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Does zooming into an object bring us any closer to it? Does zooming out make the objects in view any less inscrutable to us and to each other? “Nothing is what it seems – nor is it otherwise.” – The Diamond Sutra. “Nothing is stranger than Reality.” – Giorgio Morandi. Recording the world with the detachment of a meditating monk – with a so-called Mirror Mind – viewing things as they are, with no personal emotions or desires projected onto them. This video also explores the complex relationships between looking and listening. Trying to record Being – or even – the act of recording… perception. Recorded in 2000 on Ko Pha-ngan in southern Thailand. Initially, my idea was to have the incidental, off-camera dialogue snippets transcribed and translated. However, I learned that the Thai language is fantastically ‘open-ended’ as regards verb inflection – which made translation into English subtitles almost impossible. Since this difficulty of translation resonates well with the intention of the video, I decided to make the Thai subtitles part of the image. Remastered in HD from the DV-PAL source footage. This video is part of a larger work called – The Bodies of Nobodies.
PS: As the camera zooms out, it reveals / sees its own (tripod)leg. This reminded me of Douglas Harding’s classic book – On Having no Head.