The Soul and the Story
“When a soul wants to have an experience, she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it.” ~ Meister Eckhart
Anything said about this just dulls the luster.
But, when the self-conscious spirit wants to experience, to interact with the other that is not herself, she must make a frame to enclose a space, defining an inside, setting herself in the scene. It is only by creating a story that a soul may experience another. It is why our lives are made of fantasy.
Who do you want around you in the bardo when the frame dissolves, angels or demons?
Not A Mirror, Not A Black Mirror.
The subject/object kerfuffle in European philosophy has kept a very great number of confusing expositors in business for a long time. Whether Hegel or Kant or Freud or Heidegger or Foucault, in the end you get the unmistakeable sense that a mind is a terrible thing to make up.
And so here we are.
After many years making audio recordings of musicians great and not so much, I came to know what kind of recording I like – the well made live performance. But it was not until practicing photography in a non-journalistic way that I realized why. It has to do with the subject/object, mind/matter division that has plagued Whitey since Sophocles.
When you take a photo, the mind meets the matter – the subject meets the object – at the location of the camera, and the camera makes an image. That image is not a memory, not a slice of time, not a record of the event (!) and certainly not a story. It is a photograph.
If you want to make something else out of it, that’s your problem.
the scores of ishmael wadada leo smith, ten freedom summers, and the specter of race
I need add nothing here.
You’re An Idiot
I have devised a mental exercise for myself in which I look at a photograph and try to see it without allowing my mind to identify any objects in the photo. Just lines and shapes and tones, but not faces or cars or whatever is recognizable. To see without recognition. While not very easy, it’s possible to an extent.
But I realized it is seemingly impossible (without powerful drugs) to do with sound and speech. Once a sound is heard, if it’s recognizable, it’s almost impossible to hear without recognition. Speech is the same way; if it’s in your language, you can’t hear it without meaning. If bottled as music or poetry there is some hope, as the thinking mind can be overcome by the unnatural or the absurd. But otherwise, you’re trapped.
Ah, mind of distinction, you’re a useful idiot!
This is why art must be of no use.
(assembly by Dina Knapp, photo by the author.)
My photos are on Flickr
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The Old Man Checks His Phone
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My photos are on Flickr
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The Art Job
“I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance.” ~ Sojourner Truth
That which is invisible
Because of its nature
As unreflective of light
And unresponsive to pressure
Like scores, and programs and instructions for instance
Like the Fifth Symphony, or the Dharma,
or any story before it’s told
or gods of all sorts;
All of those things or non-things
All of those potentials
Undetectable and immeasurable
Without form or substance
Vastly outnumber what appears to be.
The artist’s job,
He said with arrogance
Is to make a representation,
Speaking in metaphors,
Of what is invisible.
Not to make shit up.
It Doesn’t Mean Anything
It is often said that a good photograph tells a story.
Maybe so, but a great photograph doesn’t.
It is a single sound, a word, if you must think of it that way.
A message without meaning.
Speechless and silent, it stays put
As the light hit the sensor.
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My photos are on Flickr
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