In musical notation a rest is a symbol denoting a varying length of silence. Rests are critical to musical pieces, contrasting the playing. They allow for a moment of silence against the music and can have many meanings. In thermodynamics, a lack of heat of a substance causes it to feel cold. This lack of heat leads to it absorbing heat from the atmosphere and what's nearby, creating a cold presence. An absence creates a presence, be it an aura of cold or a moment of silence. A deliberate absence contrasting presences around it, creates a presence in of itself. On July 19th 1919, peace was celebrated all across Britain after World War 1 with a marching parade. As narrated in Postcards From the Trenches, when the parade passed through The Cenotaph (a monument built to mourn the lives lost in the great war) their playing ceased. They marched through The Cenotaph in silence, a silence made by the absence of voices. The voices from the soldiers who never made it home. In this way absence is used to create a presence of the lives lost. This same principle is used visually as well for many memorials. Creating a structure with open space, and absences, building a presence for those who are missing. This is especially the case with Cenotaphs, which are monuments without any physical bodies. Many soldiers are counted as missing, their bodies never found, or too disfigured to be seen or collected. Their continued physical absence is honored through physical absences creating spiritual presence in monuments. The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval is designed using large arches. The center of them are empty, open space, seen as missing. These monuments give space for the spirits of those who are lost rather than their bodies. An elegant way of commemorating the lost. Presence built through absence.
I liked how you connected music, science, and history to show how absence can carry meaning. The example of the silent parade at The Cenotaph was especially powerful, I feel that it works as a reminder that silence can speak volumes. It’s interesting how something / someone not there can still leave such a strong impression.
ReplyDeleteIt's truly amazing how much of weight absence carries, we only realize the value of something if it is absent. Similarly, the value of deceased soldiers being represented by absent space truly makes us feel their presence. I like how you made your blog feel more personal by connecting it to everyday regular things like Music, and Science.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you showed that absences are presences in many different fields, stretching from thermodynamics to pauses in music, but these absences are just as important as the things that are there; so, it's kind of nice poetry that humans find ways to commemorate the missing in a same way through the senses that both science and music correspond to--what we see, and what we hear. I thought your blog was really well written too!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you interpreted presence to absence throughout your blog, especially connecting to like interesting topics like music and like science. Especially since I’m in orchestra, I felt like the analogy of rest made my understanding 10 times better. Overall, I thought your block was like really creative and like easy to understand since everything is just tied together very nicely.
ReplyDeleteI loved the way you connected silence and emptiness with remembrance. The manner in which you moved from music to science to memorials made it seem like the idea itself was layered, that a void could be “felt” in so many forms. The thing about the Cenotaph was particularly impressive to me it's a great touch that the silence of the parade is echoed by the silence of the soldiers who never returned. It makes the idea of tribute through absence simultaneously personal and universal.
ReplyDelete