Subconscious

While I was still young enough to be concerned with spelling grades, rather than MLA citations, while the life expectancy of my hand-caught tadpoles was of more concern than that of my relationships, while the tooth fairy still left notes in strangely familiar handwriting under my pillows, I lived in Oregon, next to a patch of woodland that can only be described as the most gloriously magical place a kid could ask for. Some places you hold so carefully in your heart that you know you will never be able to revisit them, because the memories are too precious to be altered by the way it would appear if you were to return, older, changed. For me, the woods is one such place. I spent countless hours there as a child. It became a character in my life, with a presence and influence that I only grow more aware of as I move farther from its physical location. It lay just beyond the dead-end of the road where we lived, which encompassed a steep hill with houses crowning the sides and summit. The run down that hill felt like flight, as though a single bounding leap could tear the runner from the grasp of gravity itself. With arms outstretched I would run full tilt with the wind in my face, letting the scene blur around me, the thrill only slightly dampened after I found my feet still firmly attached to the ground once I reached the bottom. Even that slight heartache was quickly forgotten, because from there it was only a quick scramble through tall wild grasses and into the trees. From the point forward, everything was imperceptibly different. The air changed, neighborhood noises became muted, and the exchange of shadow and light together left a world without harsh edges that held seemingly endless possibilities. I think that it shaped me, that place. Even now, as much as I love living in the city, I still find myself with a constantly present yearning to seek out spaces of green and patches of wildness where I can recapture that feeling. That feeling manifests in multiple forms. They include my weekly trips to pick out flowers at the farmers market, and the love I have for my apartment because of its location. For even though I live in the middle of the city, when you sit on my sun-washed wood floor all that is visible out of the window is blue sky and tree tops rustling in the wind. According to Carl Jung, our personal experiences echo the collective consciousness of humanity. While I can't define precisely what motif from human history my connection to nature echoes, it is undeniable that man and nature have an intrinsic bond.

The Looks of Books

We've all heard the old adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover". It's a well worn phrase, one whose comfortable perimeters can be extended to any given situation. It's reassuring, and it reminds us to keep our perceptions from fully forming until we know what resides within a person, situation, or work of fiction rather than just what composes the outside or exterior layer. In reality, however, most actual books are judged almost exclusively by the contents of their jackets. The average customer wandering through a bookstore without any particular read in mind is naturally going to gravitate toward books that appeal to them in a visual sense. The aesthetic draw of a cover is the first hook for a reader's interest, and covers are seen even before the reader has a chance to skim the summary on the back. Therefore the cover must be powerful enough to not only catch their eye, but also to direct the extent of their investigation into the book. It is often that the fate of a work of literature is decided by the ability of the content of its cover to attract an audience. Many publishers capitalize on this trend by designing the covers of the books that they publish in the way that they think will best appeal to their chosen demographic. Together the typography, imagery, and overall spacial design of book jackets are carefully arranged to please and intrigue the reader.

Although the effort by publishers to put forth books that are visually appealing to the literate audience is a natural one, it also a way of manipulating consumers by tapping into the way that the subconscious filters images. We respond to visual cues unknowingly, and make our selections with an entire level of consideration left unacknowledged. As Christine Rosen states in 'The Image Culture',

"Images do not necessarily lead to meaning; the information they convey does not always lead to knowledge."

For books, this is true in two different senses. The first is that the images on the cover of a book can sometimes obscure or distill its contents down to the very basic essence of what is has to offer. The second is that if we base the choice of what we read primarily on the that very basic essence, the shape of what we know and learn will remain controlled by first glances and initial impressions. How many books have you overlooked because the front cover just didn't 'speak' to you? As Rosen points out, we have become preoccupied with format rather than content in such a way that the repercussions have had a domino effect on not only how we process information but also what we choose to process in the first place.

