I have begun collecting photographs that help to demonstrate the way people experience the world--photos from blind photographers, as well as photos OF people experiencing the physical world. I was reading an article about Steve Jobs earlier today, as the author explored his thoughts on the accessibility of information online--he writes: "'I have given it all away': all our numbers, all our details, all our quirks and secrets and searches, and even our dreams, and we will stand naked. The computer that allowed us to stare in wonder at the world has allowed the world to stare pitilessly back at us." I want to explore this concept of "staring in wonder"...I'm still thinking.
Thoughts about how to explore this?
What I find most interesting in your post is the question of experience vs. perception. I'm loving this idea of staring in wonder. Something that may relate to your exploration is John Berger's Ways of Seeing. There's also a BBC mini-series, translated from the book.
ReplyDelete"The convention of perspective, which is unique to European art and which was first established in the early Renaissance, centers everything on the eye of the beholder. It is like a beam from a lighthouse–only instead of light traveling outwards, appearances travel in. The conventions called those appearances reality. Perspective makes the single eye the centre of the visible world. Everything converges on to the eye as to the vanishing point of infinity. The visible world is arranged for the spectator as the Universe was once thought to be arranged for God."