To look, means to direct your eyes in a particular direction, while to see, you must notice or become aware of someone or something by using your eyes. Becoming aware is key – it’s a awaken of the senses, an experiential process.

It is interesting that sometimes to show that we perceive something or someone genuinely, we say: “Oh, I see.”  Corita kent believes that in seeing there is a comprehension of the situation that is followed by a connection between the truth and that situation, [and looking is just part of it].

If we want to learn how to actively see, we need to learn that lesson from children. If we follow children closely, specifically at the age of two or three while they are walking around the house, we see how easily they get distracted by any objects in their path. They stop by whatever attracts them at that moment, even if they are in the same house, in the same room as always, with the same objects. To kids, each time is a different time, and each day has a different light. Today’s color is different from the other day’s color for children. Therefore, to them, today’s experience and perception is different from the previous one. Though we as an adults might be watching a child attracted to one object so many times, form children’s eyes, the object is new as they see it each time differently. Children appreciate any situation with an attention and curiosity. So, children don’t just look, they see, they actively observe. Isaac newton said: “If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.” As we learn from children, everything deserves attention, endless attention. As Kent says “We don’t understand the fullness of everything. Things constantly change and we may have seen an object only five minutes ago and thought we knew it-but now it is very different. we need to be aware of what we don’t know yet.”  Active observation means seeing with awareness to explore the unknown, and as Henry Matisse believes ” To look at something as though you had never seen it requires great courage”.

Sources

Diggins, Gary, and Ryan Price. Tuning the Eardrums: Listening as a Mindful Practice.
Victoria, BC: FriesenPress, 2016.

Gathright , Michael. Gorilla Illusion short. YouTube, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZcq4E8JePw

Goldberg, David , and Mark Somerville. A Whole New Engineer: The Coming Revolution in Engineering Education. ThreeJoy Associates, 2019.

Kent, Corita, and Jan Steward. Learning by Heart; Teaching to Free the Creative Spirit. New York, Bantam Books, 1992.

Without Repeating. Youaremom, 2021.

https://youaremom.com/play-time/activities-and-games-for-kids/observation-games/

Reid, Jay. Making Box, 2019.

https://www.themakingbox.ca/contact

Smart,  James.  yes, and panic. SessionLab, 2021.

https://www.sessionlab.com/blog/improv-games/#yes-and-picnic

Test Your Awareness: Whodunnit. Dothetest, 2008.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNF9QNEQLA

Veneziale , Anthony. Stumbling towards intimacy: An improvised TED Talk, 2019.

Waterman, Ellen. Improvised Trust: Opening Statement. The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts, by Rebecca Caines and Ajay Heble. London, Routledge, 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrUA8L40Dic

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dictionary