Perceptual Relativity Poem / Song. Page 1.
Perceptual Relativity Poem / Song. Page 2.PDF file for the Perceptual Relativity Poem / Song:
Spillover from writing The Elephant and the Oak Tree (EOT). The concept for this poem came back in a trying time in the Fall of 2005. I was driving late at night and experienced the notion of relativity with the outline of a car in front of me. At one point I asked the question: Is the car coming closer or farther from me? Or is it of fixed distance, and it's changing size and shape? How will I ever come to know? Coming to think about it, I remember being on Martin Luther King offramp nearby UC Riverside.
The poem came later, and flashes of network-based photographer, e.g. branching networks in biology and geology, ripples, dunes, biological formations that seem to have mathematical rhythmicity to them. I am gathering a set of photographs related to this concept. The poem/song/future music video is intended to have a techno trance feel to it. I can't help flashing to a god-forbid beer commercial that showed the fast-paced succession of flora on a tropical island. It was phenomenal special effects for a biologist. And of all things, it was a beer commercial--Corona beer, I think.
I was about to use this song as a concept for a video for the Coastal Fund, but it never happened, which is just fine. My mind crafted a collage of scientists with different hats which perceive different things around the coast of UC Santa Barbara, which is still in my head, and I can use it for my own purposes.
This song/poem is associated with EOT because the main character goes through perceptual relativity throughout the entire story and struggles to figure out where she is at in space and time, and whether she should zoom in or zoom out.
2 comments:
I was first inspired to write Perceptual Relativity a long time ago when my professor Dr. Miriam Polne-Fuller flashed a confusing image to the class that appeared to be a strange mountain, but ended up being the tip of a pin. Talk about out of context! I continued this theme with the Shoreline Preservation Art and the Environment course, adding strange images like the twirly barks of bristlecone pines, the gut of a parasite that lives in shark, and the test of a sea urchin.
In addition, this was practiced by a female biologist astronaut at UC San Francisco. She asked whether this picture was a cell or a galaxy. Talk about scale! She was obviously impacted by her astronautic experiences.
I just discovered that "Perceptual Relativity" was a term that was used by Hume in his explorations as to whether "external reality" existed--I guess that means, external reality to the mind. *Sigh*
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