Here in the Moment

HERE

IN

THE

MOMENT

R e u b e n Ho r e - Wa t e r h o u s e

How does one’s perception of a ‘moment’ inform their sense of ‘here-ness’?

What it is to be ‘here’ is arbitrary, a definition differing from person to person that is grounded within one’s subjective experience of existing; of being ‘here’ in the world. It is easy, though, to fallaciously believe that ‘here-ness’ is in fact shaped by the environment in which one finds himself. For Hosier Lane in Melbourne’s CBD, for example, one might mention its vibrant graffiti walls and constant presence of people in defining its ‘here-ness’. However by looking past the wide-lens of what it is to be ‘here’ within space, one can begin to understand the importance the subjective experience of being ‘here’ within the moment.

This concept of ‘here-ness’ can be conceptualised by the German phrase ‘da-sein’, translated into English as ‘being there’. As German philosopher Martin Heidegger explains, ‘here-ness’ can only be shaped by one’s own ‘da-sein’, where the experience of simply ‘being in the world’ allows one to establish their own sense of ‘here-ness’ that cannot be shaped by anything other than their own presence within the ‘here’ (Heidegger, 1989). Two people holding the same definition of ‘hereness’ would be almost impossible, requiring a ‘being-with-one-another’ in the moment where their two ‘daseins’ are the same (Heidegger, 1989).

A moment in itself can be defined as a fraction of a larger ‘present’ or ‘here-ness’. The moment is a construct of subjective and multiple ‘nows’ that combine together to inform an experience that can be as infinitely long as it can be short.

It is impossible to define what does and does not constitute a moment, as to be in a moment is to be in a constant state of moving reality: “watch it, there it goes, its gone” (Charney, 1998).

The role of a moment is to open a hole in time, a chasm that can be pulled out, recognised and studied in order to understand a ‘hereness’ that is grounded in in a series of embodied moments that build a profile of what it is to be ‘here’.

Arguably, there are three pivotal elements of a moment that inform what it is to be ‘here’: 1. The perceived duration of a moment: One’s subjective experience of their presence in time.

2.

The encountered moment: One’s own recognition and sensation of specific moments.

1. The moment as a construct of memory: The secondary remembrance or recollection of a moment, where the moment is reconstructed and remembered under the constraints of memory as it endures.

Through specific inquiry of these foundations, and by developing informative narratives of the moment in actuality, this inquiry will endeavour to examine the ‘here-ness’ of Hosier Lane and thus demonstrate the phenomenon of what it is to be ‘here’ in practice.

“Narrative inquiry [is] the study of experience as story, then, is first and foremost a way of thinking about experience. Narrative inquiry as a methodology entails a view of the phenomenon. To use narrative inquiry methodology is to adopt a particular view of experience as a phenomenon under study.� (Clandinin, 2006)

The perceived duration of a ‘moment’.

We use time as a measure of progression. Every minute - every 60 seconds - measures exactly the same duration as every other minute. Our individual experiences of the passing of time, however, are not necessary the same. It is our experiences of time in the ‘moment’ that create our experiences of the here.

To be ‘here’ refers to a particular time in which one is within an environment, where experiences of sensation and cognition in ‘hereness’ are conceptualised. There is no specific time period that encapsulates and defines what is and isn’t a moment, though there are parallels in which time is both measured by duration and constant and neverending at the same time; one’s perception of time is in fact defined by the way we think and feel within a moment, not the duration of the time itself (Kennedy & Trafton, 2011).

Where one moment can be perceived in ‘real time’ (each second a second), other moments may be perceived as either fleeting or enduring as if sped up or slowed down. Therefore ‘here-ness’ may be experienced as different split durations and in different perceived time periods.

Fleeting People walking.

Legs becoming a blur.

Clopping feet.

Arms swing.

People enter and exit.

Blurred legs again.

Sounds of clopping feet.

They exit.

Before I get a glance they’re gone.

Another person enters.

People move from one point to another.

Click of the camera.

They move to the next.

They exit.

A man places the empty coffee cup onto a ledge on the side of a windowsill Leans down and proceeds to do his laces up.

He creates one loop, and then another one lacing them up and pulling tight to finish.

The man straitens his back, placing one arm on his leg, he pushes off he stands ups.

Reaches out and grabs his coffee cup with his right hand and takes a step, and another one.

Enduring I pause, stop suddenly, my legs lock in place and my body sways and jolts to a halt I gaze at a man The man is stagnant, peering through the lens of his camera.

