the art of memory

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

it is a furry animal - the stars are silver hairs

stan brakhage - prelude - dog star man - 1964
(cat abstractions from the prelude)
(title from brakhage's the stars are beautiful)
(the same cat found in cat's cradle?)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

plato's cave (the visible region)

stan brakhage - dog star man - 1964
(representations of plato's cave)

"imagine mankind as dwelling in an underground cave with a long entrance open to the light across the whole width of the cave; in this they have been from childhood, with necks and legs fettered, so they have to stay where they are. they cannot move their heads round because of the fetters, and they can only look forward, but light comes to them from fire burning behind them higher up at a distance. between the fire and the prisoners is a road above their level, and along it imagine a low wall has been built, as puppet showmen have screens in front of their people over which they work their puppets."

"i see," he said.

"see, then, bearers carrying along this wall all sorts of articles which they hold projecting above the wall, statues of men and other living things, made of stone or wood and all kinds of stuff, some of the bearers speaking and some silent, as you might expect."

"what a remarkable image," he said, "and what remarkable prisoners!"

"just like ourselves," i said. "for, first of all, tell me this: what do you think such people would have seen of themselves and each other except their shadows, which the fire cast on the opposite wall of the cave?"

"i don't see how they could see anything else," said he, "if they were compelled to keep their heads unmoving all their lives!"

"very well, what of the things being carried along? would not this be the same?"

"of course it would."

"suppose the prisoners were able to talk together, don't you think that when they named the shadows which they saw passing they would believe they were naming things?"

"necessarily."

"then if their prison had an echo from the opposite wall, whenever one of the passing bearers uttered a sound, would they not suppose that the passing shadow must be making the sound? don't you think so?"

"indeed i do," he said.

"if so," said i, "such persons would certainly believe that there were no realities except those shadows of handmade things."

"so it must be," said he.

"now consider," said i, "what their release would be like, and their cure from these fetters and their folly; let us imagine whether it might naturally be something like this. one might be released, and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round, and to walk and look towards the firelight; all this would hurt him, and he would be too much dazzled to see distinctly those things whose shadows he had seen before. what do you think he would say, if someone told him that what he saw before was foolery, but now he saw more rightly, being a bit nearer reality and turned towards what was a little more real? what if he were shown each of the passing things, and compelled by questions to answer what each one was? don't you think he would be puzzled, and believe what he saw before was more true than what was shown to him now?"

"far more," he said.

"then suppose he were compelled to look towards the real light it would hurt his eyes, and he would escape by turning them away to the things which he was able to look at, and these he would believe to be clearer than what was being shown to him."

"just so," said he.

"suppose, now," said i, "that someone should drag him thence by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, and never stop until he could drag him out into the light of the sun, would he not be distressed and furious at being dragged; and when he came into the light, the brilliance would fill his eyes and he would not be able to see even one of the things now called real?"

"that he would not," said he, "all of a sudden."

"he would have to get used to it, surely, i think, if he is to see the things above. first he would most easily look at shadows, after that images of mankind and the rest in water, lastly the things themselves. after this he would find it easier to survey by night the heavens themselves and all that is in them, gazing at the light of the stars and moon, rather than by day the sun and the sun's light."

"of course."

"last of all, i suppose, the sun; he could look on the sun itself by itself in its own place, and see what it is like, not reflections of it in the water or as it appears in some alien setting."

"necessarily," said he.

"and only after all this he might reason about it, how this is he who provides seasons and years, and is set over all there is in the visible region, and he is in a manner the cause of all things which they saw"

"yes, it is clear," said he, "that after all that, he would come to this last."

w.h.d. rouse's translation of book VII from plato's the republic - the great dialogues of plato - 1956
thanks for robert motherwell and steve anker for making more clear this invisible region
also of note - stan brakhage's visions in meditation #3: plato's cave

images found in: 23 minutes, 27 minutes, 47 minutes, 51 minutes, 58 minutes, 59 minutes, and last, 60 minutes

after long periods in darkness

the blackest moments from
stan brakhage - the dark tower - 1999
(an homage to all the dark towers in literary history)

darkness itself can be a rich realm of vision for the "untutored eye". it reveals ephemeral shapes and patterns of light seen when the eyes are closed. known as phosphenes, these "wispy clouds and moving specks of light," as gerald oster describes them, may arise spontaneously, not only when the eyes are closed but whenever "the viewer is subjected to prolonged visual deprivation," as when he or she looks for hours at a blank screen. phosphenes are also produced by physical pressure on the eyes - from the light tough of a fingertip on the eyelid, to the violent jolt produced by a fall or a blow to the head (when we "see stars"). they can result from sudden movements of the eyes after long periods in darkness, and they can be stimulated by chemical agents (from alcohol to hallucinogenic drugs), electrical shocks, migraine headaches.

from william c. wees' light moving in time - studies in the visual aesthetics of avant-garde film - univ. of california press - 1992 - page 70 - giving light to the medium: stan brakhage

Saturday, September 5, 2009

any gathering of dust motes in the light records the passage of angels

stan brakhage - the wold shadow - 1972

angels

... move thru the shadow in a diffraction of light -
the doors of illumination / home of angelical forces (as george
macdonald would have it: "... home ... is the only place where
you can go out and in.") ...
... and the shadows of shadows are the shadows of angels ...
... and the fixed instants of constantly changing shapes are the pic-
tures they take of themselves:
a smoke pattern in the hearth's wall,
a cloud held in the mind's eye,
a face in tree leaves ...
the home movies of angels are qualities of light held as if in mid
air -

from angels by stan brakhage, found in brakhage scrapbook: collected writings 1964-1980 - documentext - 1982