Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Eye Writer

You ever seen that flick The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Before I watched the film I was trying to come up with an image that symbolically represented what someone would feel like if they were perfectly fine as far as brain activity but their body weren't functioning right, the body becomes a prison - I think it's called locked in syndrome. It was so intrigued and saddened by what that must be like and I wanted to try and depict that in a way that would help me empathize, a way that might make more sense to my own life experiences, and share that with others, but I could never find the right imagery. Then one day I saw the film and was like, holy crap!! That's it...a dude stuck in a diving bell in the depths of the ocean. I've never been in a diving bell and I doubt many nowadays have but the message was clear. If you don't know what a diving bell is it's one of those old school all heavy metal diving suits that weigh a ton. A perfectly healthy person stuck in a broken, immobile shell. So the story is actually a true one based on a memior written by French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby who woke up completely paralyzed after suffering a massive stroke, the book was written entirely by Bauby blinking his left eyelid. His imagination literally set him free. Crazy huh? Watch the movie. Anyhow so the eye writer totally blow me away. Chills seriously riding down my back as I'm watching this.

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.



http://www.eyewriter.org/

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