dispositif. Drawing on theoretical contributions from visual culture and media studies, particularly the concepts of threshold, immersion/emersion, narrative positioning, spreadability and drillability, the article argues that voyeurism functions as an independent variable shaping the spectator’s position within mediated environments. In contemporary digital culture, where images circulate across platforms and audiences actively re-appropriate and redistribute content, voyeuristic asymmetry may transform into participatory symmetry.

Keywords

Voyeurism Visual Culture Transmedia Cultural Sociology Framing Sociology of Media

How to cite

Jantus Lordi de Sobremonte, A. G. (2026). “The Distance of the Gaze, Seeing Without Possession: Voyeurism as a Transmedial Structure of Visual Experience. From Kieślowski to Newton and Manara, with Titian and Rodin in Between”. European Journal of Media and Digital Communication Studies, 1(2), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.66431/m3d14/b4n8wq2z7k6x3p .

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