Where you stand affects what you see

David Macaulay, artist and award-winning author, makes me wonder about our large complex story, life. He uses his power as an illustrator to question assumptions and see familiar buildings in unusual ways. It is the first time, for example, that I learned about the phrase "worm's eye view." He used this to describe, as you can probably guess, the view of a building from the ground level. I know only the phrase "bird's eye-view" before I visited the National Building Museum at Judiciary Square today.

His theme "Where you stand affects what you see" invited me to question my assumptions about living (on earth), buildings in the big city, learning, working, making mistakes, volunteering, relationships, and other activities in life where I might not usually apply this sentence. Your perspective depends upon where you stand in every situation, and you should be able to move around to see things from all dimensions.

I am struck by the above sentence. I like to take pictures of light and lines in between the buildings . Instead of taking the front of places and buildings, I usually run to the sides and the backs and try to navigate corners where people might pay little attention to, except perhaps the garbage man who comes regularly to take trash away.

Every day, I find the corners between buildings very fascinating and feel they are inviting areas to reflect upon, even to stand for a few minutes and meditate. I try to see those areas from the "worm's eye view" as David suggests and capture those moments into my daily experience.

I walk to work, walk to the markets, walk to the museums and stop at every single corner where public space permits and try to look at the world with a changing perspective.

David Macaulay wrote the following powerful thought - "I honestly think all of us would be better off if everyone took the time to draw, if for no other reason than the better we see, the more inevitable curiosity becomes. A lack of curiosity is the first step towards visual illiteracy -and by that I mean not really seeing what is going on around us." (1991)

I hope where you stand affects what you see in the world and that you will also be able to change your perspectives accordingly.

I need to go drawing,

bye bye.

TAN