There's something about shadows because you make your own mind up about what's lurking in them.
Richard O'Brien
*********************
Hello Stuart
*********************
Here are four interesting tales about shadows.
In early days philosophers were also mathematicians. The ancient Greek Thales was one of those. He took on the task of determining the height of the great pyramid of Egypt. Because he was a thinker he used a very simple method. He put a staff in the ground and measured its shadow. At the same moment he measured the pyramid's shadow. Just as the pyramid's shadow was so many times the staff's shadow so the pyramid was so many times the height of the staff.
I knew a photographer in New York who once mounted an exhibit of photos which she called self portraits. Intrigued, I went to see it. She had photographed her shadow, up against a wall, on the sidewalk, along a fence. on the grass and various other places. They were fascinating pictures because you wanted to know who the person was that was casting the shadow.
Another photograph I saw in a magazine was of a herd of large animals running across a field. They were clearly very big dark colored beasts in a small herd. But next to each of them was a strange thin wedge of block stripes. Each of these animals had seemingly attached to their sides that streak of black stripes. I stared at the picture for a while and then realized the photograph was taken from directly overhead at dawn or dusk when the sun was low, the stripes were in fact the necks and backs of zebras and the large dark beasts were their shadows.
In another magazine I read about two physicists who were working on an experiment trying to make a solid object so transparent that it would seem to disappear. The worked on the principle of deflecting light rays away from the object on the basis of the inability to see something which does not reflect light. Although the room was lit the object did indeed become transparent. Though it didn't disappear, it become such that they could see thorough it. It almost disappeared. But they noted that the experiment had no effect whatsoever on the object's shadow. That was just as dark as when they started.
He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty.
Please check out my newest journal, Hands of the Vagabond at http://vagabondhand.blogspot.com/
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
************************
Showing posts with label shadows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shadows. Show all posts
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Light The Lights
Do we stand in our own light wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
***********************
"I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see."
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
Years ago I knew a photographer who told me one day that she had mounted an exhibit of her pictures at a photography gallery in lower Manhattan, and that they were self portraits. I thought that was intriguing so I went down to see it.
It was a nice big gallery with some beautiful pictures. In one large room there were films and videos. One of the videos consisted of people cavorting around in very active and suggestive ways. But the video screen was very small. I went over to it to see what they were doing and as soon as I stepped up to the screen the image changed to a very lonely scene. I shrugged and walked away, and as soon as I did the original scene returned. So I stepped back and again the video changed to the lonely scene. It seems there was a switch which would change the video whenever anyone came close to the screen.
In another room there was a very large print of a photo taken with a camera obscura. That's a technique in which one frame of film is exposed over a period of time. In this case the film was in a box with a pin point lens using ambient light. And what the artist had done was to set up nine chairs in a row and put a model in each one of them. Every ten minutes, from one end or the other one of the models would get up and leave. At the end of ninety minutes the only model remaining was the one in the center. The resulting photograph showed her, very clearly, and those on either side of her gradually becoming transparent as your eye moved along the surface of the picture.
Finally I found my friend's self portraits. What she had done was to go all over the city on a sunny day and take pictures of her shadow, on the sidewalks, on the grass, up against a wall and so on.
I could have said "Hm" and left the exhibit simply having spent an entertaining two hours. But those three exhibits, the changing videos, the slowly disappearing models and the shadows, all pointed toward the same thing and I had to think about it.
There's an existential carpet there. But is it a magic carpet, does it fly or is it only to sweep confusing hair balls of thinking under. "Cogito ergo sum." I once knew a philosopher who paraphrased that Cartesian axiom by saying, I think therefore I am, I think. Carefully setting under the carpet for today the possibility that I may not exist in the form in which I think I do, is the fact that I am a thinking creature irrefutable evidence that I exist? It can be a fearful thing to face one's own thinking if it is honestly and conscientiously done. Where do my thoughts come from? Are they a product of the passionate love affair between imagination and reason, are they the product of some phylogenic process, are they the intellectual merchandise of some tyrannical brain seeding, are they (heaven forbid) mental weeds which grow out of nature's chaos to fill a vacuum? How many of the thoughts that twirl and bounce around in my head like a bunch of lottery balls can I claim to be my own. The fewer of those there are the more transparent I have become and the earlier I have quit the scene.
What is the reluctance we have for facing the clear light of reality? Is it fear, indifference or ignorance? It doesn't hurt to turn one's attention to ideas and experiences greater than one's own. It shouldn't hurt to explore the open fields and mountain tops of one's own thinking. Why then do we habitually look away from the light and define ourselves by our own shadows when we could let ourselves be defined by the brightness that is hiding in us like a prehistoric creature in a cave?
