Eardrums, Domes, and Pebbles
A flow of associations and connections
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I’ve recently been encouraging myself to ‘collect’ the images and phrases that I see and like, and to store them and save them so that I can see them together later. I’ve enjoyed adding the photos to my collection as and when I see them, so that they aren’t organised into categories. It feels like keeping physical copies of these images in a box, where they might move around each other and change order. From this box, I’ll close my eyes and pick some out. I’ll see what they remind me of and how they feel together. I find spending some time with these images and ideas to see if any connections come up to be a useful exercise for practicing visual literacy, so I’d like to share some of these associations and juxtapositions from recent imagery that I’ve saved.
Cathédrale Saint Lazare, Autun (Côte-d’Or) Photo by Dennis Aubrey
A tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative area above a building’s entrance. ‘Tympanum’ derives from the Ancient Greek and Latin words túmpanon and tympanum, each meaning ‘drum.’ Alongside the architectural element, ‘tympanum’ also refers to the eardrum, the membrane that vibrates to transmit sound waves to the inner ear.
Personally, I feel on a visceral level more similarities between an eardrum and the architecture of an apse – the recess, usually domed, that’s often found in churches. Before I knew the name for an apse, I’d found myself attracted to the volume of these spaces for its gentleness. Sheltering without harsh edges.
The alcove in the corner of my studio is the outside world, as I want it. The half-dome holds the sky in places; in others, it’s not clear. The surface inside is matte and milky – it seems to have been slip-cast in wax. Some colour emerges from beneath, curls of the blue hillsides, spotted with earth and sky. It feels like air bending around me, up from my feet, around and over the front of my head, returning in currents to the ground. The wooden edges and framework of the dome face the wall in the corner of my studio.
Extract from my ‘My Theatre’ writing practice