Evaluation - do artists care what people think?

I've just met with Naomi Clements - a PhD Candidate studying evaluation at the University of Southampton - to discuss how to evaluate my next exhibition at the Special Collections Gallery in the Hartley Library at the University of Southampton this coming September.  She suggested I write a chapter on whether art is for the artist, or the viewer. 

We discussed visitor profiles - do I care whether my audience are male or female?  Naomi suggested I read Laura Mulvey's essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, written in 1973 to consider 'The Male Gaze' and to re-read the poem "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892).  

There are a number of images/paintings and references to people looking at the world through mirrors which would be relevant to my chapter on psychological space in holography. Martin Richardson's Atomic Love, February 2009 shown below.  http://www.jrholocollection.com/gallery/feb2009/images/AtomicLove.jpg [Accessed 01.01.2015].

 'Woman with Binoculars', 1866, Oil painting, E.Degas.  The use of optics extends the picture plane into the space of the viewer.  Degas was interested in the act of looking.   from http://artkritique.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/on-degas-at-nga.html. [Accessed 01.01.2015]

What do the paintings above and below say about 'The Female Gaze'? Is the use of optical devices at all empowering - or is the most important element in this image still the (supposed) male viewer?

Ruben's Venus at her mirror from http://fr.wahooart.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-5ZKDZH/$File/Peter%20Paul%20Rubens%20-%20Venus%20at%20a%20Mirror%20.JPG. [Accessed 01.01.2015].

Hum, I wonder what the myth of Medusa is all about?

Transfer approved

After a six month process my Application to Transfer from study for an MPhil to a Doctor of Philosophy at De Montfort was finally approved. 17 April 2014.  Hurray!