‘Psychical
Distance’
My
thoughts, reaction, and connections
Temporal distance= according to our
reading, “Psychical Distance,” is the metaphorical meaning represented by that
art piece, which often leads to misconception. Why? We’re about to dig a little
deeper as to why there are many misconception in both art and in life!
To summarize the illustration of
experiencing ‘fog’ at sea as humans, there are two possibly feelings of emotion
or perspectives we can have. The article describes the first reaction to the
fog as fear, anxiety, and nervousness. The second feeling is joy, where the
body and senses take in every unknown dynamic of the fog’s outcome and the possibilities.
I thought this was a unique way to describe “Psychical distance” in how people
interpret or see art. The lesson that I took from the illustration is that one
painting can have multiple meanings partly due to how people perceive the meaning
of the painting. Maybe the artist does this on purpose, or maybe it’s just in
our own head. Is the main theme of this illustration that no perspective is
more correct than the other?
The fog illustration in “Psychical
Distance,” is similar to the activity we did last class in terms of multiple perspectives
being demonstrated from the same setting and time of observation. Our group had
four members and although we were at the coffee shop at the same time, we are
reported our observation a little differently from one another. One of the
members in our group reported more about the noises they heard, while I
reported more observation of facial expressions and body. This brings me to a
question---why do we choose to focus
our attention on certain dynamics of our surrounding? I don’t really know the
answer to that question.
The article goes on to say that
putting one’s own initial thought aside about what the meaning is of a piece of
art, and then objectively observe it again. A way to exercise this alternate
way of thinking, is you could pretend to be someone else---someone opposite of
you. What would they see? How do you think they would perceive that art piece?
The funny thing about this exercise is, no one ever really knows what another person is thinking or feeling, but can
collect evidence to support it and make a conclusion. The conclusion can most definitely
be wrong though! But it could also be right…
The United States is known as an individualistic
society and culture--- I think sometimes seeing alternate perspectives from our
own doesn’t come as natural as we like to admit. Why do I say this? I am linking back to the word individualistic. An example which
demonstrates this mentality is in the United States generally one is more
likely to get praise and accolades by a personal accomplishment then one who’s
standard of accomplishment is defined by bettering the whole (the meaning of what accomplishment looks like can vary
between different cultures, society’s norms, and other factors).
The main point that I took away
from this article it is impossible to know what exactly someone else is feeling,
thinking, ect. Acknowledging that there are
multiple perspectives that can stem from one scene, interaction, or observation
is important in becoming a mindful and aware person.
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