GRAIN, BEHIND THE EYES (Micro-Short Film)
Ever since I started practicing meditation, my understanding of how ideas works slowly started to shift and gain new perspective. Before, I counted on ideas spontaneously popping up and for some of them, I could almost »see« them when they came. It was not dissimilar to a half-dream, when we’re just about to fall asleep, and in our calmness, images start forming and morphing from one to another. In retrospect, when ideas came, catching them seemed easy – the problem was that they appeared almost at random and couldn’t be called upon. In training mindfulness and being present however, I soon realized that those images are always there and can be harnessed at any point, if we just learn to let go of the need to control our inner life by not reacting to distractions and impulses, or rather, by not actively participating in what our mind throws at us.
By practicing daily, I wanted to carefully notice and observe the images in our mind’s eye and then create my visual representation of how they felt. Very early on, I noticed that when the mind is calm enough, images/ideas appear in black & white. Emotions that pass through our mind can color parts or entire elements. When intrigued by any of those images or ideas, their progression will surely gain color, as we then start to actively participate and interact with the mind. But in their pure form, images behind our eyelids are usually colorless and without a solid form. The latter is always in motion, almost pulsating, not dissimilar to grain. But similar to how AI is trained to “understand” what it’s looking at, we also interpret a likeness to understand it - the more we engage with it, the more we project on it.
To explore how they appear in their raw form in my mind’s eye, free of emotional or intellectual interpretation, I wanted to create a few »snapshots«, captured during mindful calmness. This experimental film is the result.
Snapshots
Mouth Of The River
Shaky Bridge
“I’m here…”
Stairs Up A Hill
The Big ‘Ol Head
Each creative has their own way of catching ideas. For me at least, I have instead found more joy in training myself to notice them. It’s crazy fun to then figure out what to do with them and how they all connect. By continuing to show up daily to meditate, I now understand that summoning images in our minds is like muscle memory – access to them is enabled by shifting focus to the present, allowing a change in perspective to happen. Then, ideas will always come, in their grainy, peaceful, not yet interpreted form. When we learn to let go, we invite images to flow freely. Catching them will be the easy part.