MEDIUM IS A MESSAGE: TEXT: PART 3 of 4

Why do you like to go there so often?

I feel transparent there. Invisible.
I am Gaijn.

What does that mean?

Gaijin means ghost in Japanese.
You feel transparent because you are a ghost.
They look at you but they don't see you.
I like to shoot there for the same reason.
Everyone pretends that you are not there.

Why is that?

They are self-absorbed. To be Japanese is a religion.
They need Gaijns to reflect their image. Gaijin is a mirror.
The mirror is a big metaphor for Japan.
All the women look into small round mirrors at ALL times.
Some of the subway stations in Japan have mirrors above the tracks to discourage suicide jumpers.

Yeah, you can't see a ghost's reflection in the mirror. You have made a project in the Aokigahara Forest in Japan, which is known as the suicide forest. What is this all about?

The Aokigahara is an ancient forest on the side of Fuji Mountain.
There was a novel published in Japan in the 60s, where two lovers commit suicide in this forest. Since then it became a cult place and a popular spot for suicides. Every year 60-70 people die there. Once a year, police and local volunteers comb the forest for remains. All the trees grow on volcanic rock full of holes and caves.
It is dense and scary place.
A compass doesn't work on this mountain, there is too much iron in the rock.
It's easy to get lost there.

Lost in Nature?

Right, the whole thing has a Zen angle too. To die is to dissolve in nature. Form is emptiness, the mantra says.

I want to get back to my first question. The Japanese culture and food are fashionable. Japanese girls are very popular. For some people it is more than fashion, it is a fetish.

One's desire is desire for other. Japanese culture fascinates because it is alien as alien can be. The more you try to get closer to it, the more it withdraws. You are being drawn into what withdraws. Pure vacuum.

Pure vacuum with a missing center?

Disappearance and vanishing point.
To dissolve and disappear gracefully is the ultimate elegance to be achieved. Transparent but vibrating just like a perfume.
Perfume is the essence of time and memory.
One scent creates a remembering of time.

Are you trying to make some more general statement? What is the message?

Medium is a Message.

I feel that reality accelerates itself more and more. Kurtzweil predicts that progress will form one big and constantly accelerating curve up to the point that the rate of change becomes infinite.
The future will become completely unpredictable because the change will exceed our ability to grasp it. Things will move at a pace beyond what we can now comprehend.

That is not far away from Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

Very correct. The uncertainty principle says that you cannot predict the velocity and speed of a particle.
It means, that it is highly unlikely to succeed in predicting time and space of future events.
Just look at the present. I make most of my decisions 12 hours in advance.
Look at the way the conflict in Afghanistan is being solved. Everything is improvised in real time. Long term planning is too sclerotic and kills the flexibility of NOW.
If you don't want to live in the rearview mirror you have to live in the very moment.

N/E/X/T > 4