Sunday, September 04, 2005
Do you ever wonder...
...what it would be like to be a fly on the wall? Okay, I know that sounds like such a cliche question, but have you actually ever sat down to think about it? Really? I used to do this a lot when I was a child. Sit in a room, search the walls for an interesting looking vantage point, and try to imagine the room as I would see it were I a small speck of whatever on that particular point of the wall. (No weird fly-vision, I like my vision just fine, thanks.)
There are endless possibilities for interesting experiences as a fly on the wall. Think of the things you would see...all of the happenings in that room (make sure you pick a room with a good amount of traffic!)...all of the conversations you'd hear...all of the embarassing moments you might witness... You'd have the experience of what the walls would tell you could they talk (which is also an interesting thing to think about, but a topic for a different blog entry). I guess you get a similar effect if you take up a spot on a park bench for an afternoon and watch the people around you. You witness the most interesting things when you slow down your own life and begin observing other lives that are existing all around you. But part of the fun for me was (and still is!) the challenge of imagining the physical space from a vantage point that it was nearly impossible to actually view. How do the sight lines change? How do the perspective lines of the room change? What seems to become bigger or smaller? Would the shape of the room seem different?
I guess it's always been an interest of mine...to see things *physically* from a different perspective. It's kind of like the physical manifestation of the idea behind the Atticus Finch quote from To Kill A Mockingbird: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." What does it feel like to climb into the skin of a room and see things from its perspective?
The philosophical spin-off conversations that could come out of this question suddenly have sent my mind into a whirl...and I can no longer talk about this. Time to post and leave it to you to ponder. :)
There are endless possibilities for interesting experiences as a fly on the wall. Think of the things you would see...all of the happenings in that room (make sure you pick a room with a good amount of traffic!)...all of the conversations you'd hear...all of the embarassing moments you might witness... You'd have the experience of what the walls would tell you could they talk (which is also an interesting thing to think about, but a topic for a different blog entry). I guess you get a similar effect if you take up a spot on a park bench for an afternoon and watch the people around you. You witness the most interesting things when you slow down your own life and begin observing other lives that are existing all around you. But part of the fun for me was (and still is!) the challenge of imagining the physical space from a vantage point that it was nearly impossible to actually view. How do the sight lines change? How do the perspective lines of the room change? What seems to become bigger or smaller? Would the shape of the room seem different?
I guess it's always been an interest of mine...to see things *physically* from a different perspective. It's kind of like the physical manifestation of the idea behind the Atticus Finch quote from To Kill A Mockingbird: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." What does it feel like to climb into the skin of a room and see things from its perspective?
The philosophical spin-off conversations that could come out of this question suddenly have sent my mind into a whirl...and I can no longer talk about this. Time to post and leave it to you to ponder. :)
// posted by Nina @ 5:39 PM 
