This Was Going To Be A Thing Until It Wasnt

That Time I Gave My Philosophy Professor an Existential Crisis

At one point in the online spring semester of 2021, I received an announcement from my philosophy professor at 4am. 4am?!! Apparently, the discussion essay I provided with my perspective on the week's topic of Reality had given him a crisis. at least, a mild one.

I was thinking about that ordeal as I've been working on reading Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott again (lil shapes society inhabiting a 2D plane?? flat dreams brainrot UH) and the satirical book definitely loves to demonstrate that we can't fully understand true reality or other dimensions as we're stuck to own perspectives. We had covered Flatland in our philosophy class, and I had already been interested in it since 2020 :)

I dug up that year-old philosophy essay and I'm still proud of it, so I shall share it here. Initially I had absolutely-618%-for-sure procrastinated on writing this until the hour before it was due, so there were a few grammatical errors I fixed for its Tumblr debut.

With the context below it might be a bit easier to see why I've been fascinated by the concepts of Flatland and Flat Dreams for those familiar with it, though that stuff is still hecka cool on its own! And hey, if you wanna check out the essay below, maybe it'll give you an existential crisis too (uh kinda hopefully not I guess but at this rate Anything Is Possible)

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Oh man, this week's topic has me so hyped, I've been obsessed with Flatland, the concepts of reality & other dimensions for a while now. I absolutely enjoyed the 2007 Flatland: The Film, it's on YouTube and I highly recommend it :D

As for dealing with the concept of reality....

What if there was something embedded into your experience of reality that you were unaware of? And what if this experience was "abnormal"? 

Enter: positive visual phenomena. Such as hallucinations, palinopsia (seeing images after they are gone), and illusions. But specifically, visual snow.

Wikipedia defines it as "Visual snow, also known as visual static, is a condition in which people see white or black dots in parts or the whole of their visual fields." Nobody knows what causes this static, and it doesn't show up on any type of medical test. Sometimes visual snow can be a symptom of a migraine, or someone might develop the condition of visual snow syndrome and have it forever alter their vision and the way they experience reality. Or, some people might have had this condition placing static over their entire life, and likely don't realize it is abnormal - since it is all they have ever known.

Like me.

I accidentally stumbled across a definition of visual snow in November 2020 from the YouTube channel PsychToGo. (https://youtu.be/NssIITHZ28Y?t=129)

After giving a short description of what visual snow syndrome was, the video noted that "the majority [of those with visual snow] might not even notice it."

I paused the video and thought for a moment. I stared at the white page of my notebook, and yeah - there was a thin layer of static over it. Wait, not everybody sees like this? I just thought it was normal, like eyes not being able to fully process what is in reality around us? I also questioned my awareness of the static, how would I know there was static if this is all I've ever seen? When I was younger, I used to think there was dust constantly floating around a room (but it was static) and when I talked with my eye doctor as a kid about seeing dots, it's possible she mistook my description for floaters and brushed it off as "normal."

My mind was blown and I kept questioning reality - that is, how every person experiences it. The fact that my eyes experience reality in a slightly way than the majority of everyone else is insane. And there is no way for me to experience a visual reality in the "normal" static-free way... right?

Here's an even crazier part about all of this. Several people with visual snow discovered that when they watched television static for a bit and looked away, their own visual snow disappeared temporarily. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Watching static helps get rid of static, even if just for a few seconds? On another YouTube deep dive, I discovered a video of just static for "Visual Snow Relief"

Out of curiosity, I decided to watch it a bit.

After about three minutes of staring at static, I got bored and looked away. AND MY VISION WAS CLEAR. It felt like upgrading from an HD TV or a 4K TV or something - the static was gone for mere seconds and I could see the beautiful, clear picture of the world that everyone else experiences. A glimpse of the "normal" visual perception of reality.

Soon my static came back into view and I was back to my regular visual snow perception of the world. But I got to thinking: What if there was some way we are able to remove a limitation in our perception and better experience reality? We may never know.

why are you everywehre

i am the universal constant you can never escape

purn bygmalion drawings made over this semeste

good album for helpin adjust to a new environment in my case

brainrot

some phone doodles of love of the s*n & bryce lol

Commissions for @awesomejedie! These pieces are for their website for their Tally Hall podcast, Tally Talks. Check it out!

Do you recognize the iconic Tally Hall images these are based on?

For more info on my commissions, check here!

Background/landscape practice from last month (Autodesk Sketchbook)

Rymin All The Time Comms

here’s some commissions i did a while back for @awesomejedie’s fic, rymin all the time! check it out for maximum rymin fic trope-ry and funzies :D

catboys are guaranteed, or twice your money back

redraw of will wood's SELF-iSH album but with bil cifer 🥰 ft epic references bc this album is very flat dreams coded

assorted rymins and hfjones

i've created a bit of both rymin and hfjone art stuf over time and they're sorta connected. so here, masterpost :)

some lil art pngs/stills from me messing around trying to make an animation meme based on hfjone

a few months back i tried to make a lil pmv color palette test thing with rymin. red and blue dudes.

and then heres just a random sketch page thats also related lol

poeple