The naked eye or seeing dynamically refers to a direct, alive, and creative way of seeing. To an alert mind, it can happen anywhere at any time. In contemplative photography, the ‘flash of perception’ 1 is such a naked – eye moment. Artists, in particular, attribute great importance to the dynamic quality of seeing. If it is absent the photograph, painting or sculpture is dead. Metaphors related to “movement” or “motion” are commonly used to describe the dynamic dimension of works of art.
Traditionally, the source of ‘seeing’ motion or ‘e-motion’ is assumed to be in the viewer’s past experience or memory. However, from an empirical perspective, this is not the case. The source is experienced as external and is not to be found in ideas, memories, imagination, concepts, or emotions. We will explore this issue by looking at the difference between the sense of hearing and the sense of seeing.
First, I start with the sense of hearing because, for most of us, no special effort is required to hear motion in tones when they form a melody. Melodies move us because their dynamic quality touches our hearts directly. We hear it instantly and spontaneously start humming, singing or moving without knowing anything about music. In contrast, when we open our eyes, we find ourselves connected to a world of objects, things, ideas, and concepts. It is a static world that hardly could be felt as being alive. Consequently, it is more difficult for the eye to penetrate and respond to the dynamic quality in the visible world than in the audible.
Showing the parallel between the audible and the visible helps clarify what we mean by seeing dynamically. First, we will start with what it means to hear dynamically.
To hear dynamically is to hear motion.
Tones, inspired by the sounds of nature, are phenomena of the external world. You can only know a tone by hearing it. They are not attached to things or objects. Hearing a melody does not belong to the physical or psychological. We grasp it as a whole, as one. It opens up a third dimension – a dynamic one. We hear motion because the tones in a melody area active and relate to each other. What we hear are forces that push in opposing directions. Ambiguity is its most potent ingredient, creating tension that violates our expectations 2 . Traditionally, tones are said to express our emotions – a superficial correlation. Music is not a language of emotions. Tones do not represent our feelings but help us share what is happening 3 .
How do tones come alive, become dynamic and form a melody in the listener’s mind?
Zuckerkandl aptly describes tones as crystallized sounds. They are not sent from within us to the external world – it is the other way around. When we hear tones as a musical event, non-sensory functions are involved. The tone heard is unrelated to a tone remembered or expected. We can hear the striving, the tension, the pressing ahead of the unstable tones, and we relax when they find a temporary rest.
‘Hearing motion’ in music means hearing what is happening between the tones. The in-betweenness, the transition from one tone to another, moves us and resonates with us 4 . This dynamic dimension is not a passage to another reality – it is hearing without distortion. Perceiving tonal motion unifies, dissolves boundaries, and gives life to what we hear.
To see dynamically
The equivalent of the melody in the audible is the ‘flash of perception’ in the visible. The latter happens only under special conditions: when we are actively present 5 . Seeing directly consists of experiencing the effects of visual forces. Like in the audible, they direct and heighten, reduce or relax tension in the observer. For most of us, it requires practice to open up and become aware of their impact because we identify so strongly with seeing objects and things. They function as a screen hiding what is behind it. Learning to see dynamically makes this screen transparent and exposes us to the effects of visual forces that are always present.
To be blind to the dynamic qualities is like being deaf to the audible motion of a melody, hearing only the acoustical, physical qualities. When you give yourself unreservedly, you feel the impact of this force that resonates with you, takes hold of you, captures you, and leaves no space for anything else. It is immediate. Nothing in the brain corresponds to it; you cannot record it. The dynamic quality that gives meaning is in the flash. Its origin is neither physical nor psychological. The feelings we express are the effect, not the cause, of the flash. They do not represent specific personal emotions.
The flash reverses the relation between “I” and “eye”: Now, the “I” is no longer in charge, has no longer expectations, no purpose and no goals. It explains why the photographic equivalent of the flash is not felt as something made by oneself. It happens without a deliberate effort by oneself.
Summary
All sense organs are capable of directly perceiving the dynamic component. Our sense organs are not separate recording devices operating for their own sake 6 . This fact is easily overlooked when we see the world only objectively. In the ear, the dynamic dimension is easily heard as audible motion. In the visible, the ‘flash of perception’ moves and inspires us, provided we are attentive.
The perceived impact of these forces colors our experience and helps us to communicate with the environment. It is not self-expression, romanticizing or pouring out what you feel inside. The ‘flash of perception’ does not represent our feelings but represents subjectivity objectively. Traditionally, psychologists see this subjectivity as being generated from within, and cognitive scientists see it as an emergent property of the brain. In contrast, for the fully present one, the dynamic dimension is experienced as an external event that unifies body and mind, giving life to what we see.
Notes
- Karr Andy & Wood Michael, The practice of Contemplative Photography, Boston &London: Shambala, 2011, pp 91-95.
- Bernstein Leonard, Bernstein at Harvard, Norton Lectures, 1973.
- Zuckerkandl Victor, The Sense of Music, Princeton University Press, 1959.
- Zuckerkandl Victor, Man the Musician, Bollinger Series XLIV, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, 1959.
- Mohelsky Helmut, What Does It Mean to Be Present? In: Seeing With Your Own Eyes, Helmut Mohelsky, The Zen of Photography, pp 9-10; 2019.
- Arnheim Rudolf, Art and Visual Perception, The New Version. University California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles, London, 1974.