His finger slowly declines on the camera button.

Click.

Releases.

His face still pressed tightly against the camera.

He moved the camera in his hand, moving it, his arms move up and down rotating the camera.

Click.

He releases his finger again.

Moving his head back he moves the camera away from his face.

I make eye contact.

I step in front of him, and continue.

The narrative enables an exploration of differing perceptions of time as constructs of different ‘heres’.

The first narrative perceives time as fleeting, enabling the reader to conceptualise the fast speed cognition of one moment, and then as it continues (slips into ‘real’ time) from one moment to the next.

The second text conceptualises the moment as enduring where the reader/writer can perceive duration of the moment as drawn out, subsequently juxtaposing two different types of ‘here-ness’ through the perceived duration of a moment.

The encountered moment.

It is through the encountered moments that individuals build a profile of their distinct experience of ‘here-ness’; some moments go unnoticed, and some are noted, with only the noted contributing to the overall narrative of what it is to be ‘here’. Automatically an individual starts to construct his own sense of the ‘here’ through his experience of moments as they are recognised; he chooses which to give hierarchy to, or totally eradicate. It is this individual collection of embodied moments that define very different concepts of the ‘here’. This technique is similar to the style that is apparent in Exercises in Style, where author Raymond Queneau demonstrates that through changing the style of moments (i.e their hierarchy, or the order at which they are written), various differing interpretations of the ‘here’ are portrayed (Queneau, 1998).

Encountered Moments 1 Sharp shadows created by the tall walls cuts the lane into segments.

Shadows creating pockets of darkness.

Dirty water slowly trickles down the gutters.

Moulding around any piece of rubbish in its path.

Bits of string twirl and sway in the breeze.

Air vents blow polluted air onto the pavers.

The stale smell of foot litters the air.

Barbwire is stagnant, a warning.

Cigarette butts litter the ground, finding sanctuary in corners and crevices.

Thin layers of black dirt coats each cobble stone.

Black sticky stains spot the concrete sidewalks.

Sparrows scavenge over left overs.

Encountered Moments 2 Sunlight stream onto the cobbled ground and walls.

I can feel the warmth of the sun on my skin.

Vibrant colours streak the walls.

Bird chirp at one another.

People chatter, becoming a combination of voices.

People laugh.

People posing with one another.

The clicking of cameras.

The sound echoes up the lane.

Shoes cast over lines swirl in the breeze.

Soft clouds float between the roof lines.

These particular narratives explore alternative ‘heres’ through the individual’s ability to recognise and interpret moments differently. The narratives are informed by the practice of recognising and experiencing moments, enabling an encounter to be made between various ‘heres’.

Narrating these moments using a succinct style of writing enables practice to continue more flowingly, as if capturing the moment ‘as it happens’ (or shortly after cognition).

5 Encountered Moments, 15th March I The walking people

enter. lane leaving

I

is up and

bustling entering

take

and from

with either

a

people, down, ends. step.

Despite the vibrance and the joyous feeling that the colour brings, there is a sense of gloom as the high wall cast long shadows, encapsulating and sucking you in.

You feel the enormity of the building around.

I

take

a

step.

There is a constant echo which comes with the original maker.

High-heels clop on the concrete, car horns ring up and down the alley, people talking, the click of camera buttons.

The chirp of birds, as they fly from one birch to the other.

Sound from a radio.

School kids shouting and yelling.

It is a mixture of sounds that bounce off one another and combine to become a mess.

I

continue

down

the

alley.

I feel tension within the walls; it is hard to shy away from the dirtiness of the alley.

It is as if the joyous, bright pristine colour of the walls are trying to compete with or cover up the reality in which the alley way truely is.

Cigarette butts litter the uneven stone gutters. Rubbish, dirt, smudges, grime, urine.

Stench.

I

stop

Breeze of hot air.

Fans loudly humming, forcing hot stale air onto the street.

People continue to walk up and down, shoes clopping on the ground.

Lines covered in thrown shoes turn ever so slightly above.

Cars beep.

Growl their engines.

I

exit.

5 Encountered Moments 2, 15th March I step within the alley, I feel my foot hit the uneven cobbled ground.

My foot moulding to the ground’s contours.

My muscles tense up my leg.

Joints lock.

I gaze, scanning, looking.

Eyes jump between the environment.

People taking photos.

My calf muscle tightens.

My thighs lift.

