Manipulation and Perception

Quote of the Day: "Well, it would've been, could've been worse than you would ever know./
Oh, the dashboard melted, but we still have the radio."
-Modest Mouse, "Dashboard"

I built a fountain in my backyard. I used this nice green pot from Mexico, and I placed it atop a bucket that I buried. I filled the bucket and the pot with water, and I rigged up a pump so that water overflows in the pot and trickles into the rocks below. It looks cool, and now I get that zen-like sound of trickling water.

What I find rather ironic, however, is that the fountain looks so fluid and serene, as if it was put there by the natural elements, and to get this natural look takes such manipulation.

I wrote this same idea in a Film Theory class. "The 'natural' effect of film," I wrote, "requires such manipulation of both the images and the narrative. The camera is often compared to the human eye...yet we perceive time as an unstoppable, continuous force, whereas film pieces together images to create a sense of continuity. Film can stop and go at any moment."

Perception is totally peculiar.