the Lens: SI COMPREHENDIS...NON EST DEUS

SI COMPREHENDIS...NON EST DEUS

For if you comprehend, He is not God. Be there a pious confession of ignorance, rather than a rash profession of knowledge. To reach to God in any measure by the mind, is a great blessedness, but to comprehend Him is altogether impossible. — Augustine, Sermo LXVII

That is why the Zen Masters say: "If you meet the Buddha, kill him." Here we must be very circumspect. The "Holy Object" must be destroyed in so far as it is an idol embodying the secret desires, aspirations and powers of the ego-self. — Thomas Merton

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Lenses are more than devices used to capture photographic images. Along with filters and framing, they are mental constructs through which we interact with and understand everything. They distort the ways in which we hear, see, and think. This has implications that go far beyond photography, but also impacts our flawed understanding of other people and the world around us.

Cultural Criticism begins with literature, philosophy, art, film, music, and television. But more than what these things means to their creators...the lenses and filters through which they made their contribution to culture...our interpretations of these are often tragically wrong...interpreted as they are by our own lenses, filers, and framing. Critical thinking involves challenging these in ourselves more than the other.

Place & Space deals with archaeology, architecture, and urbanism. How humans build and interact with their environment is not neutral, but it forms, focuses, and filters the ways in which we understand our societies and our places within them.