perception

There are 89 posts tagged perception (this is page 2 of 5).

Let the ears not listen at random

“Listening is to convey wisdom, to foster action, and to bring achievement and honor, If it is not sincere, it is not clear, not deep, not effective, so the highlest learning involves listening with the spirit, middling learning involves listening with the mind, lower learning involves listening with the ear.

The learning of those who listen with their ears is in the surface of their skin. The learning of those who listen with their minds is in their flesh and muscles. The learning of those who listen with their spirits is in their bones and marrow.

So when you do not listen deeply to something, you do not know it clearly; when you do not know it clearly, then you cannot plumb its essence, and when you cannot plumb its essence you cannon perfect its practice.

The general principles for listening are to empty the mind so that it is clear and calm: discount moods and don’t be full of them, have no thoughts and no rumination. Let the eyes not look at random, let the ears not listen at random. Concentrate the vitality of the mind so that it builds up and the inner attention is fully consolidated. Once you have attained this, you must stabilize and preserve it, and must extend and perpetuate it.”

Wen-Tzu: Understanding the Mysteries, Further Teachings of Lao-Tzu

魔境 makyō

“The term makyo (魔境 makyō) is a Zen term that means ‘ghost cave’ or ‘devil’s cave.’ … Makyo is essentially synonymous with illusion, but especially in reference to experiences that can occur within meditation practice.

…the combination of ma meaning devil and kyo meaning the objective world. This character for ‘devil’ can also refer to Mara, the Buddhist ‘tempter’ figure; and the character kyo can mean simply region, condition or place. Makyo refers to the hallucinations and perceptual distortions that can arise during the course of meditation … These can occur in the form of visions and perceptual distortions, but they can also be experiences of blank, trance-like absorption states.

…It is characterized in some schools as ‘going to the movies,’ a sign of spiritual intensity but a phenomenon that is considered distinctly inferior to the clear insight of settled practice.”

Wikipedia

She puts in earplugs every time she goes to the supermarket

“I know a person who found that the type of music played in her supermarket made her very sad. The songs reminded her of a difficult time in her life, and she saw herself focusing on the memories and not on her shopping. When she realized this, she made a conscious and intelligent choice to take good care of her consciousness. Now she puts in earplugs every time she goes to the supermarket, in order not to be distracted and depressed by the music.”

Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise, Thich Nhat Hanh.

Adding sound to GIFs

I’m adding sound to some of my Glifcker animated GIFs. This was the first test. Sounds and images are the same files, I just saved all frames as AIFF.

The process is simple, I save each frame as JPG, then as RAW and finally as AIFF, and then I add the sounds to the video.

The synchronization is perfect because what you see and what you hear is exactly the same.

Physiological cinema

“Thus Kubelka initiated the flicker film, what Regina Cornwell has described ‘phenomenologically as the short and very rapid succession of recurrent images which flutter or fluctuate in various structures.’ The effect is abrasive yet revolutionary. [Arnulf] Rainer values the process of cinematic projection and the immediacy of vision over the illusionistic three-dimensional representation of past events; it is a film that appeals not to the psychological or emotional but rather to the neurological and physiological brain, creating optical illusions and even fleeting hallucinations that at once disabuse viewers of the limiting priorities of mainstream cinema while inviting them into new worlds of perception.”

Flashes of Brilliance: A brief history of the flicker film, Michael Joshua Rowin.

There is no such thing as forgetting

“Of this at least I feel assured, that there is no such thing as forgetting possible to the mind; a thousand accidents may and will interpose a veil between our present consciousness and the secret inscriptions on the mind; accidents of the same sort will also rend away this veil; but alike, whether veiled or unveiled, the inscription remains for ever, just as the stars seem to withdraw before the common light of day, whereas in fact we all know that it is the light which is drawn over them as a veil, and that they are waiting to be revealed when the obscuring daylight shall have withdrawn.”

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Thomas De Quincey.

Para la virtud la única entrada posible son los oídos

«…yo creo que tú no sin gusto escucharías una disertación sobre el sentido del oído, el cual dice Teofrasto que es el más sensible de todos los sentidos. Pues ni la vista ni el gusto ni el tacto producen sobresaltos, perturbaciones y emociones tales como las que se apoderan del alma al sobrevenirle al oído golpes, estrépitos y ruidos. Pues es mucho más racional que sensible. En efecto al mal muchos lugares y partes del cuerpo le permiten, introduciéndose a través de ellos, apoderarse del alma, en cambio para la virtud la única entrada posible son los oídos de los jóvenes…».

Sobre como se debe escuchar (Obras morales y de costumbres), Plutarco.

Standing in the Meeting of Two Eternities

Standing In the Meeting of Two Eternities propone una experiencia audiovisual inmersiva compuesta a partir de hidrofonías (grabaciones subacuáticas), humo y luz. El espacio desdibujado por la niebla y el color evoca la profundidad del mar, así como la frontera entre lo físico y lo etéreo.

Mikel R. Nieto + Blanca Rego (yo misma)

Martes 14 de enero de 2014, 19 h.
MediaEstruch, Sala multimedia 10.
L’Estruch Fàbrica de Creació,
Sant Isidre 142 Sabadell.
Entrada libre.

Scotomization

“The term scotomization comes from the Greek noun skotos (darkness). In the older literature it is used as a synonym for the term negative hallucination. Both terms are used to denote the failure to perceive an object or stimulus that is present within one’s range of perception. The term scotomization was introduced in or shortly before 1926 by the French psychoanalysts Edouard Pichon (1890-1940) and René Laforgue (1894-1962). In psychoanalytic theory, the term scotomization is used to denote the tendency to ignore, or to be blind to, certain impulses or memories, especially those experienced as a threat to the individual’s ego.”

Dictionary of Hallucinations

Enstasy

Enstasy (Gk., en-stasis, ‘standing into’). The experiences, or abolition of experience, arising as a consequence of those meditational, etc., techniques which withdraw the practitioner from the world, and even from awareness of the self.

Enstasis (noun): Contemplation of one’s own self.

Seconds (1966)


When a film starts like this, it must be good (Saul Bass, of course). A paranoia, a dystopian history about who we are and who we would like to be. And, like all good science fiction films, with a lot of reflections between the lines.