Describe this
How do you see this image? What do you think is going on?
The artist Cézanne spent a long time looking at an object in order to see it in a new way. It’s a way of slow knowing. The longer you maintain your concentration you see beyond the obvious. If you haven’t tried staring in the way Cézanne did (and everyone who learns to draw does), you may have repeated a word over and over until it becomes meaningless. Only then do you become more aware of the sound, or its rhythm.
Normally, we navigate the world by signs. We only need to identify an object in order to ascertain its danger quotient or usefulness. Then we move on. The scientific mind categorizes, judges, evaluates, analyzes, but the artistic mind sees.
I was walking on the beach with a physician friend of mine who has an interest in the inhabitants of tide pools. He was interested in identifying small crabs and nudibranchs. His scientific background led him to see the world in a certain way. I was trained as an artist. I had no interest in taxonomy. I was enjoying the colors and the shapes. Two of us were supposedly looking at the same thing, but what we saw was very different. How have you seen things differently?
It really began in 1983 when i experienced the firewalk. it took being burned 5 times, all on separate occassions, to finally “see” it differently. ( i knew it wasn’t the fire, but how i was “looking” at it.
since that time, i’ve been working on my greatest challenge: “other drivers in their cars.” now there’s a challenge. but the more i practice “seeing” the situation differently, the more peaceful i become.
it’s a moment by moment thing, you know?
We often talk about a change in perspective. If you fall into the trap of comparing yourself to someone else it can make you miserable, until you change your perspective and compare yourself to everyone on the planet. Then things look different.
But it’s easy to keep seeing things the same way. I’m glad you experience benefit from seeing differently.
I’ll tell you how I see this figure. First, I seem to be looking down on a see-through cube. Next, I see it from the bottom, looking up into it. I can also see it as a six-sided figure looking down upon it. This reminds me of a children’s playground roundabout. So it evokes a memory now.
I can see the cube again from the left looking into the right, and again I can see it from the right looking down into the left, and now from the right looking up into the left. I won’t go on, but there are a few ways I see this and my brain keeps altering the pattern. The back-and-forth is particularly kinetic when I stare at the center.
It is ambiguous. There are a lot of ways to see this drawing and I have hardly even started on imagining ‘what’ it could be: a fish tank, a square head, a kite…
Me dirijo a ustedes en español porque mi ingles es muy basico.
Creo que las dos percepciones son complementarias, si el “cientifico” educa su sensibilidad puede disfrutar la belleza de las formas, el color y el sonido, y si el “artista” educa su intelecto puede disfrutar la belleza de la ciencia y asomarse a los misterios del espacio-tiempo y de la materia-energia.
Thank you Jose,
I’m not sure how accurate this translation into English is, but I ran it through Google translate and came up with this:
I think that both perceptions are complementary, if the “scientific” educates its sensitivity can enjoy the beauty of forms, color and sound, and if the “artist” educates its intellect can enjoy the beauty of science and look at the mysteries of spacetime and the materia-energia. (matter and engergy?)
Science is about reducing; creativity is about expanding…
…which is why both can benefit from each other!
What is the answer to this problem?
Vs
How many different answers can you find to this problem?
Reality never has only one answer.
And reality is not a “problem” to be “solved”!
(PS. I try, where possible, to see as many things as I can differently to how I saw them yesterday… novelty is perception!)
Christopher,
As we discussed with our face to face group at the last meeting—each of us perceives the world just as we wish to. Of course, many factors color our perceptions. That each of us perceives the world of our waking and our dreaming states differently is amply evident in how much dissent there is in this world. I’m also reminded of that very old movie of Kurosawa—Rashomon. In the film, the samurai, the samurai’s wife, the bandit and the woodcutter all perceive a different reality of the rape and murder they witnessed. Is any one witnesses’ account more accurate or valid than another? We are left in the end feeling that all the witnesses are accurate in their perceptions of the “reality” of the rape and murder that occurred, even though they are wildly divergent accounts. The perceiver cannot be separated from the perception. What do you think? By the way, I like Rumi’s quote you used in your header- “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”
Rashomon is a perfect example of how we perceive differently. And so-called facts and eye-witness accounts are unreliable.
Rathi, I’m glad you like the Rumi quote too. I certainly buy bewilderment.
:::sigh:::
I see the three-dimensional cubes like others, but I also see a two-dimensional hexagon made up of 6 triangles.
Am I the only one who sees that?
Hello Index Lady,
Yes, I can see that figure, too. Thanks for mentioning it. It looks like a playground roundabout.
I remember feeling rather woozy as a child because the centrifugal force was pulling me outward, and the the motion made me dizzy. I think this drawing can have some similar effect.
I have to focus for not letting the shape change to fast, it is difficult for me to keep one perspective as long as I would like to, I prefer when I se a Cross and forget about the framing, but then the cross comes towards me and I see the roof of a round house. Then I shape up and see the cube, from the outside, inside, transparant , above, under, oh, now I have to stop…. This was a very interesting thing for me. I have always felt different, very creative, very odd without being stupid or bad. I lke myself and people among me do to. But lately I have had difficulties with the expectations that comes with getting older… So got out of order and now I now I am different, having adhd. One could call it beihg creative, being not normal - I like your blog, it comforts me. I know I am special, and I like it… It is just that it takes a lot of energy with the perceptions luck of filters and the hyperactivitie that sometimes need to slow down - so I take the húmur-site deadly serious… Thank you!!
I believe we see different things in life depending on where we are in our journey. What have we gone through in our past that might “color” the situation differently. What are our desires and passions? Are we hungry, sleepy, angry, overjoyed? All of these also would influence our interpretation of what we see. It is very interesting how different people will interprete things different depending on their personality and experience. The book, Mindset talks about viewing lige through a growth mindset VS a fixed mindset. Your mindset can totally affect your path in life.