kingy graphic design history: ..........what people think.

"Perception is reality. Reality is not reality, it is only what people think."-Paul Rand

In the movie Rashomon (by Kurasowa), a woman is raped and her husband is murdered. what transpires in the movie are three versions of the same event, that of the bandit, that of the woman, and that of the husband (via a medium). The individuals viewpoint all paint themselves in a more favourable light. A fourth viewpoint is supplied by a woodcutter, who gives the most subjective, 'honest' point of view. (....but we don't know if his opinion is coloured by a childhood trauma).

Marge:"C'mon Homer,Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon." Homer:"Thats not how I remember it!"

Reality is reality! (or at least it seems to be). Renee Descartes said "I think, therefore i am." Perhaps he should have said : I think, therefore I think I am.
We stand in the present day and say, of course the world is round, and of course the earth moves around the sun! But back in time, with less information, and we probably think it looks pretty flat, and it is so bleedingly obvious, that the sun travels from one side over to the other.
Even though we know all we know about the movement of the earth around the sun, we still call it sunrise and sunset, Reality is reality, but only because we say it is, and we get someone to agree with us.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."-Einstein

When the atheist, Philip Adams, stands in his paddock, on a moonless night, looking up at the visible universe, he states that he experiences (a) numinesence (sp?) , an awe and wonderment at the unimaginable infinity of it all. He does not believe in the reality of god (et al), but his perception of the universe, and of the numinescence, sounds deeply moving. If it is a very warm night, and he stood on an agressive, venomous snake, his perception of reality would be more focused on avoiding getting bitten, or bandaging his wound and getting to hospital. The universe is still there, but his perception is elsewhere.

Perception is reality! and as Sagmeister quotes the old chinese mans t-shirt: "so many dogs, so few recipes!".........the chinese mans reality would not be the same as an RSPCA officer!

Clearly things change through our perception of it, "it is just what people think!"

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become."-Buddha