Читать книгу The Matter of Vision - Peter Wyeth - Страница 28

i.

The history of all hitherto existing societies has been the prisoner of three stern gaolers Language, Consciousness and Reason

These pillars of being human

evolved ideologies

reducing their opposites

Language demotes Vision

Consciousness masks the Automatic

Reason condescends to Emotion

Verbal and ‘Non-Verbal’

Conscious and ‘Un-conscious’

Reason and ‘Un-reason’

We are aware of the ‘non-verbal’

even as we deny it a name

We are aware of the un-conscious

even as we deny it a word of its own

We are most aware of Emotion

but demote it opposite Reason

Man can have Emotion without Reason

But not Reason without Emotion.

Reason is in fact contingent upon Emotion

The opposite of the ideology of Reason

Emotion is the primary fact

of our existence

It surrounds Reason and Consciousness

and suffuses Language

Emotion is the heart of the brain

ii

Language, Consciousness and Reason

The trinity think themselves the foundations of civilisation

but hold back man’s development.

It is not LCR themselves that is the problem

But how man sees them.

Each has developed its own Ideology

to protect it from the threat

perceived in its opposite.

Each has become a

thing in itself

an artefact

(of ideology)

with a boundary to protect

Each one reacts like an animal

feeling a threat

to its territory.

iii

Language

Language is a chimaera.

Language is blind.

Vision is so much older than Language

The upstart attempts to usurp the veteran

waging ceaseless war against its superior

claiming hegemony against the odds.

To grasp the full depth of Vision

can encourage Language to place itself in its service

Verbal and ‘Non-Verbal’ intelligence.

Visual intelligence is not on the agenda

not recognised as a thing in itself

Only a negative form.

With Consciousness

There is the Conscious

Opposed to the Un-conscious

Merely the negative form

As though the Conscious

Was the dominant mode

And the rest of minor significance.

iv

Consciousness & The Automatic

Consciousness is perhaps one millionth of the senses*. The Automatic is the million – minus the one of consciousness.

(*Trincker 1965 “only one millionth of what our eyes see, our ears hear, and our other senses inform us about appears in our consciousness”⁷³).

Until we grasp the scope of the Automatic

we will remain imprisoned within Consciousness.

Consciousness

processes around 10 bits per second of information

The area beyond Consciousness

Here called the Automatic

Has perhaps

three-hundred million billion connections in the brain

Consciousness

the tip of the tip of the iceberg

v

Reason

Reason is a noble ambition.

Mankind is unreasonable.

Man is inevitably imprisoned in his own subjectivity

Not reason but rationalisation.

Reason can be opposed to unreason

Or to Emotion.

Emotion can exist without Reason

Reason cannot exist without Emotion

Yet the Ideology of Reason

Deems it superior to Emotion.

vi

LCR ideologies

In each case

ideology

sets out to conceal

reality

Each of the trinity

has a lesser role

in the mind of man

than they would have you believe.

Language believes itself the medium of thought

Consciousness believes it runs the brain

Reason believes it is objective.

None are true.

Language is not the medium of thought, but Vision

Consciousness is a millionth of brain activity, the rest is Automatic

Reason is (and should always be) at the behest of Emotion

(David Hume⁷⁴)

Language is inferior to the Visual

Culture protests the opposite.

Consciousness is a tiny part of brain activity.

Man’s ego cannot believe that to be the case.

Reason needs Emotion.

Emotion does not need Reason.

Reason is unthroned.

Language, Consciousness and Reason

as we presently conceive of them

conceal rather than reveal

the truth.

vii

Vision

Knowledge is Vision

Show not tell

Knowledge is Vision

All true knowledge resides in Vision

and in Vision alone.

What we cannot see we cannot fully know

Vision can exist without Consciousness

The eye sees more than Consciousness knows

We see more than we know

viii

Thought

Vision is the medium of thought

Thought is produced in images

Thought is not produced in Language

Thought does not originate in Language

Thought is translated into Language

Thought exceeds Language

as

Vision exceeds Language

Poetry aspires to the condition of Vision

Language is specific to man

But man existed without Language

(And perhaps will so again)

Vision is not specific to man

But man cannot exist without Vision

Vision sees everything

ix

Emotion

Man’s attention is captured only by Emotion.

Man grants significance only to what arouses Emotion.

Emotion is the dimension of survival.

The survival instinct is a continuum

from life or death, love or hate, to like or dislike . . .

The raw material of the brain is Emotion.

Emotion ignites the brain, sets it in motion.

Motion/Emotion.

The brain and the body are set in motion only by Emotion.

The brain and the body respond to threats to survival, near or far, with Emotion.

Without Emotion man’s interest quickly wanes.

Emotion is the motor of fascination, the engine of interest.

For Spinoza, mind and body are one.

Against Descartes, who has them (mainly) distinct.

Man is a system that integrates mind and body

through the fuel of Emotion.

Their common element is survival.

Survival is Emotion.

The narratives of meaning in the mind are wordless.

They are images, visual mainly, but not solely.

Sound comes next, and some distance beyond

taste and feel.

Wordless storytelling is natural

Language is not necessary for the self⁷⁵.

The self is pre-language, composed

of images,

memory, reason.

Language is not required.

Objects of attention become subjects through the magnet of Emotion.

Without Emotion man does not pause but passes on.

From all possible object of attention

Man selects only those with affect (with Emotion)

Objects without Emotion are without meaning.

Meaning and Emotion are one.

Meaning is Emotion

Without emotion we don’t care

the emotion-engine is not engaged.

Care is subjective.

We care about what has engaged our Emotions.

Emotion is life in motion.

Motion is the founding moment of Life.

Life seeks survival.

Emotion is the reflection of that desire.

We care about things only insofar as they are related to survival.

Disinterested caring does not exist.

Selflessness is selfish as mutual interest aids survival.

Altruism has evolutionary purpose.

We are altruistic only better to survive.

Morality cannot be superimposed on evolution

nor extracted from evolution.

Evolution is disinterested.

It is.

Emotion is the engine of life⁷⁶.

x

The Automatic

Consciousness handles ten bits per second⁷⁷ The brain absorbs eleven million

Eleven million minus ten

with no word of its own.

Conscious and unconscious

ten v eleven million.

Un-conscious not just not conscious

but automatic all the time.

Automatic.

We are not aware of it.

Without our knowing

a billion tasks a second.

The Automatic.

If most of a film enters the brain

outside consciousness

enters the Automatic.

Then

Cinema a treasure-trove

of the Automatic.

experimental design

untangles

Conscious from Automatic

a priority for

Affective Neurobiology & Cinema