the challenge
Yesterday I played with this ReShape Seed and somehow I was drawn to finding things which are visually similar to the shape.
I wanted to do more with this Seed, so today I will use it for some reflection using the Inner Eye Prism. Instead of looking around for an Insight, I should just close my eyes, think of the Seed, and see what comes up.
my insight
The first thing I thought of when I closed my eyes was The Matrix. Yes, the movie. Or more specifically, I thought about one very distinct visual effect that was created for this movie and was replicated numerous times since then.
Before reflecting on this visual effect, I’ll try to recreate the chain of associations that led me to this Insight.
When I saw the ReShape Seed in my mind, I thought of a ball frozen in midair. I thought about it as if it was almost frozen in time. Now, since this shape is highly abstract and doesn’t include any details, the next association was that of a camera circling this object and capturing it from different directions. In my imagination, I added a background to this shape and I actually saw in my mind a short imaginary clip in which this ball, while being frozen in time, looks like something taken from the Matrix.
Needless to say that if I hadn’t seen the movie years ago, I would have never thought about this association. The point is, that taking some time to reflect on the Seed, to drown in it with my eyes closed and with no distraction, enabled my brain to make this strange and non trivial connection.
Now, you might ask, what’s the point of this exercise? So let’s reflect on this Insight I captured.
reflection
The goal of the Inner Eye Prism is not just to come up with associations, but also to use them for reflection.
I love the Matrix trilogy. I love the story and when it originally came out I was hypnotized by its visual. When I saw The-Making-Of documentary about the Matrix I was amazed to find out how this “Bullet Time” effect was created.
Each scene that used this effect was created by building an array of hundreds of stills cameras — regular DSLRs, all wired together, and then triggering them one after the other in a very short time. In other words, the scene is a combination of hundreds of still photos, each taken from a slightly different angle in a slightly different time.
Obviously, I found that so striking, that I stored this memory, and today it surfaced.
And when it did, I thought about what it could mean to me. I am not shooting movies, and I have only one camera, but I can use this idea metaphorically.
Imagine a bullet-time-button in your head — a button you can push at will to slow down a situation you are part of to bullet-time, and in parallel see the situation from different points of view. Instead of moving forward in time automatically, just freeze the situation for a moment and circle it — look at it from 360 different angles. Would that enable you more control on the outcome of the situation? Would that make the outcome better?
The idea is not new. The metaphor, however, is (at least for me) and I think it can help me put the idea to practice more often and more effectively. Time will tell.
And this entire chain of thoughts inside my brain started with an abstract random shape…
mental notes
- Use random triggers for internal reflection.
- Internal reflection can be a creative activity just like physical creation.
now it is your turn… be creative!