Week 6: The Duality of Obsession

It’s funny, possibly in an ironic sort of way, that this is my first late blog post because I took this picture several weeks ago. When going over the blogging assignment in our first class I think most of us were very intrigued by the idea of finding obsession in light. I became obsessed with finding this obsession (yes, I went there).

To me, there are two very different ways to look at obsession. It really depends on who’s view point one is trying to light. Through the view of the obsessed, obsession can be very dark, dangerous, jagged, (possibly a time when I would willing use gobos), and all around unnerving. However, for the obsessor, obsession can be a very beauty and wonderful thing. If one obsesses over something, they see that obsessed person, object, or place in such wonderful, warm, welcoming, and soft light.

This is the reason I became obsessed with obsession, and was looking for it since the beginning of the quarter. How does one capture such two contrasting ideas of light in one image?

Then the Great Cat Plague of 2013 hit my house. Because our cats caught the virus at different times we had to quarantine them in separate rooms. Two ended up in my room (that blue thing on stage left is a litter box) so I had to close my door when I slept. I’m afraid of the dark, so I brought my night light from my bathroom to my room. It’s an LED, so it’s a sort of unpleasant light to sleep with in a close, small, room.

To have the light, but not be bothered by it, I put a pillow against the wall. When I was laying on my side I saw the image above and thought immediately that this was obsession.

The source is a bright amber, that almost has an angelic glow. The angle of the pillow does not allow the light to travel very far, or blocks it all together. On top of that, the texture of my wall not only creates a jagged image, but isn’t as noticeable near the source.

Not too long ago my friend told me about this video he saw in a high school math class. There was a prize of a million dollars to whoever can prove that the pythagorean theorem reversed was possible. A man in Japan spent 20 years trying to prove it was possible. After he did, he killed himself from the stress.

Even for the obsessor beauty and joy can turn jagged and dangerous.