Image Culture: Initial Response to Rosen

When I was much younger, I was obsessed with the movie Fairy Tale, which is based on the true story of two girls who claimed to have taken the first photographic proof of the existence of fairies in 1917. In real life, the girls eventually admit that the photos were falsified. When I found out the truth, I was as crushed as the public in London at the time must have been. I hadn't yet reached the state of cynical disbelief towards photos that Rosen describes in her essay. Although the photos were false, the story clearly demonstrates Rosen's point about how powerful an influence photography can be. Thus far, Rosen's theories about the way that image influences culture seem valid, and I'm intrigued to see how she supports them through the rest of her writing.

McLuhan's Tetrad: Photo Sharing on Facebook

Enhancements:

• Ability to share information about social events, family, etc quickly and easily.
• Allows sharing of artwork, projects, and other personal work without necessitating a separate web source.
• Photo albums allow photos from the past to be stored for future reference and continued viewing.
• Photo sharing on the news feed lets pictures be shared in the moment:
  -Cell phone uploads
• Lets family members and friends keep in touch over distances in a more meaningful way
  -pictures bring a better perspective into the lives of loved ones.
  -if someone had to miss an event, they still get to enjoy viewing the pictures.

Reversals:

• Oversharing-overload of repetitive and irrelevant information, especially on the news feed:
  -i.e. Pictures of Justin Bieber's new haircut.
  -Rather than carefully selecting what gets shown to the world, people take advantage of ease that facebook presents and upload all photos from everything.
• Privacy:
  -Misuse of privacy features sometimes results in photos that end up in the wrong hands.
  -You have no way of keep track of who has your photos. Something uploaded once might circulate on the internet forever or end up on a strangers computer without your knowledge.
• The "if there aren't pictures of it on facebook, it must not have actually happened" mentality:
  -photo sharing sometimes becomes a way to validate events, parties, etc, to the extent that the pictures that exist on facebook prove that the fun really ever took place.

Retrievals:

• "Village" mentality:
  -the ease of sharing information is like chatting with your neighbor over a back fence and showing them pictures from your wallet.
• Polaroid:
  -instant gratification, casual, mostly utilized for social purposes.
• Art galleries:
  -photo sharing allows people to browse your work as though they were actually standing in front of it.

Obsolesces:

• The way that photos used to be saved and shared:
  -Physical photo albums, scrapbooks
  -Social gatherings that included sharing pictures
• Traveling in order to stay in touch with family and friends:
  -when photos of your nieces and nephews are so readily available on facebook, the impetus to go see them in person in order to feel in touch with their lives might be less compelling.
• Other methods of photo sharing or storage: Photobucket, Flikr, email, etc. Facebook allows users to keep everything in one place.

Connectivity

While my brother Andrew and I were both still young enough to be concerned with spelling grades, rather than MLA citations, while the life expectancy of our hand-caught, bucket-tamed tadpoles was of more concern than that of our relationships, while the tooth fairy still left notes in strangely familiar handwriting under our pillows, I came to realize that he and I share a somewhat uncommon bond. We're close, and that is how it has been for almost my entire life. After he left home to attend college in New Mexico, several states away, it was difficult to adjust to the sudden distance between us. Over time, however, we've learned to manage staying in touch through variety of methods. For a long time, those methods did not include facebook. He chose to delete his about a year after moving away from home, and has only recently decided to rejoin. Upon his return, Andrew published a veritable facebook manifesto via status update. This manifesto outlines his philosophy toward the use of social networking, and details the parameters with which he aims to use it. His manifesto contains the following clause:

"In using facebook, I will attempt to combat the tendency towards technological thinking, the symptoms of which we find in the loss of patient thinking, real listening, slow reading, and honest engagement with the physical universe."

