One of the most amazing parts of true art is, is art that has the ability to capture the eye of the observer. In order for this to take place, the artist must be able to convey a message that is received and felt by anyone who sees it. In the observation of art, the viewer feels a connection; maybe emotional or spiritual; maybe the piece reminds them of a certain moment in life of good or bad times; enjoyment or fulfillment; glee or gloom. The art has spoken. It’s touched on an area that’s personal to the observer. I like that the word intercourse was used to describe the personal, internal, connectional effect that art can have on someone. There is a certain transparency that can be shared through art that touches on things a person is going through that they haven’t been able to boldly and/or vulnerably been able to articulate in words to another person. Art can open up a realm of understanding and empathy for the person viewing the art. I believe that this is why when we watch a movie, and we are able to relate and be touched by a certain scene, not only because of the people playing the role, but in conjunction with the music, the aesthetics, the colors, and the tone of voice, we are affected by seeing a visual of how we feel in certain moments of life — it’s almost as if our feelings are being visualized right before our eyes to validate things we don’t have words for.

In music, or in writing, maybe art in this capacity looks like “we have the words, but who do we tell them to? Who will listen?” So we write songs or memoirs. Sometimes we put music behind our words, so the reader feels a deeper connection and can understand the tone of the message. It becomes infectious, personal, and received. The standard of art being infectious is perfect to describe an affective piece of art. The greater the connection art makes with a person, the greater the influence and the more beauty for the eyes and heart of viewer. Having the piece be infectious means that the artist was able to clearly portray a visual or mental image of his or her feelings to increase the emotional arousal for the majority of those who will see.

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As I was watching the film, I found myself thinking at multiple and various moments that “this has got to be one of the most bazaar movies I have ever seen.” — not discrediting that the movie actually is bazaar, this was a narrow and surface level thought for me to have in regards to the greater message. When we began discussing the movie afterwards, I found myself thinking “…yo, this is actually pretty deep...” which is actually more of an accurate thought to have when we legitimately start to pick apart whats “real” and whats not.

Plato’s hierarchical scheme of reality, I believe, inserts well into the way that ExistenZe was played out. You realize once you get to the end of the movie, that it’s possible that not one scene was acted out in the “common physical world” outside of the game TransendenZe ….but then again, were there scenes that took place outside the game? This plays into Plato’s idea that if there is only one creator of something, then no one else can replicate what was created because in the creating of something, what came first was the idea. The idea gave birth to creativity. So, without an idea, the creativity wouldn’t have been known, and without the creator, there wouldn’t have been that idea. Therefore, the players of Transendenze are literally playing into the idea of the game — which is what we do in our physical world — to the point of not knowing what’s real and what’s not, because we have chosen to follow after someone’s idea of something.

On a side note, during our discussion I starter thinking about our physical world. And then I had this idea of “sub worlds”. For example, a person born into a family of billionaires is born rich and have anything they could want, while a person born in the slums of Liberia is born rich in malnourishment where getting what they want requires an immense amount of labor. These are literally two different realms of reality — worlds that are lightyears apart. Both of their perspectives in terms of the way that they see life are polar opposites. The construct of our realities have a lot to do with the world that we are born into, or the ideas that are adapted over time. Going back to the film ExistenZe we saw the characters adapt to the world that the game offers, so much so, to the point that the viewer is left wondering, “what’s really, real” and “how are we supposed to differentiate between what’s reality and what’s not?”

The ideas of what we believe in all originated somewhere at some point. I believe that falling in line with Plato’s hierarchical scheme of reality is appropriate to equate this film, and assumes that we create what’s reality to us when we believe in the ideas presented to us.

We are influenced daily by what is seen and heard, especially in terms of what we see produced and enhanced by the media. I believe that us as humans, in regard to a void in each of us, look for something to believe in. We look for things that validate the way that we personally feel. We even are subject to the things that we don’t presently, but want to believe in, and change our lives to replicate our vision. By this point, there is not a whole lot of originality left, which is interesting when we truly dive into how we perceive life as individuals. Shapes and colors are all what we collectively know them as. As a human race, we all wear clothes of some sort. We all have a language in order to communicate with one another. We all eat food and drink water. But when it gets down to the individual, and the way that person feels based off of things like social upbringing or role models, our minds are formed to see life from a certain perspective.

When it comes to media, we are highly influenced by a narrow perspective of either right or wrong, based on how we want to feel about a certain situation. There’s a media channel for the “right” answer, and a media for the “wrong” answer. The majority of the time we are hearing from people that we are “supposed” to trust based off of their research and/or insight, yet, it’s rare that we ever hear directly from the individual or the people involved to understand facts, and even when we do, they are on screen, so a front is being displayed while what goes on behind the scenes in the personal life of the individual goes unseen. I believe that more often than not, we are not getting the real story, but we draw conclusions to whats real and whats false based off the story that has been painted and articulately crafted in order to increase viewers, increase following or influence, and build a body of supporters.

All of this being said, we are gravely mistaking fiction for reality daily. We believe what we want to believe, and there’s always a place that we can find people that support our beliefs, and this brings a certain validation for us. In the grand scheme of all things in existence — try to simply look at how expansive and infinite the universe is — our minds cannot possibly comprehend how massively intricate and perfect everything has been laid out. We live a span of life on average 70 or 80 years while the rest of the universe goes on for millions of years. Why is life so short? Are we just passing through? Are we on some sort of pitstop here? Is this place called earth even a real thing, or a cognitive construct? Personally, I feel that we are all here for a specific purpose and we live a life long enough in order to fulfill why it is that we are here. In a world of so many beliefs, history, social constructs, cultural diversity — if someone erased my entire memory — what would I believe in?