created 2025-02-26, & modified, =this.modified
tags:y2025
rel: Tell Them I Said No by Martin Herbert
Being Present
I recently was listening to something that made sense. Our media society is structured in a way that we are inundated with all of the “pre” before experiencing something. What I mean is you get behind the screens of development, reviews, impressions, photographs. The act itself is excessively documented. People talk about it. You see faces at checkout. You are never context-less in your experience, and this poses a difficulty in being present. (containing everything to the moment.)
More concretely an example, you watch a movie. You’ve seen the actors discussing it, your friends discussing it, advertisements have shown up in your feed, your basically been spoiled of it by the trailer, etc. etc.
Unexpected
You go to an event, and you basically know how it will go down.
Granted, a lot of this is the reason you actually get a chance to see it, because it was granted attention to you but still I’ve been very conscious of this as an adult, in avoiding trailers and details of plot unless necessary.
I’m wondering here how to make a contextless experience. Like a movie that you accidentally attend, and end up loving. But I mean accidentally in that you would be entering a dollar store, and it’s actually a theater playing in there.
Or you get previews for a film, and the film you end up watching is completely a different film than what was advertised. Even the actors don’t describe it correctly in media coverage and interviews.
Or you buy some cereal and slowly unbox it, but it’s actually something you really didn’t know you wanted. Like the best mustard you ever tasted, and you hate mustard.
Things like this.
Funnily, I’ve had experiences where I go to see one exhibit specifically and then another one ends up being more meaningful to me.
I also understand this isn’t what we want. We want things as advertised, or the majority would be in an uproar.