WATCHWHATYOUARE.

We like the orangutan populations of Indonesia spread our knowledge of survival through show and tell (Why Are Some Animals So Smart? The unusual behavior of orangutans in a Sumatran swamp suggests a surprising answer. By Carel van Schaik)(scientific american 2006) , the human brain is trained to mimic and learn through visual cognition, we watch then do.

With the advent of  2 dimensional visual cognition during the Renaissance, (primarily in northern Italy) a new logic of interpretation came into existence (Kozbelt,Aaron. Psychological Implications of the History of Realistic Depiction: Ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy and CGI Leonardo - Volume 39, Number 2, April 2006, pp. 139-144 ). Instead of  a 3-dimensional mimicry which pairs the sense of touch to visual cognition, a new sense of time replaced the phantom limb of touch in a 2-dimensional space. This substitution has created a time lagged reality, which allows for the broader interpretation of self. The self of the future or past is highlighted in this form of learning at both the cognitive and meta-cognitive (personal story boarding approach to reality) levels.

With the visual learning processes of the orangutan the mimicry and success or failure of that action/learning is immediate. When using  2-dimensional imagery, feedback can only happen outside of the referenced time. Since the user is displaced from an immediate mimicry of the visual images, they have to surrogate themselves to use the real tools the actors or actresses are manipulating in their 2D performance. This can lead to unrealistic emotional expectations or maybe a permanent sense of almost completion.

The relation of verbal imagery is different from that of  2-dimensional visual imagery. Even though auditory language has a gesture structuring which possesses the same dissonance of time based learning, they are rooted in different structures.

With the effects of verbal reproduction the hardwired cognitive aspect of learning is provided by the user, in a direct relationship of self. This causes the tools and person to exists in the same realm of now because both are created from that instance by the auditory receiver. With 2-dimensional visual imagery the notions of cognition are split between a immediate efficacy of vision and a interpretational rendering of action. A person will move there head to avoid a three dimensional image coming at them or lean there bodies while playing a video game but will not attempt to throw a ball back towards the screen or tilt the TV to move the image. This mixture of perception is the bases of the cognitive schism.

So what happens? is TV bad should we never draw pictures? Some religions say yes and have stuck with the ever-removed visual/language interpretational mechanisms that hide behind the eyes of the viewer. We who have grown up in the post war Europe, the 1980s Japan and the ubiquitous America have been led down another route, that of supreme images as supreme context. The battles of our common day super egos are played out in the ticket sales of cinematic titans. We are larger than life from the beginning; we are great in our future tragic in our past and mediocre in our present. We have learned to see through screens with screens for screens. This has allowed us to do amazing feats of bravery and reach dizzying heights of logic.

We now can know the effects of actions and the structural equations of thousands of places on the earth all at once through the glimpse of a talking six o’clock news head. With the help of a Bollywood movie we can pick out villains from a crowd and predict the future of these titans of the screen. We know they will be killed when they open the door and we just watch it happen, let it happen. We sit and watch thousands of people get murdered every year even though we have the foresight and the knowledge to stop it. We could turn the TV off right before they get killed, and if we all did it in unison maybe Laura palmer would still be alive.

But we watch and learn although we don’t actually mimic and even though we learn the emotions to live a thousand deaths and jump from an airplane with only a jet pack, we never do. We try and try hard though; using all the tools we know how to use. But since the learned knowledge can never actually be practiced we fall short and move to New York, buy an expensive track bike and imitate something in three dimensions thinking it will change you. But again unfortunately most are too far gone too ever carry anything but a surrogate emotional content of a future self who never comes to hang out.

So this project is not only a game but also a way to reassert the connection between seeing and doing. To show and feel what we are capable of and how we can use it so our stories will not die with us and the next generation will not just be hollow vessels of these Titians but actually will be Rambo’s of the first blood order.