The+Lighthouse+and+the+Seeing+Stone

By- Nick Glyder

In the dystopian world, those who are in power exert almost absolute control over the aspects of the populous’ lives. Not only are they physically controlled, but their minds are indoctrinated as well. Information is censored, purposely changed, or flat out eliminated from the intellectual landscape. The average person is reduced to a state of utter ignorance. And although we may feel a situation like this is an impossibility for our world, it may be closer to a reality than you may think.

My work “The Lighthouse and the Seeing Stone” deals with this idea that information has been and is controlled. The world itself is full of information and knowledge that is basically open to anyone. This is represented by the monocular (“telescope”) that is on the top of the box. It is pointed outward, and it can be picked up and used by the viewer. This monocular is the “Lighthouse” of the title. Lighthouses in literature have for a long time been a symbol for knowledge. The “light” specifically represents a source of information that we can tap into. The viewer picking up the “lighthouse” is in effect gaining knowledge about the world around him. This knowledge is natural and pure, as exemplified by the telescope’s green color (an obvious allusion to (nature), devoid of bias from an outside source. This “knowledge” is connected to the box via a three ponged wire, which enter the box. The box itself is very different from the Lighthouse portion of the piece. Instead of green it is cold silver, denoting a change from the natural to the human engineered. The wire proceeds to pass under a magnifying glass, or the “seeing stone”. Underneath the magnifying glass the wire gets transformed from three pronged to single pronged, an indication that some of the knowledge has been lost or altered. This is supported by the text also found in the seeing stone. “You are blind/I can see,” can be read underneath, a very dystopian like saying. Some unknown entity is telling the viewer that they are “blind” or rather not capable of using the knowledge they have by themselves. The knowledge must be condensed, changed; before it can be allowed to pass to the masses. Coming out of the seeing stone the solitary cable connects to the lighted magnifier, which houses the new, biased information. “2 + 2 = 5,” and obvious lie, is all that is left of the original knowledge from the start. Through scrutiny and control the world has changed natural knowledge to some synthetic, “usable”.

Although this may seem a little extreme, we cannot truly believe that some kind of information control is not exercise by ruling parties today. We may very well be blind, and if we do not do something about it who knows what the future may hold. Dystopian works are not works of total fantasy, most are conjectures as to how the human race will end up. I wanted to convey the idea of information control, and make people really think about how it could be prevalent in today’s society. Hopefully I was successful in this, and we can all start “seeing” for ourselves.

The moon landing is a conspiracy.