The Art of Seeing

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the organs of vision are incapable of curing themselves … then the eyes must be totally different in kind from other parts of the body. Given favourable conditions, all other organs tend to free themselves from their defects. Not so the eyes. … it is a waste of time even to try to discover a treatment which will assist nature in its normal task of healing. … An exploration of drawing and mindfulness and how the two combined can support new ways of seeing and relating to drawing. The entire model of culture we laid out earlier now makes sense in a whole new way. “Witchcraft” is not just this strange belief. It is an integral part of their entire culture. Capitalism shapes and is shaped by individualism. Individualism shapes and is shaped by the American political system. The American labor market shapes and is shaped by individualism. This kind of relationship is called “mutual constitution.” Both elements are “constituted” (made up of and made possible by) each other.

The book is not an autobiography, however. Although his own history fuelled his interest in vision, and there are references in passing throughout the book to his own case, it is written as a general study of vision as he came to understand it. [ citation needed] His aim in writing [ edit ]Judging by the title, you may hope that the Art of Seeing has to do with how to be more perceptive in the world or something to that effect, but it is literally about how to improve failing vision. Huxley is hooked on something called the "Bates Method" named for the doctor that invented it. Basically, it recommends that a person often cover their eyes with their palms for a few minutes, practice seeing things far away or near, swing your head around and try to see stuff, and--unbelievably--to "sun" your eyes by looking directly into the sun, albeit for short periods. But perhaps the most important piece of the model is the double arrows, which point to the fact that culture is integrated and dynamic. Change one thing and you change them all. A shift in the environment or a new technology can have profound effects on social structure or worldview, and vice versa. The more I started paying attention to the little things, the more I understood that these local beliefs that I was categorizing as witchcraft were actually just one piece of a much larger, richer, and more convincing worldview. I started noticing the care and concern given to analyzing each and every gift exchange. I noticed how each gift was given along with a short and carefully delivered speech about where the materials came from, who made it, who delivered it, and who cared for it along the way. I noticed how they talked about such gifts as "building a road" or "tying a string" between the two parties so that they would always remember each other. And soon, this careful attention to relationships and the gifts that bind them was helping me understand why dunking a basketball or otherwise showboating, or looking to crush your opponent, is not valued. I started noticing a great deal of concern about jealousy and other elements that could eat away at a relationship.

I was about to find out that the most interesting difference I encountered on that basketball court that day was not the tie game or the interesting method of counting. It was that last thing Kodenim said to me: " People might be jealous." Framing your subject is a very nice way to lead the viewers to your subject, in wildlife especially with adults and young, the young will always try and shelter underneath the parents for protection, giving us opportunities to use the adults as frames as we focus on the young.

Analyze

Suppose that crippled eyes could be transformed into crippled legs. What a heart-rending parade we would witness on a busy street! Nearly every other person would go limping by. Many would be on crutches and some on wheel chairs. We not only choose what we will eat, wear, or drive. We also choose what jobs we will do, who we will marry, and where we will live (mobility). Our political system further enshrines the value of choice as we vote to choose who will represent us and make our laws. This course is supported by Google Classroom as a Virtual Learning Environment. When you log on you will be able to access course material, presentations, and handouts etc. Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

The majority of the book is devoted to the specific techniques of the Bates method, all designed to bring about "relaxation". Huxley distinguishes "passive relaxation", a state of complete repose, from "dynamic relaxation", characterized as "that state of the body and mind which is associated with normal and natural functioning". What eventually emerged from these close and careful observations was an entirely different understanding of health and well-being. They understand themselves to be physically made up of their relationships. It starts from the basic recognition that the food they eat becomes who they are. This is, of course, actually true. We process the food we eat and its energy fuels our growth. For them, every piece of food they ever consume from the time they are a small child is a gift, and they are taught to know where it came from and all of the people that helped bring it into their hands and into their bodies. But the closer we look, the more we find these elements of culture are so intimately connected that there is no way to pull them apart. Instead of saying that one element shapes another, we often say that one element “shapes and is shaped by” another.

Interpretation

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?” — David Foster Wallace There will be opportunity to investigate a variety of drawing materials and approaches, to refresh your drawing or stimulate new directions. What will I achieve? Whatever be the value of the exercises, it is quite unintelligent of Huxley to have confused their advocacy with so many misstatements regarding known scientific facts. It has been shown that the hypothesis upon which these methods of treatment are based is wrong; but Huxley, while admitting he is ignorant of the matter and unqualified to speak, contends that this is of no importance because the method works in practice and gives good results: it comes into the category of "art" not of "science." The argument is perfectly allowable, for in other spheres than medicine empirical methods have often produced effective results the rationale of which may be mysterious. The most stupid feature about his book, however, is that he insists throughout on the physiological mechanism whereby these exercises are supposed to work. It would at least have been logical if he had continued to allow the reader to assume that he was speaking in ignorance of anything except results. . . . In 1920 a doctor in America released a book that induced a hail of vituperation. The bad reception was not the reaction of a public. It came from his own ranks – the ophthalmological and optometrical professions. His peers who treated ills of the eye, the ophthalmologists, joined the prescribers of glasses, the optometrists, in saying that the claims of Dr W H Bates were preposterously and infuriatingly wrong. Offending the good and the great, the book was “Perfect Sight Without Glasses.”

There would appear to be no doubt that these exercises have done Aldous Huxley himself a great deal of good. Every ophthalmologist knows that they have made quite a number of people with a similar functional affliction happy. And every ophthalmologist equally knows that his consulting-room has long been haunted by people whom they have not helped at all.

Symbols

Identify how mindfulness can support new ways of looking, seeing and expressing your experience through drawing. In the 1930s Huxley left for America, buying a house in the Hollywood Hills. The writer was enchanted by the Californian desert, its restful light, by the absence of humans from the immaculate dunes. But a living had to be earned, and, putting aside the sweating out of novels and essays, he looked to writing screenplays for the American film industry. Walt Disney, a recipient of his scripts, was overawed by the literariness of the Englishman, complaining “I can only understand every third word he writes.”