Encounters with the other: Imagining the hospitable tourist gaze

Todd, Louise

Abstract

As an artists and academic researcher my artwork invites viewers to encounter ‘the other’ (Levinas, 1986) by reflecting upon hospitality in the context of the tourist gaze. Much tourism research is concerned with the ocular nature of tourism and the tourist gaze thesis (Urry & Larsen, 2011). In this setting, the visual practices and performances of tourists, as ‘the other’, co-create an intersection of gazes (Lutz & Collins, 1991; Crang, 1997). At present, our understanding of the tourist gaze is therefore underpinned by photographic practices of tourists themselves, and those performed in tourism settings (Ekici Cilkin & Cizel, 2021). Despite the tourist gaze being of interest across disciplines, it has not been explored through arts-based research. As a transdisciplinary approach using creative arts in research contexts, arts-based research uses the artistic process as a way of understanding (McNiff, 2008; Leavy 2020). My approach involves visual art practices of drawing and painting. I portray and reflect encounters with ‘the other’, both within embodied tourism contexts, and through tourists’ photography as source materials. This exhibition includes a recent series of work that invites the viewer to reflect upon and imagine the hospitable tourist gaze as they encounter ‘the other’ in the form of visual art.

• Exhibition Performance Type: Exhibition
• Start Date: May 31, 2023
• End Date: May 31, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 7, 2023
• Related Public URLs: https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/our-schools/the-business-school/our-research/tourism-research-centre/events/cfp-mobile-world