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Three sparrows
I thought they both missed the point: reality doesn't matter. And I'll prove it.
Imagine three sparrows taking a bath in fountain of a city park. You have that image in your head? Sparrows are awfully similar - wherever you go. I doubt even the most ardent birdwatcher could tell the difference between a local species and an interloper in flight. And as far as I know the behavior of sparrows bathing is basically the same.
Part of the difference of the image is your fountain and your park. My fountain is "real" it's a small Tokyo-style concrete park near Ochanomizu station. And the sparrows are "real" as well. There were sparrows bathing there as I walked by - but - on my cell phone camera - it was impossible to shoot them. Sparrows are - well - flighty - and I'd need to be within a meter.
Back to your image.
What city did you choose for your "composition"? New York? The town where you grew up? Rome? Buenos Aries? The place where you live now?
What kind fountain did you choose? One that was beautiful and huge? A small one in decay in the middle of the city? An unturned oildrum?
And - of course - there are so many other details. Are there people in your park? If there are - do they look like you do - or are they different? Trees - how many trees are there? Also did you take that tree with a swing that you used to play on when you were a kid and morph it into the background?
And there is perspective and there is the time of day and on and on. An artist - today - can use photoshop - get some footage of a sparrow - clone the sparrow - and add a tree here - and add a girl playing hop-scotch there - decide what time it is and put the sun in the right place - and create a scene that is realistic. Also - with each year it gets easier for anyone to make such an image and for the results to seem more authentic.
Tomorrow will be even more curiouser. For the most part people have been playing around in 2D. Photorealistic 3D is complex, expensive and unavavilable for the masses but I don't think it's ridiculous to say that within about 10 years technology will be to the point that photorealistic real-time 3D rendering will be possible on even cheap computers.
A fountain is created-chosen, a park is created-chosen, populated with people, animated sparrows bathing are blopped into a "fountain", the sun is put in the right place and the 'perspective' of the shot is chosen.
Technology does most of the heavy lifting and things like changing the perspective are easier than for someone will a "real" camera. Weather, gravity and dog poop don't exist in the digital world.
Anyone will be able to create an image of three sparrows bathing in fountain in a city park. In a matter of minutes. Your eight year old niece. Your brother-in-law. Your friend who isn't able to draw a straight line.
For good or for bad - that is the way it will be.
I think much of the arguing now is simply a response to a feeling of foreboding. Everyone knows about the countless horde of barbarians that will be at the gate for only a moment before knocking it down and then the citadel will swarm with them.
= Hey! Look-eh-this! I just made a park and a fountain with some birds in it. And it just took a couple minutes. Whaddya think?
A wednesday night in Shinjuku
an usual "couple"
I was in an elevator and I saw a school girl and her mother. There was absolutely nothing unusual in that. As they got in the elevator my opinion changed. I noticed that the "mother" was wearing a school uniform too. That caused me to look more carefully at the "daughter". I then realized that she was no school girl. She might have been about 30. And the "mother" in her 50s. People must notice - but this being Japan - they can go about their business without being harrassed. Of course, I'm not Japanese, so I almost couldn't resist the urge to say "Excuse me. I couldn't help but wonder...."
I probably wouldn't have gotten much of an answer anyway. For some people Cosplay (lit. costume "play") is a part of life.
another couple in matching outfits
Not much time passed and I saw a very different couple. They were an "ordinary" couple dressed in matching outfits. The Japanese word is "pair look." In their case they had matching sneakers, jeans and sheepskin jackets.
I was beginning to feel "under" dressed and lonely. Where is my 'partner'?
X-mas lights
Later I saw this reindeer made of a wire frame and Christmas lights. It's about nine feet high. I like the simplicity. I suppose its solitary situation fit my mood. Where are the other reindeer?
a couple at the bar
I went to a bar and although my laptop battery was dead - I couldn't resist the urge to see if I could connect to myspace. I searched for an outlet and I found one, but they sometimes don't work in Tokyo. But I was prepared. I took out my cell-phone AC adaptor and plugged it into my cell. The red charge light lit up. The outlet was good. I gave my order and then I plugged in. The staff noticed but didn't stop me. I was about to work on some writing - I didn't expect to get a connection. But there was one. It was weak and sometimes cut out - but I was connected. However try as I might to enjoy (my) myspace bliss I couldn't help noticing a white guy (in this 30s?) who was all over a very sexy Japanese girl (in her early 20s?). I was going to describe him as "goofy", but that's probably just jealousy talking.
yet another couple
At Shinjuku station it was about the time for everyone's - and I mean everyone's - last train. There was a Japanese couple doing a kind of dance stop that sometimes happens at that time. He obviously wanted to go to a love hotel but she was resisting. Often the resisting is stylized, but she seemed to honestly want to get her last train and go home - alone. He was doing the upper arm leading manuever, but she kept pulling away. I suppose I was smiling - or was I smirking? On the train I thought about the couples I mentioned here and the others I saw on that night. Tokyo can be brutal when you are single.
I need(ed) to think out loud.
There has been someone I've been spending a lot of time thinking about. But it's time I started being more realistic and that I stop the silliness. I have to be more practical. I was at a myspace group and the people in the forum started to talk about being single. I wrote something about her that I thought explained my feelings in funny way. I needed to think out loud. Yet, after I posted my comment I wanted to take it back. I wanted to cancel it. To erase it. Of course that can't be done. Once a post is up - it's up and it stays up for a certain amount of time. Also - it didn't matter anyway - the readers of the post either laughed or ignored it - what did they care - but I still wanted to somehow take it back. The post was honest, but it was incomplete. I described my feelings toward her, but not what I felt were her feelings toward me: friendly not amorous.
When I wrote that amorous sounded wrong. But - somehow - romantic isn't much better.
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