Slow Looking

Learned a new phrase, Slow Looking: Looking at something with "Attention" and 'Intention''. Thoroughly looking without rushing to an interpretation.

Is that the same thing as "observation" I wonder?

A thorough observation

I've been surprised by how many people just don't look properly.  It's particularly noticeable in a beginner's art class.  Drawing things that can't be seen, like a table leg, invisible because of the perspective, for example.  [Very Impressionistic]  Perhaps it's a skill that needs to be taught.   I expect it was built in to our hunter gatherer ancestors!  

I remember in art in school doing exercises in 'negative shapes' - looking at the gaps between objects rather than the objects themselves.



It definitely helped me with stopping distortion - it's easy to exaggerate aspects which seem more significant, like faces or flowers, although this can be a feature in itself of course.

What details do we miss in life?  What can we learn by using slow looking?

It is a real concept that can be used in all aspects of life.

All of my looking is slow looking.  With my visual impairment I was born with I don't have the ability to "accidentally" see anything so its all very intentional and takes time.  People probably misinterpret this but I can't work my life around them and their lack of awareness of the minutia of my life.  When I'm on a walk I'm absorbing things the way others might absorb things when they're eating.

I am with Riona.  I have gone blind 2x in my life.  I don’t take vision casually.  While my vision is good enough to drive, one eye has far poorer vision. Therefore, I tend to turn my head more to examine any given situation if I am looking for details.

As an avid student of the natural world who also forages a significant part of their diet from the wild, early on it became clear to me that the degree of my education and success had everything to do with the level of my focus and attention. That might sound obvious, but to consciously marry one’s brain to one’s eyes is much harder than it might sound, especially in today’s world of endless curated distractions.

An example that I live every year: I am looking for morel mushrooms in promising habitat at the proper time. My basket slowly fills as I seek and find what I know to be there, among the duff and eager spring greenery.

All too often, in this act of looking with attention for a very specific thing, I will keep my hunting eyes turned on - directed to alert me to any soft-edged pinecones, in this case - but my mind will inevitably start to wander. I replay conversations had in my recent past and imagine the clever responses that eluded me, I compose shopping lists, I make plans for what comes next. And I find mushrooms, too, and have a nice time. But I will not find nearly as many, not even close. And it will be a sort of half experience.

Nowadays, when I notice my mind wandering away from my eyes while engaging in active looking, I gently bring it back, and I ask myself, not, ’Where are the morels (or whatever else I might be searching for) ’, but, ‘What is right here, right now?’

With an open and focused mind I use my eyes like the exquisite tools they are. And all too often, along with greater bounty, I will find things unlooked for that could have easily passed me by had I been in that half on, half off, state. My capacity to learn is enhanced, as is my capacity to find. Mindful meditation in practice.

I've always been fascinated by how we all seem to see the things we're most interested in, and interpret them according to our own experiences. A bit of a case of seeing things not how they are, but how we are.

Here's an example of a typical conversation with my other half while driving somewhere new...

"What's that?"

"Looks like a Tesla..."

"No I meant the ginormous dragony sculpture in the middle of the roundabout. Or is it a phoenix rising from the ashes?"

"Dunno. Never saw it."

"Oh well, I never the saw the Tesla either..."

"Oh it was just a normal model S, nothing extraordinary..."



Turns out it's Icarus' Dialogue with the Sun.

Still looks more like a dragon to me...

Original photo and more info here.

Burra Maluca wrote:Here's an example of a typical conversation with my other half while driving somewhere new...

I can relate too that, and also guess who was driving! and I think that is an interesting point - what we are doing and what we are concentrating on will have a filtering effect on what we notice.

Here is my example: drive down a new street note what you see.
Next ride a bicycle down the same street and what do you see?

Finally walk down this same street and what do you see this time?

If you really look you should be amazed at the difference.

Prime example of "Slow Looking".

Maybe that's what I like most about bicycle rides: looking around and see what you're passing by. Especially while I'm riding a bike path through nature (the kind the Netherlands is known for).

I think it's more difficult while driving a car, because then you need to participate in the traffic while you're going fast. I mean faster than a bicycle.

Maybe when walking it's even easier.

The book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" addresses how most people "see" using their left brain. The author gives you exercises to see through the use of your right brain, and it's amazing what's in front of you that you never noticed before. Long ago, the new idea of a left brain and right brain was somewhat over simplified and they were treated as almost completely different organs. Then it was discovered that both sides of the brain actually share many of the same systems that are all operating at once, so the idea of "left brain and right brain" was debunked. But then later, the debunk was undebunked, because even though both sides have many of the same systems going at the same time, each side is still highly specialized in how it uses those same systems.

J. Adams wrote:The book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" addresses how most people "see" using their left brain. The author gives you exercises to see through the use of your right brain, and it's amazing what's in front of you that you never noticed before. Long ago, the new idea of a left brain and right brain was somewhat over simplified and they were treated as almost completely different organs. Then it was discovered that both sides of the brain actually share many of the same systems that are all operating at once, so the idea of "left brain and right brain" was debunked. But then later, the debunk was undebunked, because even though both sides have many of the same systems going at the same time, each side is still highly specialized in how it uses those same systems.

Many years ago I discovered a Dutch translation of that book (it must have been in the 1980s). It helped me 'draw what I see' (and see what I look at). Drawing/sketching became much more motivating and I do it ever since then.  
I don't mind if this 'left and right brain' is scientifically correct, but no matter how you call it, it works!