Laura Gougeon

Power & Imagination

Trimble
October 26, 2015
Inquiry #4: On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz
In the passage of On Looking by Alexandra Horwitz, she speaks about what concentration
and paying attention truly means. There are different factors that play a role in being observant
and focused such as your profession.
Several ideas stood out to me while reading this passage, the first being when she said
that concentration is a type of ignorance. If you think about it, this fact is true. If we are able to
ignore and block out everything around us while focusing intensely on one thing, we are not
receiving the rest of the knowledge around us, therefore making us ignorant. Another topic that I
found significant in this reading was when she spoke about how what profession you are in will
make a difference in what you observe in the world. This was mostly significant when she took
people walking around the block. While they were making their observations, the psychologist
was explaining how it is important for people to be mindful individuals, meaning to bring
attention to our daily lives by paying attention to new things. As this happened, she blatantly
walked over three twenty dollar bills. This could be explain by her salary being very large, so
money is not a new aspect of her life.
A passage that posed questions for me while reading was when Horowitz says ... The
singularity of one unexpected element in a visual scene is so remarkable that the item can serve
as just a marker for some other thing, tangible or intangible This could mean that something

small could make a significant difference in the way we perceive something or an event. But how
is that determined from person to person?

Laura Gougeon
Power and Imagination
Trimble
October 26, 2015
Inquiry #4: The Fine Line by Eviatar Zerubaval
The chapter in The Fine Line by Eviatar Zerubaval talks about how people categorize
objects and events to make sense of the world. If we did not categorize tangible or intangible
objects and saw them all as unique then the world would have no meaning.
The frames that people make up to separate different realities is key to be able to make a
switch in how a person must behave in different realms. This happens many times in a person's
life, if you realize it or not being able to make the switch is what makes a person act civil and a
key to have good morals. Frames are also play a key role in allowing someone to pick out what is
important and who is important from who and what is irrelevant. This is also a subconscious
thought that occurs in everyday life for example ...technicians installing equipment at rock
concerts Being able to do this is important because if we did not, our brain would not be able
to process everything that happens and staying focused would be nearly impossible. It would
also take away the importance of the event or person that is supposed to have the attention.
A passage that stuck me in this article is when Zerubaval states The manner in which
we isolate supposedly discrete figures from their surrounding ground is also manifested in the
way we come to experience ourselves I do not comprehend how by doing this type of
categorizing we are supposed to discover ourselves?