Throwing Light On Shadows

This section is about 'The Valley of Shadows and Reflections' - a place quite different to Copy Cat Park. Different because shadows and reflections are 'copies' created by the laws of Physics, rather than by humans. Together, these shadows and reflections are here referred to as 'Images', and the domain of meaning we are about to explore is therefore the Original/Image relationship.

Because we are coming to this area from a domain we are now familiar with (the Park of Copies), we have a useful vantage point that allows us to make comparisons between the two relationships, to the explanatory advantage of both. But before we go into that, let us take a look at the world of shadows and reflections through a visual medium other than the cartoon.

Below are some photos I have taken to show our fascination with both shadows and reflections. Curiously, my collection contains far more of the latter than could be expected by chance. So is there a reason for this bias towards reflections in photography? It seems so. Perhaps not surprisingly, the reflection has more potential for beauty and interest than the shadow. This is because although shadows are merely filled in outlines, reflections are far richer, with their much greater detail and colour.

Having said that, there is still room for interest in the world of shadows, perhaps especially when the carrying surface is curved, such as in this photo I took in the skiing area of Tignes, in the French alps.

Now when I compare this photo to a similar one I took in Scotland (below), this time with the fence casting a reflection, rather than a shadow, there is a clear difference in the relative appeal of the two shots.

The point being that the literal representation of the fence we see below is simply a straight reflection in the water that offers little extra interest. It is in the photo above that we see the contrast. The image of the shadows, spreading out across the snow, resting, as they do, on a differential curve in the snow slope - one convex, one concave - is an appealing one.

Below is another shadow photo, which I took at the Taj Banal (yes, that's my name for this grandiose tomb, which I have to say is vastly inferior to the new, stunning and barely known Akshardham Temple in nearby Delhi). Here we do find interest in the visual echo of the patterns on the ground and wall. And in this case, we can't complain about the usual lack of detail, because the internal pattern of the 'door' reveals itself in the shadow, given that the door itself is a silhouette. Making this an example unusual in the shadow world, in that its image mimics what we normally take for granted in a reflection, and rarely expect in its humbler cousin.

Now let us look at some reflection photos. The one below is straightforward enough. And it is easy to rotate it - in order to emphasize the fidelity of the image, as in the photo that then follows this one.

Well, it may not be that hard to see what is real and what is not, but it is not that easy either. And either way, this simple test shows us just how much the reflection is faithful to its original.

In the next photo, we find that although the reflecting surface is steady enough for the image to be recognisable (in this case that wonderful, and now pristine, church in St Petersburg) it is nevertheless warped and out of shape. Which is to say that image fidelity is not a given in the casting of a reflection.

It seems that although fidelity gives us the chance to play the confusion game, as with the rotated reflection of the sea monster, the warping of the image that we see above offers us the chance to enjoy the distortion game.

But in the following photo, taken in Hong Kong amongst the sky scrapers, the identity of the casting object has been so changed that we no longer see the building we know this glass is actually reflecting. Instead we see a pleasing 'impressionist' pattern.

These photos are useful insofar as they introduce some of the characteristics of the original/image relationship. Certainly, they are not intended to be examples of visual humour. Yet there is a sense in which these photos are ‘fun’ - as opposed to ‘funny’, and it is worth examining the difference between them and cartoons to see what that means.

The thing that makes these photos fun may be down to the fact that both shadows and reflections are, like our friends the copy and the visual pun, a form of twist in their own right. Doubles are intrinsically appealing. Yes, they are a normal fact of life, with puns, twins, look alikes, reflections, shadows and copies all occurring on a regular basis, but they are also in some way strange.

As a father of non identical twins (that used to closely resemble each other), I know that adults find such similarity fascinating. But generally it seems we are not excited by images, and copies, and in the case of puns, we even look down on them. Which is hardly surprising given how commonplace they are. Yet our children are both fascinated and amused by such simple things as a shadow, reflection, puppet or picture, especially when they are allowed to interact with and create them on their own. Because for them, these doubles are already a form of twist in a world that is, to them, brand new.

Interestingly, adults find themselves enjoying cartoons based on these same commonplace phenomena, and the sometimes dramatic twists that are the agents of this enjoyment serve them well in that arrangement. Because by making the Old once more New, humour enables us to look at what we take for granted afresh, as if we were once again children.

What then does this tell us about the difference between ‘fun’ and ‘funny’? Well, ‘funny’ involves a deliberate twist, but ‘fun’ seems to celebrate a form of twist that is generally unsophisticated and perhaps the principal domain of children. And if it seems wrong to call this form a ‘twist’ (because it is too commonplace to be the unpredictable thing that we really mean by the term ‘twist’), then we might reflect on the following point. Namely, that an advanced alien life form could easily feel the same way about our adult humour as we do about our kids amusements…