SEEING IS KNOWLEDGE

There are so many books sources stacked up on my desk, I have no idea how I will ever get thru them all. And I am starting to get concerned that I am going to get completely thru books that I have started. That’s not surprising. I’m not any sort of academic or researcher.  More of a hack, really.  In a way, I move thru some of these books in a hit or miss fashion to begin with.

However, I absent-mindedly opened to the beginning of Pallasmaa’s “The Eyes of the Skin”, and the following passage absolutely jumped out at me,

“In Western culture, sight has historically been regarded as the noblest of the senses, and thinking itself thought of in terms of seeing.” p15.

That’s what we have been saying all along. Thinking is seeing. Thinking is drawing. Thinking is seeing what you draw. Thinking has got nothing to do with words.

Pallasmaa continues,

“Since the Greeks, philosophical writings of all times have abounded with ocular metaphors to the point that knowledge has become analogous with clear vision and light is regarded as the metaphor for truth.” p15.

Knowledge is seeing. Truth requires light. To draw is to know. You don’t know anything with words. Words are meaningless without seeing.

If this were a Wagnerian opera, this is the point in which the music would swell with the lietmotif of Why The Hell Do We Continue To Teach Our Children Word Logic Rather Than Visual Logic????? This has been one of the central questions of Transparent Drawing.  Drives me crazy.    Here.   Here.

These two passages from Pallasmaa are simply from the beginning of his classic work. Other passages are immediately interesting. Like I said, I’ll never get thru all of these great sources with quotes like this gobsmacking me in the face.