DEAR AMBIGUITY
DEAR AMBIGUITY | A short film is based on the word “paradox,” which signifies a self-contradictory statement that, when explained, may prove to be true. I interviewed nine teens with questions of varying \ complexity and worked with their diverse and contrasting answers. Although some of their answers contrasted, there were still similar or identical. This film visually and auditorily illustrates the differences and “paradox” of what is viewed as valid and/or true within the human experience. Human feelings and emotions often contradict and overlap with each other, forming an ambiguous aspect of the human experience, and this is shown in the answers given by the interviewees.
The three sections of the film, “Paradoxal Deafness,” “Ambivalent Feeling,” and “Obscure Fondness,” separate the six sub-sections which include questions regarding happy and sad memories, one’s definition of love, and questions on biggest fears.
The first section, “Pardoxal Deafness,” considers the act of “hearing what you want to hear” even if it the statement seems to contradict itself. Sometimes we may not want to pay attention concepts and beliefs that don’t align with our own so often (unknowingly) we tend act as though we have the inability to notice or hear the noise of concepts that we rather cancel out than deal with.
The second section, “Ambivalent Feeling,” explores how people can receive or experience emotional states or reactions differently.
The closing section, “Obscure Fondness,” highlights questions concerning the unknown, fears, and the undiscovered affections or liking for someone or something.
WHAT IS A PARADOX?
Paradox, an “apparently absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition, or a strongly counter-intuitive one, which investigation, analysis, or explanation may nevertheless be well-founded or true” (Oxford English Dictionary Pg. 2072). The definition of the word paradox and its many variations, including but not limited to, paradoxical, paradoxal, paradoxer, paradoxing, and etc., led me to ask the question of what is a “paradox” and what is not. “[Paradox[es]] [are] not based on mere pretension but on some vision of the things beyond those immediately present,” a statement by George Polya, interested me in the correlation between inconsistency, quandary, reverse psychology, contradiction, and juxtaposition to the varied definitions of the word paradox.