This work is prominent for two reasons.

First, the photography is symbolic. As a graduation present to me, her dissertation advisor, Wendy Maxian bought me a copy of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism and Human Emotions. Notoriously absent-minded, I promptly misplaced it in August.

This morning I begged my wife to find it, which she did. Hence, as I walked by Tornado of Ideas today looking for the right angle, this title, Existential Cognition, jumped out.

Technologically, it’s the first Project 365 photo taken with an actual camera. I checked out one of the college’s Canon EOS Rebel XS cameras for the weekend.

This allowed me to use aperture priority mode to shoot it at f/5.6, which is as wide open as this 18-55mm lens would go. This allowed a shallower depth of field, making the hideously ugly library building behind to me maximally blurred.

In terms of cropping, the shot was limited due to the blinding sun immediately behind the center of the statue. Finally, the shot was retouched with Photoshop’s Auto Levels adjustment.

Po Shu Wang’s sculpture blends art with science and encourages passersby to interact with and muse on natural phenomena. He is particularly interested in natural, obscure sounds. Although not always audible, the natural world, ranging from planets and stars to molecules and atoms of DNA, hums its own tune. Po Shu Wang’s artwork addresses such questions as what sounds the movement of the earth’s crust makes, or what sounds the sun makes. The work entitled (sic) Comma, inspired by the sunny West Texas climate, ponders the latter question.

However, on this lonely day in early January nine days before students return, there were few passersby to ring the bells on either side of the sculpture. The campus and the bells were silent.