Photo Story: Prof. Deep Thought - on Life, Society & Culture - A 2016 Table-Top Project

I created this photo-story in 2016 while still grappling with my earlier days lack of meaningful connect and a yearning for an objective meaning of life. The following images are inspired by the books, movies and music that jarred me from time to time.

War & Peace

Prof. Deep Thought pondering the questions: Is life inherently zero-sum? Is the "us and them" conflict the most central to human nature and identity?

• Inspired by Childhood's End - Book by Arther C. Clarke

Ordinary Love

Can we reach any higher? Prof. Deep Thought on the paradox of all-inclusive love

• Inspired by Ordinary Love - Song by U2

Radical Solution

Where is the line between radicalism and moderate disruption? Prof. Deep Thought contemplating on where do we draw the line

• Inspired by The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - Book by William L. Shirer

Honest Relation

Is the relation between predator and the prey the most authentic and pure, without any pretext? Prof. Deep Thought on predation

• Inspired by The Counselor - Movie by Ridley Scott on Cormac McCarthy screenplay

The Advent of Organized Labor

Did the advent of agrarian society give birth to inherited property and as a downstream, organized labor? Prof. Deep Thought contemplates on what broke the egalitarian chain?

• Inspired by Sapiens - Book by Yuval Noah Harrari

The Horn Blew to the Glory of the Order

Is music an instrument of propaganda? Prof. Deep Thought ruminates on the how history is littered by instances of music being instrument of building narratives

• Inspired by an video I came across on YouTube that drew parallel between Gangsta rap and the criminal statistics and a blog on how Western Classical Music was instrumentalized as religious cannon. I don't have the reference links.

Aboriginal Myth

What is myth-making and how it helps transmute value system? Prof. Deep Thought on the importance of aboriginal art and how they complete our picture of social evolution

• Inspired by Mythology - Book by Roland Barthes

Folkish String

Prof. Deep thought turns to the root of all music, and delves into folk and why we should continue to hold it in our collective memory

• Inspired by a blog I read on the evolution of music. I don't have the reference links.

Identity

Is our identity anything more than the image that we wish to perceive in the eyes of the other person? Prof. Deep Thought questions the foundation of individual identity

• From my own contemplation

A Distorted Echo Chamber

Vagueness can be frustrating, but it can be distorted to suit your needs. Prof. Deep Thought contemplating the distorted bubble we create for our comfort against the dizzying complexity of the real world

• Inspired by Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment - Book by Francis Fukuyama

The Mark Wotney Way

Can life be constantly perceived as a problem solving journey? Prof. Deep Thought on perceiving life as a constant puzzle generator for a problem solving mechanism called Man.

• Inspired by The Martian - Book by Andy Weir

"Every shipwrecked soul knows what it is... to live without intimacy"

Prof. Deep Thought on the absence of a spiritual communion called human connection.

• Inspired by Every Broken Wave - Song by U2

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