AN EVERYDAY PANORAMIC EXPERIENCE

When the world is so still that not even a shadow is moving, then i start listening, still waiting for anything visual.

Usually the trees and bushes sway in the wind, they are regular and predictable, but when something quick starts happening i notice it straight away, often coming in from the periphery, or from behind a building.

It's on busy days, that i realise something is happening which is nothing like what i do with focused vision, watching 2 or 3 birds at the same time, and then a squirrel jumps from a tree... for a split second i'm only aware of the new event, the squirrel – i don't focus on him directly, but i know my mind has recognised "squirrel" and afterwards i am aware of the place where he's sitting, while watching the 3 birds...

And when the birds have flown by, then i notice the bushes swaying gently again... It's always the quicker things which dominate the attention... the miniature flies dancing chaotically right up close... but when there's a cloud of little flies, and they stay in the same place, then they become regular, predictable, background, and even though they are very close, i start to see through and beyond them.

I sense the quick unpredictable things, and the more unpredictable and quicker they are, (or larger so generally nearer) the more noticeable they are... this is my experience and it just seems so sensible and appropriate that animals would need to sense like this in order to survive.

Limitations

These days, i have a balcony with about 160° sidewards vision, i can position myself so i have one side open and a window reflection on the other, but up and down is concrete. Tiny flies sometimes fly by, but generally i have to adapt, and remind myself to look at the ceiling, walls and floor.

The wall behind on two sides is annoying because it inhibits sound. It distorts the sense of spacial reality. I'm sure this is something blind people have reported, the sense of where they are in relation to the sounds around them, is a valuable form of reality.

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