How my phone impacts my experiences and my art-making processes
“You cannot express yourself either unless you can break the experiences down into the components which have become meaningful to you." ~Viktor Lowenfeld on Art Education and Therapy
It is such a great invention, our phone, and the ease with which it allows us to capture any moment with a high-quality picture. Do some people feel the need to document every day through their phone camera? Does your job or social media require you to photograph things in your daily life? Have you ever found yourself confused and questioning why some people spend hours a day looking at images and capturing moments through their phone cameras? Are you one that is stupefied that a person can not pull out their phone and show you the exact moment their two-year-old blew out the candles on her birthday cake? I am not bringing up this subject to ponder whether you have a healthy photography habit but to contemplate how our possible routines surrounding our camera app impact our basic experiences. It is also to be said that I do believe technologies are wonderful resources for the art world and that the access we have to digital programs and equipment is wonderful for the creative process, just that we must be cautious in our use of these technologies if they inhibit our ability to have individualized experiences.
In the words of Viktor Lowenfeld, “only if you become sensitive to your own self and your environment (which includes your neighbors), will you be rich in your life…”. I have recently revisited The Lowenfeld Lectures on Art Education and Therapy and have enjoyed contemplating my artistic path, as well as, the start of my kiddo’s expressive journey. This has prompted me to share some of the directions my thoughts have taken lately. Starting with how we can all be more open to sensitive relationships and foster sensibilities. How can we strive to have basic experiences that foster creative outlets? Lowenfeld says that “to refine our sensory experiences means to break them down into their details.”
I fall under the group of people that hardly ever takes a picture with my phone. I can go days without ever opening the camera app and do not have another camera that I use either. I have to force myself to take pictures in special moments and even when I do I often use one picture as a screensaver for months on end. Sometimes the sun is shining just right through the window or a view is just too unbelievable to not document and I get inspired to capture a moment but I don't make an effort to habitualize this practice. My reasoning is my belief that my phone inhibits my capacity to experience the details of the moment and engage in creative sensitivities. I always seem to miss the best moments if I am looking at my phone to take a picture. Not to mention I snap so many pictures that it becomes a mindless endeavor and a drain on my device’s storage!
“If you haven’t been sensitized to what surrounds you with regard to your sensibilities (that is, sensitive sensory experiences) so that you use your eyes, not just for seeing but for observing and becoming emotionally involved in what you see, and your ears, not just for hearing but for listening and becoming emotionally involved in what you listen to–if you have not experienced that, you have missed a great thing in life and religion…” If I think about what Lowenfeld is talking about here in the context of my phone camera, I can conclude that the technology is preventing me from having a deeper connection to each moment where I utilize it. My phone provides too many distractions, it does not help me focus on the moment but instead disrupts any details I may have noticed. I have said countless times when looking at my phone “What was I going to do on here?” The extensive access to applications and information is immediately overwhelming and distracting, it pulls me out of a moment and muddles my intentions. As an example– it is like pausing a movie in the middle of an action scene, going to the grocery store, coming home to unload and put away groceries, then continuing the movie. This disconnection negates the impact and changes the experience of the moment.
I do love the nostalgia photos can evoke and how they can remind us of a feeling, an achievement, or preserve a memory. I do appreciate the ability to look back through photos and share experiences I have had, but I strive to find a balance between using technology and staying immersed at the moment. When I go for a hike I try to fully immerse myself in the adventure and engage my thinking, feelings, and perception. I will take a moment to pause and observe at the summit and then only after a pause will I get out my camera. A deeper concentration on the details of an experience allows me to catalog these moments and later express them through my creative mediums. I don’t need nor want a photo to recall said experience.
What other things in my life set up roadblocks to sensitive sensory experiences?
"Imagination is a result of not only thinking, not only feeling, and not only perceiving, but, as we all know, of thinking, feeling, and perceiving combined into a unity." ~Lowenfeld
