Ace Ventura, Sven Beirkets

On Thursday night, I attended the Beirkets talk. He had been very inspired by Kirtezche "On Reading" art work. Beirkets had always thought of reading as an inspirational process, rather than just going through images. Part of the beauty of Kirtezche's artwork that inspired him was that, in the photographs and in real life, when someone is reading their mind is focused on consuming the information and interpreting what they are reading, not on their outward self. Beirkets says that an engaged reader is never aware of their setting because that is not where their focus lies. One thing that I found to be interesting and true was when Beirkets spoke about the images of children reading. He said that these pictures remind us of a time when we were capable of "absolutely imaginative transport", before we were consumed by the business world. This really appealed to me because I can remember how much I loved to read when I was younger. And all of the things that I loved to read were stories that required a large imagination (a personal favorite of mine was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe). As a child, you are not bound to reality as much as adults are because you don't have as many responsibilities to burden you and consume your thoughts or stress you. Beirkets called this dilemma "suffering the anxiety of consciousness". As our world and our lives grow more complex, it is harder to live out our interpretations that we get through reading. In a way, I think this is why people seem to return to reading when they become elderly. As an elderly person, you have less things to burden you and less responsibilities and I think there is a desire to return to that childhood-like stage when you can use your imagination to transport you to different times.