thoughts relating to practice and research (as part of MFA project)

Monday, April 6, 2009

a moment of all-over vision

I had a strange experience early this morning when I was jogging up a hill in the semi-wilderness by the Maribyrnong River. I was looking around at dry spiky grass, stubby trees and scattered rocks; and then over across the park to the roof tops of houses, the yellow skeleton frame of a half built house between red roof tiles; and looking up at the sky, cold morning light, some heavy rain clouds building up in the distance. I noticed how my vision seemed to reflect the way I was moving: blurred motion between one object and another, where my eye would momentarily halt and focus again. Then all at once I had the impression that despite my constant movement everything was suddenly in sharp focus, from the grass beneath my feet to the houses on the horizon. It seemed as if someone had applied a strong Photoshop sharpen filter over my vision, which brought all the edges of what I could see into relief. And I imagined that if I moved in closer all those edges would give way to more edges and I could zoom down into even greater and greater detail; that one blade of grass would reveal a whole world full of outlines and contours. It was as if all the detail you see by examining something closely had just become visible all over. A kind of super refined all-over vision. Then just as quickly everything returned to a peripheral blur.

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