Goffman Reader- Frame Analysis

The analogy of the windowpane reveals the role of a frame as the marker of a place where a medium (and/or a message) can operate, and therefore constitutes a transition from the composition of the frame and its filler to the manifestations of their interrelationship. In his Questions of Cinema , Stephen Heath purports that "the pane is at once a frame, the frame of a window, and a screen, the area of projection on which what is seen can be traced and fixed." (Heath 34) [see screen, (2)] The frame fulfills Heidegger's idea of a clearing, a blank space where the artist can extend his own body and mind onto a two-dimensional surface [1] . The art of framing itself has historically had a rich and influential role in artistic and curatorial endeavors. The physical frame was a late development in art, gaining popularity during and after the Renaissance in Europe. While not only signifying the piece as a luxury item, in the case of gilt framing, the easel and frame are certainly influential over the act of image-reading. It mediates the spectatorship experience, "enclosing and focusing the viewer's gaze onto the scene which unfolds within its boundaries. Such a device places the frame within the space of the viewer and marks the point where 'real space' ends and represented space begins." (Carter 73) [see reality/hyperreality, (2)] This evolution makes it clear that the frame can be an actual material part of an artwork, and therefore should be foregrounded as content, under Clement Greenberg's definition of the avant garde .