ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concept of a transmedial gaze through an in-depth analysis of two documentaries and one feature film about art museums, respectively National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, 2014), The Great Museum (Johannes Holzhausen, 2014), and Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, 2012). The chapter argues that, in their sensitivity to the relay of gazes, these three films eminently capture the complexities of a transmedial mode of looking. As viewers, we are observing museumgoers looking at paintings that are themselves embroiled in acts of looking. The framing of the visual world of the gallery by the film camera adds an additional layer of mediation to this image ecology and also foregrounds the act of looking as a social practice.
