One of the things that I do as a part of my practice is to film a video of what is passing in front of my eyes as I walk around Washington, DC (or wherever I happen to be). There is no real point to this other than to document what I am perceiving because I can - and I believe that the artifacts created, once put onto Facebook (in the past) or YouTube (as I’m doing now since Facebook did away with the “Never Delete” option), form primary documentation which might be used by historian’s of the future.
Most of you by now know that “Harrowings” is an exercise in stewarding the legacy of my late father; taking his creative output as a research historian of the “inarticulate” in Colonial and Revolutionary Williamsburg. He always said that one should use “primary documentation” whenever it was available and take it at face value. Never trust secondary sources, he would tell me, because no one every spends a penny without having a reason for doing so - as in publishing a particular view point.
The point of view is important. Nothing is ever really seen by us as it is, purely. Our experiences color the inputs to our brains that are then interpreted, as is easily demonstrated by any number of examples which I won’t go into now. However, this is all to say that perspective is always limited and distorted. Nevertheless, by sharing our perspectives —like “The Passing Show” — we can get a “fly-eye” view of things and maybe come a little closer to a truth by consensus. That is, IF (and it’s a big IF) we are open-minded and can understand that we really don’t have access to absolute knowledge. We know how things SEEM to us. I know this…and know that I could be wrong and might profit from the perspectives of others. This is all to say, please comment!
Share this post