I grew up in a threadbare family; no father, a difficult and demanding mother, a brother and sister who were a whole decade and more older than I. I suffered a great lack of the feelings and experiences of a family life. Hence I tried to make a family out of whatever theatre company I was with. I tried thinking of them as my fathers and mothers, my sisters and brothers and, eventually, my sons and daughters. Of course it didn't work. They all had families somewhere, and other lives. When I retired it was my destiny to live alone and lonely. But it was also the time to start learning about, understanding and appreciating myself. The party is going on, the games are being played and the crowd may be fun to be with, but you won't find yourself there. You will find yourself in the vast, bright, mysterious, secret and sacred cathedral of your own mind.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
14 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
And fight our own shadows forever?
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
***********************
"I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see."
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
Years ago I knew a photographer who told me one day that she had mounted an exhibit of her pictures at a photography gallery in lower Manhattan, and that they were self portraits. I thought that was intriguing so I went down to see it.
It was a nice big gallery with some beautiful pictures. In one large room there were films and videos. One of the videos consisted of people cavorting around in very active and suggestive ways. But the video screen was very small. I went over to it to see what they were doing and as soon as I stepped up to the screen the image changed to a very lonely scene. I shrugged and walked away, and as soon as I did the original scene returned. So I stepped back and again the video changed to the lonely scene. It seems there was a switch which would change the video whenever anyone came close to the screen.
In another room there was a very large print of a photo taken with a camera obscura. That's a technique in which one frame of film is exposed over a period of time. In this case the film was in a box with a pin point lens using ambient light. And what the artist had done was to set up nine chairs in a row and put a model in each one of them. Every ten minutes, from one end or the other one of the models would get up and leave. At the end of ninety minutes the only model remaining was the one in the center. The resulting photograph showed her, very clearly, and those on either side of her gradually becoming transparent as your eye moved along the surface of the picture.
Finally I found my friend's self portraits. What she had done was to go all over the city on a sunny day and take pictures of her shadow, on the sidewalks, on the grass, up against a wall and so on.
I could have said "Hm" and left the exhibit simply having spent an entertaining two hours. But those three exhibits, the changing videos, the slowly disappearing models and the shadows, all pointed toward the same thing and I had to think about it.
There's an existential carpet there. But is it a magic carpet, does it fly or is it only to sweep confusing hair balls of thinking under. "Cogito ergo sum." I once knew a philosopher who paraphrased that Cartesian axiom by saying, I think therefore I am, I think. Carefully setting under the carpet for today the possibility that I may not exist in the form in which I think I do, is the fact that I am a thinking creature irrefutable evidence that I exist? It can be a fearful thing to face one's own thinking if it is honestly and conscientiously done. Where do my thoughts come from? Are they a product of the passionate love affair between imagination and reason, are they the product of some phylogenic process, are they the intellectual merchandise of some tyrannical brain seeding, are they (heaven forbid) mental weeds which grow out of nature's chaos to fill a vacuum? How many of the thoughts that twirl and bounce around in my head like a bunch of lottery balls can I claim to be my own. The fewer of those there are the more transparent I have become and the earlier I have quit the scene.
What is the reluctance we have for facing the clear light of reality? Is it fear, indifference or ignorance? It doesn't hurt to turn one's attention to ideas and experiences greater than one's own. It shouldn't hurt to explore the open fields and mountain tops of one's own thinking. Why then do we habitually look away from the light and define ourselves by our own shadows when we could let ourselves be defined by the brightness that is hiding in us like a prehistoric creature in a cave?
I grew up in a threadbare family; no father, a difficult and demanding mother, a brother and sister who were a whole decade and more older than I. I suffered a great lack of the feelings and experiences of a family life. Hence I tried to make a family out of whatever theatre company I was with. I tried thinking of them as my fathers and mothers, my sisters and brothers and, eventually, my sons and daughters. Of course it didn't work. They all had families somewhere, and other lives. When I retired it was my destiny to live alone and lonely. But it was also the time to start learning about, understanding and appreciating myself. The party is going on, the games are being played and the crowd may be fun to be with, but you won't find yourself there. You will find yourself in the vast, bright, mysterious, secret and sacred cathedral of your own mind.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
14 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Monday, August 31, 2009
Marauding Mirages 8/31/09
The popular notion of an antithesis between appearance and reality has exercised a very powerful influence on scientific and philosophical thought.
Ernst Mach
************************
Welcome, whoever you are.
________________________
Hurry and get your note book ready because September is coming and that means all the quotes will be from DB The Vagabond.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you really sure that what you're looking at right now really exists? Are you sure that, if it does exist, that it exists in the form and state in which you see it? Furthermore, are you sure that things you can't see really exists just because you have been told they do?
We know there are atoms because mathematicians and phycisists tell us so. They must exists because, even though they can't be seen, the calculations of all the scientists prove they're there. Ernst Mach, a distinguished 19th and early 20th century physicist and philosopher doubted the existence of atoms. His theories influenced many scientists, including Albert Einstein. If he was right it means revolutionizing the whole practice of chemistry.
