I ran into this fascinating book which opened up a whole world to me. "An Immense World" is its name, written by Ed Yong. The book reveals the diverse senses of animals and the different ways in which each creature perceives reality.
The term "Umwelt" describes the unique subjective world of each creature - the sensory capacity that dictates how it experiences things.
The book's back cover promised it would change how I look at the world, and indeed it did. Beyond the fascinating details, the book sharpened a deep understanding: each of us, humans too, experiences reality differently.
On the Limitation of Human Perception
This idea isn't new. Already in the 4th century BCE, Plato described, in the Allegory of the Cave, a person who was initially bound by limited perception, and only upon becoming free discovered a richer reality that he couldn't perceive while bound. This allegory, like the concept of Umwelt, emphasizes the limitations of human perception and the need for open-mindedness to understand the complexity of reality beyond our subjective personal experience.
Expanding the Umwelt through Freestyle Painting
Our experiences change and expand our Umwelt. When I started Freestyle Painting, I was searching for inner freedom. At first, I tried to disconnect from distractions. I secluded myself in a room and later in a studio, without direct external influences, and thus managed to discover my personal creative freedom. As I persisted, creative liberation became more natural, and I reached insights that came from direct doing and experiencing. My creative confidence grew.
The book describes a spider that changes its web's sensitivity according to its hunger level. The more sensitive the web, the greater the hunting possibilities. The web is not just an extension of the senses, but also of cognition.
After a long period of honing my release skills and creative freedom inside the studio, I could allow myself distractions. Like changing web sensitivity...
I went out to paint in nature. Freestyle Painting in nature is a different experience from painting in the studio. While in the studio inspiration comes from within, in nature - inspiration surrounds me. The landscape, colors, plants, stones...
The tuning changed: from looking inward - to looking (also) outward. Though it's still Freestyle Painting, without trying to create an identifiable or distinct landscape, the feeling changed fundamentally.
I learned to allow the world to intervene in my creation, without fear. It seems this is a process of going to an extreme (Freestyle Painting in the studio) to allow oneself to also be in moderation (Freestyle Painting out in nature).
Our Umwelt, like that of animals, isn't static, because the world isn't static. The Umwelt is dynamic, changing and expanding with every new experience, every encounter, and every creation.
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