On Looking

How do you pay attention? Observing or analyzing something is subjective since nobody sees what you see. We pay attention to what our subconscious is attracted to. Based on our profession or passion, our criticaly eye turns general observation into selective attention. So how does a person pay attention? Even Horowitz said that we miss things when we are paying attention. Through concentration we are able to comprehend and decipher what surrouns us , but like Horowitz said, even through concentration we tend to miss things. Through concentration, our attention becomes selective and we focus on whatever we choose, it depends on the observer, and yet we are still not able to capture everything. Horowitz says: "we miss the world, making itself available to be observed, and we miss the possiblity of being surprised by what is hidden in plain sight in front of us." Basically, there is more to the human eye than you know. We need to observe the ordinary, the familiar, the recgonizable and try to find something that has been hidden from yourself by yourself. We need to become aware of whats in front of us. Analyze the obvious, and the familiar becomes the unfamiliar. Its okay to miss out on stuff. I mean, history is the documentation of change over time and even then not ev erythiong is documented. We also miss out because our minds are not physically able to rememeber and hold everything. We need to forget in order to remember. Memomery is overwhelming and sometimes we see or observe things in our daily routine that we can forget particularities that we might have catched on to but can't remember. Time ceases to exist when we act on the familiar, we are in a type of trance that makes our brains shift into automatic mode and only repeat the cycle. We stop observing and we stop paying attention  but Horowitz challenges that routine. We tend to stop focusing on the familiar since we know it and  have observed it so many times, we think that there is nothing more, nothing left to study. Horowitz says: "the capacity to attend is ours; we just forget how to turn it on."

Other factors can affect how you observe or pay attention like your physical state (wether you are tired or energized) and emotional state (sad, angry, frustrated or happy) bu the most influential factgor is you ercption of reality based on what you are passionate about. Horowtiz says:" the tendecy to look at every context from the point of view of ones profession." Due to our passion or whatever field we decide to dedicate the rest of our lives to; what we observe is influencd by this because it make our awareness and observation, selective. Fo example, my dedication towards film, makes me see through a camaras panorama. Basically, whenever I walk around, I catch myself thinking "oh this place would make a great still or setting for a scene". My passion influences my perception of reality and the ordinary.