There are some current physicists working on a theory which would render an object invisible by refracting all light away from it. So far they have managed to make it transparent. But they're still busy.
That poses another question. Are you sure that just because you can't see something or have any evidence of it that it isn't there? A simple argument of the empiricist would be that if it exists there must be evidence of it somewhere and if no evidence can be found then one has to conclude it doesn't exist, Does that mean if the object is rendered invisible it no longer exist? Well, an interesting side observation those scientists made is that, even though the object is transparent and may become invisible, if their experiments are successful, they can't make its shadow disappear. That brings us to another question. Are we living with the shadows of things that are there even though we can't see them? Are we still in Plato's cave staring at the shadows and not seeing the reality behind us? That's a scary idea.
Unless, perhaps, no matter how grotesque the shadow may be, the invisible reality that casts it is a benevolent thing. But, how do we know? How de we measure or identify the invisible? Only by how it behaves. In other words, how it interacts with things we can observe. Ah, but physicists tell us that the process of observing things makes them change their behavior. Is that also true if we attempt to observe things we can't see? And are the invisible things the ones that are changing the behavior of the visible things? There are metaphysical twists to these questions.
A NASA Astrophysicist was asked if he was depressed by the fact that there are so many unanswered questions. He responded that on the contrary he was excited. I don't like foolish law suits against me, but I don't mind unanswered questions, unfinished business, a little chaos in my life. It reminds me that I always have something to do.
I have books on scientific issues: astrophysics, calculus, anthropology, chaos theory, the philosophy of science, genetics, as well as history, religion, psychology, other subjects of a philosophical nature, a few novels and probably some trash. I dearly wish I could get to Walmart to buy a new desk lamp to replace the one that broke so that I can get on with my reading, like a good boy should.
(What's an actor doing reading books? I thought all actors were dumb.)
I hope you made it over the roots and rocks, in and out of the caves and around the boulders of today's entry. These are subjects that require more thinking and writing about. I also need more studying.
DB Vagabond
______________________
Send a nice juicy blessing out to someone.
*************************************
Ernst Mach
************************
Welcome, whoever you are.
________________________
Hurry and get your note book ready because September is coming and that means all the quotes will be from DB The Vagabond.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you really sure that what you're looking at right now really exists? Are you sure that, if it does exist, that it exists in the form and state in which you see it? Furthermore, are you sure that things you can't see really exists just because you have been told they do?
We know there are atoms because mathematicians and phycisists tell us so. They must exists because, even though they can't be seen, the calculations of all the scientists prove they're there. Ernst Mach, a distinguished 19th and early 20th century physicist and philosopher doubted the existence of atoms. His theories influenced many scientists, including Albert Einstein. If he was right it means revolutionizing the whole practice of chemistry.
There are some current physicists working on a theory which would render an object invisible by refracting all light away from it. So far they have managed to make it transparent. But they're still busy.
That poses another question. Are you sure that just because you can't see something or have any evidence of it that it isn't there? A simple argument of the empiricist would be that if it exists there must be evidence of it somewhere and if no evidence can be found then one has to conclude it doesn't exist, Does that mean if the object is rendered invisible it no longer exist? Well, an interesting side observation those scientists made is that, even though the object is transparent and may become invisible, if their experiments are successful, they can't make its shadow disappear. That brings us to another question. Are we living with the shadows of things that are there even though we can't see them? Are we still in Plato's cave staring at the shadows and not seeing the reality behind us? That's a scary idea.
Unless, perhaps, no matter how grotesque the shadow may be, the invisible reality that casts it is a benevolent thing. But, how do we know? How de we measure or identify the invisible? Only by how it behaves. In other words, how it interacts with things we can observe. Ah, but physicists tell us that the process of observing things makes them change their behavior. Is that also true if we attempt to observe things we can't see? And are the invisible things the ones that are changing the behavior of the visible things? There are metaphysical twists to these questions.
A NASA Astrophysicist was asked if he was depressed by the fact that there are so many unanswered questions. He responded that on the contrary he was excited. I don't like foolish law suits against me, but I don't mind unanswered questions, unfinished business, a little chaos in my life. It reminds me that I always have something to do.
I have books on scientific issues: astrophysics, calculus, anthropology, chaos theory, the philosophy of science, genetics, as well as history, religion, psychology, other subjects of a philosophical nature, a few novels and probably some trash. I dearly wish I could get to Walmart to buy a new desk lamp to replace the one that broke so that I can get on with my reading, like a good boy should.
(What's an actor doing reading books? I thought all actors were dumb.)
I hope you made it over the roots and rocks, in and out of the caves and around the boulders of today's entry. These are subjects that require more thinking and writing about. I also need more studying.
DB Vagabond
______________________
Send a nice juicy blessing out to someone.
*************************************
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