For a few weeks now my left brain has been absorbed in the details of implementing a client's web site. Being wedded to a tight deadline and having already done all the loose, creative design stuff, I'm now focused almost exclusively on solving the challenges of writing computer code in what is still a new territory for me. It's a great way to get to know the nitty-gritty details of how to build a modern, 'AJAX driven' web application.
I'm having a lot of fun crawling around in the technological basement, banging on pipes, tightening bolts and hammering things together - but that other part of me, the right brain bit that breathes fresh air, is feeling a bit forgotten. Yes, I miss those marvellously irresponsible reflections on non-virtual reality (AKA 'reality') where my art-trained eye would find, even within the most inane incidents in life, a degree of pleasure, amusement and inspiration.
So today I'm going to set the balance right a bit. It's early in the morning and my left brain has not yet drunk the Kool-Aid of intoxifying madness that we know as software development. Before my vision becomes obscured with the left brain clutter of server-side scripts, callback functions and object-oriented design principles, I want to invite you on a short tour of my neighbourhood and to stretch those imagination muscles a little bit.
Let's take a look at this reality thing and see if we can open our eyes to more of what's right there before us. It will only take a couple of minutes but I do ask one thing - please leave your logic sniffing left brains behind. We don't have much time and left brains have a habit of wanting to stop at every conceptual fire hydrant and lamp post to stake their claims.
Right brains, on the other hand flitter about like butterflies and attach themselves to nothing. It's hard to break the habit of codifying reality - it took me four years of art school for me to begin to do it - but if you're up for the challenge, keep scrolling down the screen and we'll give it a try.
But first I want to tell you about something that I've been noticing a lot lately when I stroll around my neighbourhood : the streets are covered with unframed, incidental art.
By what?
By unframed, incidental art.
Technically, this is a contradiction in terms because an object only gets to be considered an 'Objet d'Art'* when it meets at least these two criteria:
" it does not exist incidentally but was created on purpose
" it has a frame around it
Objet d'Art? Art object? Wait, this is a right brain holiday and in order to really leave the left brain luggage behind we have to forget about collecting objects. To take this trip we have to open ourselves up to experiencing subjects.
Your left brain may be stuck on a conceptual lamp post with this one but trust me, let's keep moving. The left-brain-eye will want to measure the quantity of things. The right-brain-eye simply sees the quality of an experience.**
The lightness of subject oriented being flits from one area to another, sensing connection without feeling obliged to hammer things together. Objects are heavy and cannot be carried by this fleeting awareness. The artist's eye does not see light but breaths it.
Are you ready to drink the subject oriented Kool-Aid? Are you ready to open your eyes to see what's in my neighbourhood now?
I won't say more except that this 'unframed, incidental art' is loose on the street and most people just walk over it without ever noticing it. That's the unframed bit. It was generated by utilities workers who may or may not have had a conscious awareness of any aesthetic value to what they were doing. That's the incidental bit. But in my estimation, what they have produced is equally as beautiful and moving as anything I have ever seen in an art gallery. That's the art bit. It's sort of a real-world-authentic-user-generated-content thing.
So now I ask you to scroll a bit further to take a look. If you can, shut the office door, turn off your cell phone and give these pics a few quiet minutes of your time. Your left brain won't like this a bit. Just tell it to shut up. If you are lucky, you might catch something that is appealing to your inner eye.
There. It's over. I hope you enjoyed this little subject-oriented trip. If you are still puzzled by all this and finding yourself sniffing for logical explanations, try another right brain exercise. Cast your imagination back to a time, say 25 years ago, when you had never seen a computer with a graphical user interface such as the one you are looking at right now. Forget what you know about Windows or Mac or Web Pages in general. Look at what you are seeing right now with the eye of someone from a pre-computer world.
What do you make of all the marks and symbols that fill your vision? If you are really able to imagine that pre-computer state of mind, the chances are you will see the same kind of visual gobbledygook on your screen that you perhaps see in these images of my street. Perhaps you will taste a bit of the way these things speak to us through arrangements of special signs and markings that imply connections more than speaking them literally.
This subtle state of awareness is something we all have but may not consciously use. It may be generally masked by the dominance of our left brained culture but it is still there, working away in the background, feeding the left brain with possibilities. It is a subtle aspect of human perception that all software designers need to know about.
Now, back to those callback functions...
Footnotes
*For a definition of 'Objet d'art' try here.
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** 'Left-brain-eye' and 'right-brain-eye' are made up terms that are useful to identify the two perspectives of object-oriented and subject-oriented ways of seeing. In fact the neural 'wiring' of the vision system is such that half the neurons from each eye are connected to opposite sides of the brain. It's a remarkable characteristic of human biological evolution.
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