HEIGHT, SIGHT, LIGHT & DEPTH

'Depth [...] is the announcement of our immersion in a world that not only preexists our vision but prolongs itself beyond our vision, behind that curved horizon.'

David Abram (Merleau-Ponty and the Voice of the Earth)

One of the many perceptual benefits of living in the sky is the welcome sense of depth that an enlarged view necessarily bestows upon the viewer. This is not simply a case of height and sight which enable this width of field, but of the varying degrees of light which pour over the city throughout the year. Volume, contrast, and distance are all imparted upon the observer with varying degrees of success. If you’re attentive enough, you come to appreciate not just the seeing of the object (and its various corresponding properties) on a crisp clear day but of the not seeing too, on those oft-washed days when the clouds descend to block our view. This invisibility of the object is a kind of parallax view in itself, a necessary component of perception that allows us to appreciate the object (in spite of our not seeing it) in its entirety. A sense of depth is thus conferred upon the viewer, a sense that not only allows us to understand more clearly the object in question but to clarify our perception of that which surrounds and gives way to it.