Perceiving Another World
Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. — Leonardo Divinci
In our everyday lives, the world moves hastily, making it tough to pause and study at the world around us. I was recently challenged to notice my surroundings. Leading me to become interconnected with the lights, shadows, and reflections of my daily enviroment.
My assignment was to observe the world through a camera obscura — an ancestor of the modern camera in which an exterior image is projected inside a box or dark room. I started with constructing my box. This “simple” task was the first moment I noticed something. As I am not someone who enjoys being technical, I built my camera hastily. It was later that I realized I could not distinguish anything but blurry spots of light. This dissatisfaction with the image led me to rebuild a camera that would allow me to correctly perceive the world. After all, an essential aspect of creativity is failure. As obvious as it seemed, I was now forced to obey my measurements, observe the lines drawn, and have precision within the lines to be cut. When I finally got an image from my hand made camera that was clear, happiness was witnessed by those around me.
This gave me the urge to take my camera off campus and observe the “real world.” So I sat in the passenger seat of my friend's car, seat all the way back, black jacket over my head, box camera in hand, with a cellphone squeezed close to me — capturing my car ride from San Marcos to Austin. I actually obtained some video footage of the car ride! I was drawn to this particular set up because this project is easier if the projected image is stationary. The observation of the car ride was really interesting. It really delivered a new perspective on the speediness within society that is forced upon us. We move so rapidly to reach a destination or goal, but often forget when we slow down we find a new perspective. Often allowing us to find the answers and empower growth from our failures. To live a creative life, you have to lose the fear of failing. I challenge you to observe the speed of your life when faced with situations of failure, and find ways to slow-down, observe, and grow from them.
