On Filters
"Wherever we go, we are friends" -Sloth and Manatee
Sloth and Manatee
I recently watched a movie from 1974 called “The Conversation” which stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who, shall we say, ends up going a bit off the deep end. There’s a lot to think about, including that its soundtrack definitely formed a basis for or influenced the soundtrack of “Severance.” Also, 70s San Francisco. Part of the Embarcadero being used as an office lobby. Just fascinating.
Anyway, Hackman’s character falls apart because his chosen profession has seeped into his psyche to the point that it has become his entire filter on life. He cannot see anything except as surveillance. Anything he is surprised by or can’t immediately explain goes into the same category. Somebody is watching. And heck, maybe he’s right. You decide!
Have you ever been meeting someone for lunch and they have a beard or they are pregnant or tall or something and suddenly everybody seems to have a beard or be pregnant or tall? We find what we look for.
The world is full of infinite possibilities and ever-expanding entropy, the more that happens the more that happens, and we’ve got to find some way through it. So, we filter.
Take the same stadium full of football fans and five people will see five totally different situations (especially if they are not rooting for the same team). Even though the basic pieces are identical. Multiverse!
Over time, our filters can become defaulte. When this happens, it’s easiest to begin to dump stuff into the same buckets over and over. But that’s limited, and when new information comes to light, well, we miss a whole lot. We generalize and we’re biased and we become oblivious to new weird wonderful things.
Some of us have trouble filtering (raises hand) and this is its own kind of paralysis. That requires work every day, too. Figuring out what matters and fitting it together in a coherent way.
There’s no right or wrong answer here that I’m offering up. It’s pretty clear that we live in a pre-filtered world at this point, in which we receive what we already received, are linked to what we were already linking to, reinforcing a world that only looks backward at what already happened (the opposite of entropy) and that doesn’t exist except for us. But we can, and we must, develop a consciousness of our natural tendency to create and rely on these filters, and how that can box in our whole world, and how breaking that is the path toward learning, and surprise, and empathy, and maybe tall pregnant bearded people.
Brainwaves
Best of Brainwaves Volume One: The Fountain of Stuff
Best of Brainwaves Volume Two: Mom, Dad, I'm a Cat
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Art!
Today is the day of the opening reception at the Orinda Library where I’ve had the privilege to place some 22 pieces in a glass case… what a lovely opportunity. So if you’re in the SF East Bay, come on down to Orinda Saturday, May 31st, 2:30 - 4:30 pm, it’s free and it’ll be a groovy time for all. See you there! Oh, and everything is for sale and benefits the Library/Arts.
Here’s what it all looks like:
Here are some of the pieces in there:
There’s a bunch more - if you see something and want a print, you can go to the Print Shop (linked below, very affordable and they have a lot of sales) or contact me for a signed giclee print, those are going for $95 for a 10×10 on 12×12 paper or $125 for a 12×12 on 14×14 paper, yes yes! (And heck, if the one in the show already sold, I can get another, being prints and all.)
BunnyFrogCatSnake
Things Of The Week
I am reading Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers by friend Kevin Smokler, and enjoying it very much. Kevin is a very good interviewer, and these conversations are very much like getting to hang out with these fascinating people for a little while.
I am also listening to Ways of Being by James Bridle. It is a very good companion to An Immense World by Ed Yong (which by the way has a Young Readers Edition out now - for which I am of course in love with the cover art).
Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.
May you find what you are looking for, may you find what you are not looking for, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy
HELLO AND THANKS FOR READING!!
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