That Thingy Up Above

That thingy up above is called a GIF.

An acronym for Graphics Interchange Format, a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987.  This type of format supports up to 8 bits per pixel for an image, allowing a single image to reference its own palette of up to 256 different colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It supports animations and a palette of up to 256 colors for each frame.

In common tongue,  a sequence of images that repeats itself. Like a loop. Like a cyclic repetition. Like a Yeah, you get it...

It never stops. Well, you can pause it with your mouse if you click on it, but you can leave it on your computer and it will repeat itself over and over until you find yourself nauseous of even glancing at it. It is not like any video that we are used to with an end and and a click on "Repeat" for it to play again. No. Nor even a photograph that is completely static. This thing

In our nature there is nothing like that that repeats itself with such precision and fluency. But I still recognize it as the moon.

Have I ever been to the moon? Have I ever seen it up close? No! I have only seen a computer screen representing an image that

By the visual representation of the culture that I have

Perhaps the sea. Or perhaps the rising and downing of the sun and the moon if fast forwarded a thousand times might make a similar effect.

How do I know that what I am seeing is the moon? Well, it is not the moon first of all, its a representation of the moon in the form of a photograph or maybe a painting. Then that image has been juxtaposed with another picture (maybe?) of two hands in a composition on Photoshop. To be even more complex, that composition has been animated in a sequence of time in which the light "Coming out" of the object that resembles the moon illuminates the whole image and then fades quickly, leaving it on darkness. And it doesn't last more than a second.

THE MOON DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A SOURCE OF LIGHT! WHAT WE SEE SHINING IS JUST A REFLECTION OF THE SUN'S BEAMS.

But here it does.

And we believe it because all our scientific development has lead us to trust the discoveries humanity has accomplished of going up and into the void. As a search of discovery that has found a way into our consciousness. Everything that leads

BROAD HYPOTHESIS

We tend to trust more the discoveries about our understanding of the vastness of what is above us. It is a human instinct, I believe. As Jakoff and JOHNSON say, happy is up, and wer humans want to be happy or secure or safe, and everything that will lead us into a discovery towards it or a grasp is a mmuch more exiting experience and we tend to believe it.



And nevertheless I am still in love with this image.

Our metaphorical orientations have a basis in our physical and cultural experience. (14)

Happy is Up, Sad is Down

Physical Basis: Drooping posture typically goes along with sadness and depression, erect posture with a positive emotional state. (15)

Good is Up; Bad is Down

Physical Basis for personal well-being: Happiness, health, life and control - the things that principally characterize what is good for a person - are all UP. (16)

Rational is UP; Emotional is Down

Physical and cultural basis: In our culture people view themselves as being in control over animals, plants, and their physical environment, and it is their unique ability to reason that places human beings above other animals and gives this control. CONTROL IS UP provides a basis for MAN IS UP and therefore for RATIONAL IS UP.  (17)

In their search for the metaphorical orientations that define the way we interpret our lives, Lakoff and Johnson rely as a solid base in our physical and cultural experience, not to structure one concept in terms of another but instead to organize a whole system of concepts with respect to one another.