Ways Of Seeing made me very curious as to the impact of context on media. Berger's focus on the context in which we perceive media led to a very interesting trail of thought in my mind. Berger's work on context with paintings can be extended onto any form of media in fascinating ways.
A great example of this is the popular television show Arrested Development. It's known for running jokes, inside information, and constant celebrity cameos. The continuity of the program is perhaps the most vital aspect of enjoyment. In it's original run on Fox, it didn't do well for good reason – the common person couldn't keep up with the brilliance of the show at only one episode a week, and god forbid someone missed an episode. When the show was released on DVD, it suddenly had a surge in popularity, and why? The context changed. It was no longer a story that needed a season's commitment, it became a trilogy of seven hour films. This was much more digestible for the common person. When the fourth season premiered on Netflix, it used it's new medium as a reason to become even more reliant on viewer memory and continuity.
Another media problem solved by new contexts is the historical enviroment of the viewer. Jim Henson's Cube was underappriciated as a primetime film in the late sixties, but when it became a fifty minute YouTube video, it suddenly was seen through the eyes of a generation that understood it's messages about reality and perception. Cube was once seen as a stoner film, and now appears to be a narrative tackling of communications theories on perception.
