Thinking of Picasso while watching football on TV? Absolutely.
While watching West Virginia University vs. Rutgers college football on television, I was impressed with the multiple playbacks of each play, from different camera angles. There are at least four angles to cover: front, back, ride side, left side. And it helps that all of the angles are slightly elevated so we can see the various arms and legs akimbo in shiny uniforms, attempting to foil their opponents. It also helps that it is in slow motion.
We as humans don't always see or comprehend things as they happen, and have the luxury of relying on our technology. Even the referees on the field in Morgantown, West Virginia, consult this camera playback from all angles, especially when the call is crucial to the game. That we need this visual reinforcement to make an informed decision, is perhaps the implied intent of the playback in slow motion.
It is also the intention of cubism to show life experienced from all perspectives or points of view, simultaneously. It is a visual leap of faith because we must imagine what cannot exist. When Paul Cezanne accidentally started a movement that was picked up from Africa by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, it created an art movement as influential through art history as any. And even though some humans may shrug their shoulders while viewing the work of a Cubist, they totally understand the cubistic need for the slow motion, multiple playback.
Lord help me, I have to say it. Go Mountaineers! And thank goodness Coach Rich Rodriguez will stay in his native West Virginia.
