Magic Flatlands
results of an extended existence in an isolated community
results of an extended existence in an isolated community
The Magic Flatlands
I attended college in a small village in northern Europe forfifteen months. During the time I lived and studied there I met lots of new people and my life was enriched by the many new experiences and impressions. In that community of students, faculty and staff, the lifestyle and value system were almost completely different from what I was used to. How people interacted with each other and how they behaved in social settings was totally foreign to me. But in a few weeks I could adapt to the system and I became a part of it. Everything seemed normal and familiar after a while. At the time, I didn’t waste too much thought on how I was quickly adapting to the environment. However, when I arrived home and got back to my normal life, it was shocking to realize how surreal the previous year had been. Even though the memories were still fresh in my mind, I felt as if the previous months had not happened at all; as if I had skipped ahead in time and space, and if my memories were not my own but scenes from amovie or lines from a book. I was trying to understand how I could have been insuch a bizarre situation without realizing it, in a setting that was entirely divorced from reality. I can compare my experience to “The Magic Mountain” byThomas Mann. The parallels between the sanatorium from the book and my former school are staggering, particularly how time and space were perceived.
These places are beyond time, or at least the conventional sense of time, which is formed in everyday life. There was too much time for those in the sanatorium and for those at the school as well, but, oddly enough, this vast expanse of time passed quickly and without any extra effort. No one would argue that time is rather subjective: if it feels like time is passing slowly,then it is, if the time instead seems to fly by, then the time is actually shorter. A minute lasts as long as it takes for the second hand to go around the clock once, and this movement is a spatial one, as well as temporal. Does this mean that time is measured in space? It would be like measuring a distance in time, which is done often enough. Aalborg is twenty hours away from Budapest by car. But how long would it take on foot? Or how long does it take for a train of thought? Only a split second.
In these isolated human communities, life goes on only for its own sake. Every day is identical to the one before and even to itself. Strictly regimented and uniform days cause time to appear infinite. Without time, change is impossible; therefore the steady rhythm of being defeats time’s purpose. The monotonous landscape also adds to this nullification of time, making everythingthe same, time and space. If the landscape is the same everywhere, then moving from place to place is not actually movement. And if movement is not motion, then there is no time, as the two cannot exist without each other. You get lost in your own thoughts, and fall into a comfortable trap of doing nothing. The days turn into months, months into years, and when I finally walked back into my old life after fifteen months, it felt like just a few days.
These photographs represent the distortion of time and space in one's mind as a result of an extended existence in an isolated community.
I attended college in a small village in northern Europe forfifteen months. During the time I lived and studied there I met lots of new people and my life was enriched by the many new experiences and impressions. In that community of students, faculty and staff, the lifestyle and value system were almost completely different from what I was used to. How people interacted with each other and how they behaved in social settings was totally foreign to me. But in a few weeks I could adapt to the system and I became a part of it. Everything seemed normal and familiar after a while. At the time, I didn’t waste too much thought on how I was quickly adapting to the environment. However, when I arrived home and got back to my normal life, it was shocking to realize how surreal the previous year had been. Even though the memories were still fresh in my mind, I felt as if the previous months had not happened at all; as if I had skipped ahead in time and space, and if my memories were not my own but scenes from amovie or lines from a book. I was trying to understand how I could have been insuch a bizarre situation without realizing it, in a setting that was entirely divorced from reality. I can compare my experience to “The Magic Mountain” byThomas Mann. The parallels between the sanatorium from the book and my former school are staggering, particularly how time and space were perceived.
These places are beyond time, or at least the conventional sense of time, which is formed in everyday life. There was too much time for those in the sanatorium and for those at the school as well, but, oddly enough, this vast expanse of time passed quickly and without any extra effort. No one would argue that time is rather subjective: if it feels like time is passing slowly,then it is, if the time instead seems to fly by, then the time is actually shorter. A minute lasts as long as it takes for the second hand to go around the clock once, and this movement is a spatial one, as well as temporal. Does this mean that time is measured in space? It would be like measuring a distance in time, which is done often enough. Aalborg is twenty hours away from Budapest by car. But how long would it take on foot? Or how long does it take for a train of thought? Only a split second.
In these isolated human communities, life goes on only for its own sake. Every day is identical to the one before and even to itself. Strictly regimented and uniform days cause time to appear infinite. Without time, change is impossible; therefore the steady rhythm of being defeats time’s purpose. The monotonous landscape also adds to this nullification of time, making everythingthe same, time and space. If the landscape is the same everywhere, then moving from place to place is not actually movement. And if movement is not motion, then there is no time, as the two cannot exist without each other. You get lost in your own thoughts, and fall into a comfortable trap of doing nothing. The days turn into months, months into years, and when I finally walked back into my old life after fifteen months, it felt like just a few days.
These photographs represent the distortion of time and space in one's mind as a result of an extended existence in an isolated community.
special thanks to Michelle!
