This is an attempt to recreate a perceptual illusion that I noticed while I was running on a crosstrainer in a room on the second floor.
In front of me is a big window that looks over an open field.
As I am running my head is directed towards the window and I focus on the movement of my body.
A playful thought pops up; Am I moving or is the room moving?
(An illusion that is similar to the one that you can experience when you are sitting in a stopped train while the train next to you starts to move, also know as #parallax )
First I shift my focus of attention from my body(1) to a point outside(2), and then to a point on the horizon(3).
I notice that the point where I focus my attention becomes a rotational point or axis.
In a way, shifting my attention to a different reference point changes the way the world moves.
Is this the same image schema that is responsible for shifting cognitive frames of reference?
In the book the Parallax View Slavoj Žižek used parallax to illustrate 'the insurmountable gap between two positions.' Synthesis between these positions can only be achieved through a parallax shift. The experience closest to the truth or the real is at the position of "minimal difference".
#marc_van_elburg
