If You Can Raed Tihs, You Msut Be Raelly Smrat
"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."
(Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511177,00.html#ixzz2Rmy2eruK)
Many people have seen the above email circulating (or something like it) with missing letters in the body of text. While the article posted actually explains more of the nuances to this trick, and critiques the claim, the idea remains:
We learn to recognize the symbols of language, organize them, and then build higher structures of thought and systems of reasoning around them. As Dr. Ulmer says in our class, the Greeks didn't start with Astrophysics, they started with the alphabet and built up from there.
Even if the letters are switched a bit, as readers, we go with the most likely options, produced by years of reading and pattern recognition.
So, we have been discussing a 'shifting of the gaze' from the tourist mentality - co-opting the institution of tourism to understand the idea of travel, attractions, fame, and iconography. Smithson built on these ideas by engaging the site/nonsite and the (w)hole of blind spots and perception. Now, Ackerman is mapping the senses, explain the institution of our physical perception and connecting it to our archive of knowledge, our memories and associations.
Like the email above, we need to 'trick' our brain - using the sense patterns that we already know to shift the focus, to surprise, yet re-collect and re-connect.
I have been perusing my own archive (as well as the Internets) and was reminded of several patterns and shifts that juxtapose and recreate meaning - having an impact on the senses.
The first, was Magic Eye.
You remember that craze not so long ago:
(Scene from Mallrats)
Well, this is my attempt to 're-vision' Smithson's idea of entropy through the Magic Eye:
I don't want to spoil it for you, but to avoid the above frustration by 'the sailboat' - I will just tell you that I took Smithsons grid and imposed a circle/wheel in the middle. What was a bit unexpected was the visual blurring (or at least that is what I am calling it) that kinda looks like a slow motion bullet, cutting through the pattern. My original intention was to merely imbed/'magic eye' the circle over the grid to represent both my Significator card of the Chariot (the force of will in a difficult journey) as well as the idea of community - that we are all connected, mapped onto a place, space, and time and collectively impact that environment.
Yet, when the magic eye image formed, the 'blurring' echoed the entropy of Smithson's woodshed, visually representing the slowly seeping poison moving into our soil and water supply. And the associations of the Chariot seemed even more apt in this situation:
Using the same magic eye generator, I reconfigured the background as a map of Alachua county:
While the 'entropy' is more subtle, the effect still remains. We, as a community, in our appetitive desire, started the slowly building force that is presently harming our environment and community - and threatening to spread.
To me, thus far, this visual trope works well to represent 'The Accident'
And it was a bit of a happy 'accident'
Isn't that the fun of omens and interpretations?! :)
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