Fireside Chat

                I believe in absolute truth.  I believe also that everyone has interpreted and does interpret those truths as best they can, through art and other means.  Dimitri Martin, in his “If I” tour said something to the effect of this:  that there is a parallel universe right before our eyes which is revealed through a small shift in perspective.  Perhaps the best way to gain this shift in perspective is to learn from someone else’s.  Everyone grows up with experiences completely unique to herself.  This is clearly evident across centuries and nations, but I would also argue also that no two siblings grow up with the exact same view of the world.  And the more perspectives we gain, the more “universes” we see, or perhaps, the more clearly we see the universe as it truly is, tangibly or intangibly. 

                In order to demonstrate this belief, I utilized the Disney attraction “it’s a small world” designed for the UNICEF pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, later relocated at Disneyland park in California and then replicated for Walt Disney World in Florida and for Disneylands Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.  Most likely, plans are in place for a sixth permanent installation in the upcoming Shanghai Disneyland.  It’s a staple attraction, easily and immediately readable.  And the small world song, written and composed by Richard and Robert Sherman, has become a multi-nationally recognized and cherished song (also parodied and endearingly dreaded).  Its lyrics were intended to be simple enough to be easily translated into any and every language – lines like “there is just one moon and one golden sun and a smile means friendship to everyone.” 

                That one golden sun can also represent light, truth, or anything dependable in our lives, anything about which everyone can relate.  This unifying symbol is represented in every room of the attraction yet with a drastically different design in each case.  For my presentation, I chose to organize the graphics of these suns side by side – all together, all at once.  They all look like the sun, they represent the source well enough that, shown separately, one might say, “Well, that’s a sun, son,” yet none of them really replicate the sun.  They are representations seen through a different perspective.  This is true of any text.  No artist ever truly captures the source as it is or was.  Why should it?  If I want to see the sun, I’ll step outside and I’ll feel it on my skin.  From another, from their art or voice, I want to know how they see the sun and what it means to them.  I want to see from their perspective.  In this way I gain two-fold:  I learn to love the sun (or whatever the subject) even more, and I also learn to love the sharer.  And through this, our beautiful world gets a little bit smaller.