In the narrative facet ofthe “Bear 71” multimedia documentary, the anthropomorphized female grizzly bear quoted an old saying that put this week’s theme into some perspective:
“A pine needle fell in the forest. The eagle saw it fall. The deer heard it. The bear smelled it.”
It’s interesting to speculate what the sage who thought up this saying will say if she was also on the scene. How would a human being sense the reality of the falling pine needle using the best of her perceptive powers?
Because I think that the real point of that saying is not just that we perceive things differently based on our unique circumstances, but that some means of perception are more optimal than others.
The eagle saw more of the pine needle. The deer heard it first. The bear smelled it more. Humans would probably see, hear and smell less than the eagle, deer and bear respectively but we’ll probably have a more multi-faceted experience of the event because we also have our memories, sentiments and hopes and not just the raw data of the physical senses.
It’s no accident of semantics that when we talk about things “making sense,” we are referring to our inner perception rather than immediate reality. We probably really are digital creatures from the start, as Charlie Gere is implying, because breaking reality up into bits and pieces (whether through software codes or scraps of memories and feelings) seems to be the best way we get a handle on the shapeless blob of existence.
I think the expanded documentary projects we explored this week work best when they begin with that basic premise that it’s not reality per se but its contextual meaning that matter.
The Triangle Fire Open Archive augment collective memories of a long-ago event by having real museum objects that have stories to tell. The “Localore” projects weave a web of authentic memories, sentiments and hopes relating to anything from climate change to local music and Chinese takeout within clearly circumscribed contexts.
Grace, you are spiralling around some beautiful realities of these projects…contemplation, slowness in an ephemeral, throw-away screen world, form and the content it holds, and how these fragments are combined into a coherent narrative reality…
Weaving real and truthful webs that hover between “reality” of an actual object and its impermanent memory collected on an internet archive. Triangle Fire moves among many layers of historical reality — form the closets and attics, to collective memory of a highly significant American tragedy in the early 20th century that rocked the labor movement. How will 9-11 be remembered in 100 years?