10/25/12
FD #3
Expos, Section
Imagination: A Human’s Special Sense
Human beings have the ability to create their own individual worlds through imagination. However, the imagination is limited because of the constant use of technology and the reliance on vision. The technological culture has separated humans from the actual world and their senses; much like vision has done. In the essay “The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses”, Juhani Pallasmaa focuses on the exploration of the senses and how they interact with one another. We also see his discussion on how vision can affect the human experience. The more visually capable we are, the more we begin to lose our sense of imagination. Similarly in the essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Nicolas Carr argues that the more we rely on technology and the Internet, the more it will affect humans in today’s world, as well as our ability to read and comprehend. Living in a society that relies mostly on technology, individuals fail to create a balance between the Internet and their actual senses. The more we depend on technology, the less room there is for the mind to imagine. Our brains have reached a point where we fall into a daydream with anything that does not catch our attention. Furthermore, in “The Mind’s Eye”, Oliver Sacks explores some of the most fundamental facets of human experience: how we see in three dimensions, how we represent the world internally when our eyes are closed, and how remarkable, and unpredictable our brains find new ways of creating new worlds through imagination. The obscuring of vision leads to imagination but once we begin to imagine, we gain the ability to preserve and envision the world around us in a new way, and thus we use the senses to help us imagine more deeply. The experience of living affects imagination because vision and technology does not allow us to stay focused because we have become used to the commodity of technology and vision. Carr