I really admire the sentiment evident in this part of Andrew's declaration, and I think that his position towards facebook use is laudable. Although an easy source of connectivity, facebook can easily become an overwhelming void that lacks anything meaningful but remains the cornerstone of communication. According to McLuhan,

"In his amusement born of rational detachment of his own situation, Poe's mariner in 'The Descent into the Maelstrom' staved off disaster by understanding the action of the whirlpool. His insight offers a possible stratagem for understanding our predicament, our electrically-configured whirl. " (McLuhan 150)

Facebook can easily become such a whirlpool. If we do not remain objective, we can become caught up in the rapidity of its ideas and the deceptively easy method it offers to stay in touch. Without a conscious effort, facebook can quickly spin its way into a maelstrom of information that leaves the viewer with a false sense of fulfillment. However, as noted by McLuhan, if we can remain cognizant of the ease with which facebook leads to superficial connections, then we may stave off the shallowness and instead seek significant links with those we consider to be our friends, in the truest sense of the word.

Falling

Although The Matrix is a movie that for the most part seems to follow the age-old script of the hero's journey, it departs from the usual cliche Hollywood interpretations in several ways. One way in which it does so lies with the development of Neo's character. Although it is true that he is the protagonist of the story from the start, and that he is 'woken' by Morpheus from the Matrix in order to save humanity from its fate, there is always a note of doubt about whether he is truly 'the One'. This doubt creates a delicate balance between Morpheus' belief in Neo, his crew's mixture of desire to believe and skepticism, and Neo's own growing wish to live up to Morpheus's expectations of him. One scene in which this is illustrated, one of my favorites, is the one in which Morpheus begins to train Neo in simulated reality. He asks Neo to jump an impossible distance with the trust that he will not fall, and those who believe that Neo is indeed 'the One' wait for him to succeed, although no one else does on the first try. However, Neo does fall, like anyone just learning to manipulate the virtual reality of the Matrix. Despite this, Morpheus continues to believe in Neo's abilities. I love this scene because it reveals two things. One, that everyone falls the first time, no matter what great future may or may not await them, and two, that we need someone to believe in us in order to for us to strive ahead.

A Matter of Perception

Having a passion can be all consuming; the word itself is marked by extremity, intensity, and strength of feeling. Passions direct and shape you, both by conscious choice and by unconscious surrender. If a passion has been a part of you for a long period of time then this process of direction is second nature, and the metamorphosis that is its result is almost impossible to discern, because it is seems so natural. As in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, such a subtle sculpting of self can entrap you without your knowledge. I have experienced this in a way that is very close to my heart. I am a dancer, and have spent years seriously training in classical ballet. Like anything that requires great time and dedication to perfect, ballet has defined my life in ways innumerable. It has influenced everything from the structure of my education to the kind of shoes I like to wear, but the most important way that it has molded me extends deeper.

Ballet combines the science of movement with emotional expression, and is not only exceptionally physically demanding, but mentally taxing as well. Ballet dancers spend their lives schooling their bodies in an attempt to attain the highest level of physical perfection and grace of movement that human beings are capable of achieving. Perhaps not surprising in an art form that creates an instrument out of the human body, the pressure of this nearly impossible goal combined with the aesthetic standard that dancers are expected to uphold results in a mindset that closely ties standards of beauty to the shape of that body. The idea of being good at ballet is so closely connected to that of looking the part that the two are very difficult to untangle.We dancers have our own oddly specific ideas of aesthetics, and not only does it extend to the shape of our feet but also to our proportions and weight. I have found this method of perception to be deeply ingrained in the ballet world, but I do not only find it there, I also find it in myself.

In the Platonic sense, that limited definition of what is beautiful and acceptable has been my cave. For a long time I was unable to see beyond the one ideal that I had been striving toward for and the ways that I thought that I was failing. In a way, my mind was projecting the shadows in that cave by persisting in a somewhat skewed view of myself. I became aware of the way that ballet has distorted my relationship with my physical appearance has been some time ago, but it has taken a great deal to let myself turn away from the shadows and into the light. In order to do so I have had to distance myself from the ideal that ballet represents and instead try to accept myself as I am. That journey is ongoing and is certainly not a linear one, but it has afforded me a sense of peace and more honest view of myself. I am still a part of the ballet world, but I can now see beyond it as well, and that freedom has left me blinded with light.