Question: give monkey a typewriter, how along will it take for it to produce a meaningful article?
Answer: you will have to wait couple millions of years for monkey to evolve into next human race.
What if you give monkey a camera? Chances are you will see interesting images pretty soon. You will see images that challenge your perspective and your imagination. So often we settle into a way of “doing things” and it become very hard to see things from different angle.
To understand means we have to use our language. Language is acquired and is deeply entangled with culture and society. Our language gives our power to understand and connect, but it also is our biggest limitation. We can not even see something that we have no concept over.
To look from a different angle means to give up what we already know. This letting go is probably more difficult than learning. If you don’t believe it, try to forget what you just read in this blog. The very effort of trying to forget reinforce your knowledge of the existence of this blog. Or, maybe, try to forget your own name.
So, to help us letting go and discover something new, we might need to learn from monkey. We will have to “just playing around”, making all sorts of “mistakes”, and see what happens. This is a scary process since you have no idea what is going to come out.
Of cause, monkey have no idea what their pictures “mean”. We, on the other hand, monkey around, and “pick” those images that interest us. So are we still bounded by our language and knowledge?
That is probably why so many great artists had to be recognized long after they are dead. They happened to monkeyed into something that way beyond the understanding of the time.
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