Foto Friday 16 – Reflections

Simulating Reality

|reflections

The Arboretum¹ is a wonderful place to slow down and reflect, especially on a summer’s day, a jour d’éte², a mild breeze and the song of birds in the air—one can be.

Pause, take a moment, be mindful, breathe, reflect, feel the breeze, the murmur of the water, the buzzing of bees, the gentle rustling of leaves, the tree, the branches, the foliage, the colours, the ripples in the water, rendering each reflection unique with every breath you take.

reflec|tions

We gaze into the water as we move closer to that same tree, dive under its canopy, and discover what lies beneath its surface, an army of pneumatophores³, silent soldiers, standing guard, breathing, reaching for the sky.

re|flections

Like ripples in water, refractions, desires sated, we move through life, leaving behind reflections, unseen, unheard, unheeded.

Without reflection⁴, we merely imitate. As Aristotle said, art is mimesis⁵ or maybe you want to challenge that thought, life imitates art, anti-mimesis⁶, as Oscar Wilde wrote, stipulating that the only reason we see beauty in nature is because art taught us. And what is life, human experience, if not a simulation of reality⁷.

Reach beneath the surface of your reflections,
not merely see but touch and feel and learn to be still.

1. L’Arboretum, Hauts-de-Seine

2. Jour d’eté (1879) by Berthe Morisot, painted in Bois de Boulogne not far from the Arboretum. (source)

3. Botany. a specialized structure developed from the root in certain plants growing in swamps and marshes, serving as a respiratory organ.

4. “Most novice writers are not reflective initially and must progress from imitative writing to their own style of genuine, critical reflection.” (Reflective writing)

5. Mimesis (/mɪˈmiːsɪs, mə-, maɪ-, -əs/;[1] Ancient Greek: μίμησις, mīmēsis) is a term used in literary criticism and philosophy that carries a wide range of meanings, including imitatio, imitation, nonsensuous similarity, receptivity, representation, mimicry, the act of expression, the act of resembling, and the presentation of the self. (source)

6. Anti-mimesis is a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis. (source)

7. Jean Baudrillard Simulacra and Simulation