There is a reason why vision is often thought of as the primary sense over the others. To see the world and other people requires no participation and it also does not require proximation to the other on our part.
The primacy of sight allows us to be spectators and requires nothing more. One thinks of Guy Debord here.
Cioran said that, "Bach's music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded a complete failure".
Listening requires active participation and in conversation there must be a flow. A reciprocity. Indeed one can be passive as a listener, but not in a stealthy and inconspicuous way. Your going to get found out. Cioran was an active participant in the sublime when he was immersed in Bach's music.
Why do you think that TV and visual stimulation is preferred over auditory. It requires little or no participation on our part. And that's the way we like it.
What about taste? It goes without saying that this cannot be a passive experience. Oh, sure, it can be dulled by pre-occupation and haste, but it taste still requires action and deliberation.
And what of this dulling effect? What of the haste that prevents one from truly savoring a meal? It is more than likely something mediated and artificial. Something symbolic that is drawing our attention from the pleasure before us. Again, we trade the real for the unreal.
Why is predominantly visual? Why not advertise by stimulating all of the senses? Perhaps because advertising is all about projection and make believe. Let's try to sell a package of unreality to replace the true reality that is there for the enjoyment of all. Ah, but there is the problem. It IS there for the enjoyment of all. Not good for capitalism huh?
Smell captures us and it takes us and it snaps us out of the world of symbols. It demands our attention. When you are trying to escape reality and you pass a rotting animal corpse, suddenly you realize your illusions are weak and can't hold you. The real world will not let you drift away without a fight. Perhaps that is why consumerism and the world of spectacle must never slumber. It's very survival depends on constant vigilance and innovation. That lavender you smell is real, nothing in a bottle comes close.
And of course it goes without saying that touch requires presence and complete participation. It is the most proximal of the five senses and as a result, the sense least subject to attempted duplication. Touch is probably the final domain of the real. The tactile can still infuse one with hope and a sense of one's place in the world. It is primarily the way love and affection is shown to infants who are still innocent to the world of the spectacle. Why do we lose the desire to touch as we get older? Because we are detracted away from the real by the unreal.
Perhaps someday we will substitute the real completely and we can all be wired up and experience all of life vicariously through the mediation of technology. Our emaciated, stinking bodies weakened from atrophy as we live in the fantasy world of the cyber existence. Just make sure your trip is paid for in advance.
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What's Your Preferred Learning Style -Accelerated Learningby AcceleratedLearning3,638 views
Hey Richard :)p
Do you still do public access shows anymore?
jonneykat 9 months ago
It is the quickest method of receiving information of the outside world. Unfortunately, it is also the most fallible. We build up our personal cache of data to speed the processing of images, so if it looks similar to something else we previously viewed we insert the cached meaning of the image to resolve the picture before us. This creates gaps in our perception of the real world because we substitute the old data of our cache for the present state of reality as it is before us. Our lying eyes.
joethestrummer 1 year ago