Perspective Changes our Experience
An exercise in seeing differently
Try something with me.
Find an object that fits in your hand. A pen works wonderfully, maybe a spoon, or even the phone you’re probably using to read this.
Point the object towards the ceiling. As you gaze upwards, move the object in a clockwise circle.
(Is it getting harder for anyone else to recall which direction is clockwise? Is my brain being molded by digital forces, or am I simply directionally challenged?)
Slowly start to lower your hand as you continue moving the object in the same direction. Keep watching the object as it comes closer to your line of eyesight. Continue moving the object in a clockwise circle. As your hand starts to drop below your shoulder, look at the object from above.
Now what direction is the object moving?
I was introduced to this exercise by Tatyana Fertelmeyster, founder of the Chicago-based consulting company “Connecting Differences” and an excellent coach, consultant, and facilitator in the realm of DEI and belonging. Tatyana presented a workshop on behalf of CultureALL called “Essential Practice for Inclusive Cultures.”
Then and now, this exercise gives me what I will so eloquently call the “heebiejeebies.” It feels so illogical to my brain. It disrupts the order of my world, which says that right is right and left is left and certain rules are impossible to defy.
But it’s an exercise in perspective, something both our art and our lives need to grow into something lasting.
The person looking up at an object moving in a clockwise direction is seeing the same thing as the person gazing down at that object moving counterclockwise.
The person who leaves a room angry experienced the same conversation as a person who continues on their day without another thought.
The reader who cried when they finished your work read the same piece that made another person laugh out loud.
The painter who felt drawn to the melancholy blues of coming dusk worked on the same scene as the painter who came alive under the fiery oranges and pinks of a sunset.
The song a newly-married couple dances to at their wedding reception doesn’t awaken the same memories for the rest of their wedding guests.
I had hoped to share this exercise with you accompanied by some sort of brilliant advice on how to use perspective in your art. I guess my own perspective has changed, because I’ve reached the end and I have nothing more to say but many more questions to ask.
I wonder if this has affected you as much as it has affected me. Maybe you’ll consider the different vantage points from which someone might absorb your work. Maybe this will change your creative practice. Maybe you’ll never think about it again.
But next time you venture to create something, and you’ve typed out or drawn up or written down a kernel of what could one day be beautiful, walk away. Come back an hour, a day, a year later, and start again.
See what a change in perspective can do.
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