may 4, 2021 / 3.5 miles / 48 degrees
Just last night I was talking to Scott about the idea of experimenting with how little data was needed in order to understand something. I was talking about the details of an image — how basic can you make the form and still recognize it’s a tree or a bicycle — and about words — do you need full sentences? what words or letters are crucial for understanding and which can be left out? In this entry, I take this question in a different direction:
I heard a sharp beeping or tweeting noise. At first I thought it was a bird, then I realized it was a truck backing up. Then I thought: when we hear the beeping of the truck, do we need to put the idea that it’s a truck backing up into words, or do we have a more immediate understanding of it? How intelligible/recognizable in language do these sounds need to be for us to know and respond to them? Thinking I might forget this thought, I decided to stop at the top of the short but steep hill near Folwell and record some notes.
I recorded some ideas into my phone, including:
On hearing the beeping of a truck backing up and recognizing it as such (and not something else like birdsong): do we turn the sounds into words or how does the understanding occur? What is the process? Then thinking about the bird’s syrinx (and the poem) and syntax and how and when language is understandable.
See: Syrinx/ Amy Clampitt – 1920-1993
I’d like to return to these ideas, keep exploring them
may 4, 2022 / 3.25 miles / 58 degrees
On what being slow means to me:
This morning, I read a wonderful interview with Jorie Graham on Lithub. It’s from 2018 and about her book, Fast. This title made me think of its opposite. In her interview with David Naimon for Tinhouse, Graham said a few times, “Pay attention! Slow down!” I kept thinking about what slow might mean for me. Not just moving slower, but moving less efficiently or productively. Moving without purpose or a fixed goal. Moving with ease (and without haste) through open space, not crammed with appointments or tasks or destinations.