The Seeing ‘I’ – image 1 from the series Pictures of 1000 Words: Abstractions of Ancient Wisdom
The Seeing ‘I’, along with the other 6 images in the series, has been installed into its official location for ArtPrize 2014 at the First United Methodist Church, at 227 East Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI. This photo of it was taken right after it was framed, while it was still in the shop. Thank you, Mr. Lane Elmer 🙂
The Seeing ‘I’ is the first image in the series entitled “Pictures of 1000 Words: Abstractions of Ancient Wisdom”. It was created using the text from Proverbs chapters 1 – 17.
The subject matter of each image in this series is inspired by some aspect relating to design.
The theme of this first image, entitled The Seeing ‘I’, is optical design. This image is a close up of a cat’s eye. It is an amazing implementation of a complex design – the human version of which allows you to be reading these very words!
The design of the eye relies on the mastery of multiple disciplines of science to achieve the functionality of its implementation. From the utilization of a variable lens for focusing light, to the lens’s ability to project that light as an image onto the retina, to the retina’s sensitivity to the light and color that make up the image and reduce that image to electrical signals that are passed to the visual cortex of the brain… throw in a second eye and the capacity for 3-dimensional perception and processing and you truly have a wonder of design and engineering which is but a small part of the totality of the organism to which it is fitted – be it human, cat, eagle, or mouse.