idream of obstacles
01 Written by Will Conway on Thursday the 20th of January 2011
(I just found this on my computer so I thought I'd post it)
I was pestered by dreams last night of incorrect passwords and screens freezing, as well as spooning an ex girlfriend but not having sex. I couldn't get the screen lock off my mobile to make an important call and my computer was not working. There were flashes of dystopian shopping centres and automated services as well as locked doors with no handle. Access denied was clearly the motif.
Waking from dreams like that always depresses me somewhat. I hate when modern technology infiltrates my unconscious rest. How sad it is to be dreaming of technology. The idea of some committee of designers shaping the texture of my thoughts actually offends me when I think of it.
As our brains are filled with more and more smaller pieces of information and new 'smarter' (easier) ways of processing this information, our lives seem more and more hectic and it's no surprise that it makes me dream more and more frenetically.
I'm not sure why it should depress me though. Our minds at rest, in trance states or under the influence of drugs will only ever reflect the contents of our lives, no matter how skewed, fractured or confused.
Medieval knights would have visions of angels that looked like their contemporary artwork and acted like they should from their available literature and tales; tribal shamans have spiritual messages from their surrounding totemic animals and idream about my bloody itelephone.
Progress is a funny word. It sounds so positive but all it means really is to move forward. There are those who theorise that we have overtaken evolution because of our grasp of technology, in that we construct a lift rather than develop stronger leg muscles over hundreds of years, and perhaps it is human minds that are constantly 'evolving' rather than our bodies.
I think that we are still evolving, our hearing must have developed to take in digital sound, electronically produced music through earphones either inserted into or smothering our ears. If you played Venetian Snares to someone a hundred years ago their brain would probably shut down. Bleeps and synths and reversed voices originally devised nearly fifty years ago by engineers on drugs have become commonplace now. Today it seems almost legislated that every pop record uses that awful vocoder as if these faceless nobodies' voices weren't painful enough.
So apart from the quality of our singing, how else is humankind progressing? In many parts of the world we are more overweight than we have ever been. Hooray! And even our healthy specimens look different. Compare the barrel-chested Victorian strongman or stout Charles Atlas to the red-ripped hulk with boy-band abs.
Anyway, back to the dream...
I suppose the point is that my dream about frustration is going to be a dream about frustration, whatever the exact content comprises. People will always struggle with what is going on around them and clash with the manifestations of their annoyance. And it is easy to see other people and objects as obstacles to our advance.
At first glance being at odds with your environment seems contrary to survival. Harmony with your surroundings must lead to an easy life. Survival, though, has never been about an easy life. Whatever doesn't kill you etc... Grumbling actually seems pretty healthy, and so being a 'stick in the mud' or 'going against the grain' must be in line with progress, indeed what would evolution be without mutation?
So, am I a mutant? Is that what I'm trying to say? Is this just a rant about modern living? An affirmation of humanity? A new philosophy? Probably not. Well I'll just put a full stop here and leave it then.
25-08-10
I was pestered by dreams last night of incorrect passwords and screens freezing, as well as spooning an ex girlfriend but not having sex. I couldn't get the screen lock off my mobile to make an important call and my computer was not working. There were flashes of dystopian shopping centres and automated services as well as locked doors with no handle. Access denied was clearly the motif.
Waking from dreams like that always depresses me somewhat. I hate when modern technology infiltrates my unconscious rest. How sad it is to be dreaming of technology. The idea of some committee of designers shaping the texture of my thoughts actually offends me when I think of it.
As our brains are filled with more and more smaller pieces of information and new 'smarter' (easier) ways of processing this information, our lives seem more and more hectic and it's no surprise that it makes me dream more and more frenetically.
I'm not sure why it should depress me though. Our minds at rest, in trance states or under the influence of drugs will only ever reflect the contents of our lives, no matter how skewed, fractured or confused.
Medieval knights would have visions of angels that looked like their contemporary artwork and acted like they should from their available literature and tales; tribal shamans have spiritual messages from their surrounding totemic animals and idream about my bloody itelephone.
Progress is a funny word. It sounds so positive but all it means really is to move forward. There are those who theorise that we have overtaken evolution because of our grasp of technology, in that we construct a lift rather than develop stronger leg muscles over hundreds of years, and perhaps it is human minds that are constantly 'evolving' rather than our bodies.
I think that we are still evolving, our hearing must have developed to take in digital sound, electronically produced music through earphones either inserted into or smothering our ears. If you played Venetian Snares to someone a hundred years ago their brain would probably shut down. Bleeps and synths and reversed voices originally devised nearly fifty years ago by engineers on drugs have become commonplace now. Today it seems almost legislated that every pop record uses that awful vocoder as if these faceless nobodies' voices weren't painful enough.
So apart from the quality of our singing, how else is humankind progressing? In many parts of the world we are more overweight than we have ever been. Hooray! And even our healthy specimens look different. Compare the barrel-chested Victorian strongman or stout Charles Atlas to the red-ripped hulk with boy-band abs.
Anyway, back to the dream...
I suppose the point is that my dream about frustration is going to be a dream about frustration, whatever the exact content comprises. People will always struggle with what is going on around them and clash with the manifestations of their annoyance. And it is easy to see other people and objects as obstacles to our advance.
At first glance being at odds with your environment seems contrary to survival. Harmony with your surroundings must lead to an easy life. Survival, though, has never been about an easy life. Whatever doesn't kill you etc... Grumbling actually seems pretty healthy, and so being a 'stick in the mud' or 'going against the grain' must be in line with progress, indeed what would evolution be without mutation?
So, am I a mutant? Is that what I'm trying to say? Is this just a rant about modern living? An affirmation of humanity? A new philosophy? Probably not. Well I'll just put a full stop here and leave it then.
25-08-10
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Title: Will Conway Tastes of Ink
By: LazyGramophone
Lazy Says: Animation by Kristian Andrews, music by Tom Conway
By: LazyGramophone
Lazy Says: Animation by Kristian Andrews, music by Tom Conway
#01
Justine22/01/11 12:33am
No , Will - you are a Newton .
Justine22/01/11 12:33am
We thought long and hard about it and after much deliberation, various conferences, meetings and discussions we have
decided to shut down and close comments for this particular Journal (sorry about that).
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