Follow up

Ok, so part of my last post may not have been appropriate for seminar or for my/our project.  I’m thinking about what I posted on Facebook about stepping in dog shit and trying to maintain an aesthetic attitude. I made the post without thinking much about it; it was a flash act.  And, arguably, I failed because I was pretty pissed. I had woken up and tried to focus on some kind of attunement within myself.  I thought about feelings in my body, specifically if I could feel thoughts in certain body parts.  And, from Wednesday’s seminar meeting, I thought about what my state of mind is: thankful-frustrated.  I guess the latter dimension may have been emphasized last Friday.

And after I wrote that post on my Facebook wall, I kind of laughed and was no longer angry.  And then, I thought about how stupid and trivial such bullshit (or should I say dogshit) could get to me. How much shit do others have to go through daily? Poverty, exploitation, et al.

But, I would like to think about the David Lynch interview because I think many of the ideas might connect to our seminar.  Lynch suggests that “everybody has had this thrill of taking a photo and when they get it back or analyze, it’s so different than what was in front of them and it’s so thrilling when it’s captured and they can see it.  It’s a very, very special medium [photography], very beautiful, and infinitely deep.”  He suggests that his “photobook is not an intellectual process, but if anything, an intuitive process, based on something in me.”  In taking the photos and selecting the photos, Lynch experiences affect. And furthermore, when we view a photograph (or painting or film), Lynch posits that a “beautiful storm comes over us, a thrilling beautiful storm, deep love and flow of excitement in the brain.  We are all receiving this feeling I think of love.”  The video also shows some of Lynch’s photos from his book, as well as Lynch’s commentary on what he is attracted to: “organic phenomena, flesh, the way light plays.”  He even comments on sores (the photo of a foot with sores appears).

The interview concludes with Lynch discussing when he encountered a carving of Buddha in the LA museum.  This is the last photo in his book and he explains that as he looked at the head of Buddha, he experienced a shot of white light and he was filled with bliss.  Lynch doesn’t elaborate on what this means nor does he identify it as an epiphany or revelation.  But what exactly happened at that moment?  Was that a kind of photographic epiphany? Lynch went to the museum, knowing that he was going to have an aesthetic experience.  He then finds himself in a corridor and notices the head of carving of Buddha, and boom: he’s hit with the white light and feeling…. and take his picture.

Now, I see Lynch’s experience as similar to what I’m supposed to do. Not necessarily in a museum, but within Alachua County: construct and notice our epiphany and take a picture.