civilized ku # 426a ~ details, pt. II
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 02:26PM 
Spring sunlight through the bathroom window • click to embiggenI realize that many of you must be hanging with bated breath while awaiting the disclosure, re: the small detail as seen in the Spring sunlight picture that was posted in the civized ku # 426 entry of last Wednesday. So, without further ado ...
... the small detail - as correctly surmised and so stated by the very first guess/comment from Matt Dallos - was the power cord (on the wall beneath the radio) that merges with the streak of bright sunlight on the top and front of the soap box.
It is worth noting that many of the other "guesses" were spot on the money regarding other things that I was aware of as I was making the picture, but they were not as important to my eye as was the cord / sun streak combination.
However, that said, I must sheepishly confess to the fact that, as I was finally getting around to this entry explaining about the "small detail", I noticed (much to my chagrin) that I had posted the wrong version of the Spring sunlight picture in that entry. This mistake may have mislead many of you in as much as the cord / sun streak relationship as viewed in today's entry is much more obvious than it was in last Wednesday's entry.
All I can state is that I am very thankful that there wasn't a valuable grand prize offered to the "winner" - say, something like an Olympus EP-1 together with every 4/3rds-m4/3rds lens ever made - because the wife, AKA - the lawyer, might have had a hard time pulling my chestnuts from that messy fire.
But that said and getting back to the picture (v2) ... the reason that the cord / sun streak caught my eye was most likely due to the fact that I have been a longtime fan of John Pfahl's Altered Landscapes work.
Altered Landscapes © John Pfahl • click to embiggen It was in that body of work from the mid-late 1970s that Pfahl created some very interesting pictures that played with both the viewer's mind and eye relative to the idea of 2D vs. 3D space.
As can be seen in the pictures on the left, Pfahl used a wide array of visual devices and optical tricks in order to fool the viewer's eye and mind (more so when viewing actual prints as opposed to web versions thereof) into seeing those "devices" as having been pasted or drawn on the surface of the print rather than as actual objects in the scenes he pictured.
As an example, the tape on the museum columns and walls (or on the wooden shed image or the rock study image - as can be seen in the above link), which really does appear to be on the surface of the print, must have required hours of time to set up. When I viewed an actual print of this picture, I experienced a nearly irresistible urge to try to remove the tape from the surface of the print. It was definitely more than just a bit freaky. IMO, this stuff is pure visual genius.
And, as it must be stated, my small detail, or, as it might be labeled - Ode to John Pfahl, is kid's stuff by comparison.
FYI, a "face" was never part of my awareness. And, to answer Mary's question - NO, I do not talk to the man in my bathroom. I save it all for the Serv-O-Matics in my life.
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Mark,
In Civilised ku #426a, the brightness of the power cord does strengthen the relationship with the light streak, but IMHO it looks strange. In the previous version it blends in much better with the wall and I am inclined to believe that is what it would look like if I were to see it in person. Of coure, I wasn't there so I could be wrong. Since you pride yourself in presenting the truth, I would be interested in hearing your explanation of what is going on in these two pictures w.r.t. to the cord.
Speaking of "valuable grand prize", now that I think of it, I never received my print from the "Bucket"contest.
http://landscapist.squarespace.com/journal/2008/4/21/we-have-a-grand-prize-winner.html