"I do not know who it is I am."
I touched upon this in a previous entry, but my thoughts on the subject have evolved a bit. Giving credit where it's due, it came about because of some class discussions, readings, etc. My place in the world. Not just that; one's place in the world.
There is a difference between seeing and watching, which is similar to the difference between seeming and being. Does that make sense? Let me explain my silly self.
So we exist in this construct, which is constantly changing. With the notions of mass media, information at the speed of thought, virtual reality, and sensory overload, we are beginning to live within a sort of hyperreality. We watch but we don't see because we allow vision to become common sense. We watch, passively, what it is we are expected to look at. We have been trained to view reality essentially to discern what things are, a method of instrumental thinking, which allows us to classify and categorize. Perhaps a more compelling idea is to see things in terms of how they exist in the world. A sunset becomes merely a sunset, a phase, that is subsumed into expectation, the sort of "background vision" I discussed earlier. Once again it is seductive because it is easy, but the everyday (this new hyperreality) ultimately becomes false consciousness. Adulterated by velocity and acceleration, it is a way of existing that denies us the most fundamental: the humanity of who we are.
I understand now the fittingly abstract and seemingly paradoxical claim that in order to find truth in art, one must learn to become enigmatic. It forces active viewership, which is necessary because the quest for truth is a personal one, not unrelated to the quest for self-actualization. I'm getting stupid and slightly spiritual, but stay with me. I've been told that Martin Heidegger was aware of the regression of the relationship between self and the world and called for combat. It's the idea that we must constantly fight this alluring hyperreality to not become utterly anaesthetized by it. We have to experience struggle and drudgery to appreciate. That is our nature. Without the toil and the pangs and all that we cannot begin to be enraptured and fascinated.
I must learn to see and think differently. To see the world at a dutch-angle, or to see the space between myself and objects, instead of merely the objects themselves. This is perhaps the release I need. I need to stop merely existing and begin to see the world like a newborn: through new eyes and with vivacious, uncontrollable curiousity. I have to cast away assumption, bias and judgment and be and see again.
And I want that everyday until I die.
I've lost it, I know.
There is a difference between seeing and watching, which is similar to the difference between seeming and being. Does that make sense? Let me explain my silly self.
So we exist in this construct, which is constantly changing. With the notions of mass media, information at the speed of thought, virtual reality, and sensory overload, we are beginning to live within a sort of hyperreality. We watch but we don't see because we allow vision to become common sense. We watch, passively, what it is we are expected to look at. We have been trained to view reality essentially to discern what things are, a method of instrumental thinking, which allows us to classify and categorize. Perhaps a more compelling idea is to see things in terms of how they exist in the world. A sunset becomes merely a sunset, a phase, that is subsumed into expectation, the sort of "background vision" I discussed earlier. Once again it is seductive because it is easy, but the everyday (this new hyperreality) ultimately becomes false consciousness. Adulterated by velocity and acceleration, it is a way of existing that denies us the most fundamental: the humanity of who we are.
I understand now the fittingly abstract and seemingly paradoxical claim that in order to find truth in art, one must learn to become enigmatic. It forces active viewership, which is necessary because the quest for truth is a personal one, not unrelated to the quest for self-actualization. I'm getting stupid and slightly spiritual, but stay with me. I've been told that Martin Heidegger was aware of the regression of the relationship between self and the world and called for combat. It's the idea that we must constantly fight this alluring hyperreality to not become utterly anaesthetized by it. We have to experience struggle and drudgery to appreciate. That is our nature. Without the toil and the pangs and all that we cannot begin to be enraptured and fascinated.
I must learn to see and think differently. To see the world at a dutch-angle, or to see the space between myself and objects, instead of merely the objects themselves. This is perhaps the release I need. I need to stop merely existing and begin to see the world like a newborn: through new eyes and with vivacious, uncontrollable curiousity. I have to cast away assumption, bias and judgment and be and see again.
And I want that everyday until I die.
I've lost it, I know.