I lift my foot from the dirt, my shoe slightly sticking.

I place foot in a groove within two uneven pavers.

My body rocks and stabilises.

Slightly swaying.

Sounds echo.

I take ten more steps.

Each stride taking me deeper within the noise.

Each step sounds and joins that of the sounds around me.

My footsteps join the chaotic rhythm.

Some are louder than other; making their pace more dominant.

Rubbish everywhere.

I come to a halt.

My legs evenly apart.

My arms hanging by my side.

Hot stale air brushes over my skin.

Hairs on my arms are unlatching from one another.

I feel the heat radiate off my skin.

People talking.

I continue.

Taking 32 more steps.

I am out of the lane and onto even ground.

I feel the shift - as if the ground represents differing territories.

My feet are flat.

These narratives explore the idea of hierarchy in encountered moment; whereby the same continuum of moments are encountered however it is the hierarchy of the different moments juxtaposed against one another that illustrate individual’s presence in the ‘here’. This is done in practice through recognising the moments in-between that cognition may not register.

The “moment” as a construct of memory.

“In a moment, the body receives sensation non-rationally; or, more exactly, prerationally. By the time cognition catches up with the sensation, that moment is gone.�

- Leo Charney (1998), Empty Moments (p. 31)

A moment must be at the forefront of consideration about ‘hereness’ as it is physically impossible to successfully capture a whole moment in text after the moment has occurred. However, Edmund Husserl argues that “…the present occurs not just as a compound of moments of sensations and cognition but as ‘a single continuum which is constantly modified’ as it moves away from the perceptual present.” That is, for a moment to develop meaning, several moments must be combined to create a narrative based on contemplated and repeated reflection (Lessing, 1998, p.31). Memory is the only way of incapsulating a moment in time, and it is this memory that creates a narrative of the overall moment in ‘here-ness’. It is these different levels of memory that Husserl discusses, in particularly ‘primary remembrance’ or ‘retention’ versus the ‘secondary remembrance’ or ‘recollection’. It is this notion of the recorded written moment as a construct of memory that informs what ‘here-ness’ is, as it is physically impossible to capture a moment as it happens.

“[Primary remembrance] was figured by Husserl as ‘a comet’s tail which is joined to actual perception’… The attribute of memory/meaning trails in the wake of the moment of perception, getting thinner and thinner as it gets progressively more distant from its source.” (Charney, 1998).

‘Here-ness’ changes as one’s perceptual memory of the moment dwindles over time, whereby reflecting on a moment or a set of moments over time may allow the demonstration of various states of perceptual memory as the ‘here’ fades into the past. This concept can be explored further in practice by conducting field tests requiring the recording of a moment straight after it has happened, versus 10 minutes after, versus 3 hours later, versus 3 days later, thus enabling the understanding that ‘here’ is in fact a construct of time and memory.

“As the moment happens.�

The tap drips fast in and then slows, then continues to drip fast again, continuing in a cycle.

The drip forming at the spout.

Forging.

Until finally letting go.

And then falling.

The drips sending the sound of splats onto the concrete ledge below.

It sends a shower of smaller drips over the concrete. creating an arced damp area.

Sending small ripples into the puddles below.

And then the next drip.

10 minutes after the moment.

The tap drips slowly and then fast and then cycled back into slow again.

The water forming at the spout to form the drip.

And then the drip falls.

It splatters on the concrete ledge below.

Dispersing into many other drips.

Creating a mess of wet pavers.

Followed by the next drip.

3 hours after the moment.

The tap drips fast but then slowly and then fast again.

A damp territory creates from the falling drips.

The drips splatter sending other drips dispersing out.

Soaking the cobble stones below.

With the cracks forming small puddles below.

3 days later.

The tap drips both fast and slow.

It falls onto the ledge below, and splatters onto the ground below creating puddles on the cobbles ground.

Bibliography:

Heidegger, M (1989). The Concept of Time. Blackwell Publishing Ltd: USA

Queneau, R. (1998). Exercises in Style, John Calder Publishers: London

Charney, L. (1998). Empty Moments, Duke University Press: USA

Clandinin, D. J., & Huber, J. (2010). Narrative inquiry. In B. McGaw, E. Baker, & P. P. Peterson (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (3rd ed.).

Elsevier: New York

Kennedy, W.G. and Trafton, J.G. (2011) How long is a moment: The perception and reality of task-related absences. International Journal of Social Robotics.