The methodology of intuition

The empathic translation

Emmanuel Lévinas is one of the most influential philosophers in the field of ethics in the late 1900´s. His opinion is, we can only discover what another person is through face-to-face encounters. If I can acknowledge the person without noticing the color of the eyes, the shape of the nose, the cheekbones, and the color of the mouth, I perceive her as I ought to and open myself to the particularity, and the uniqueness of her, her otherness. 

I use this theory about the other and the otherness (stranger) as a mindset, a sort of lens when I am watching, talking, and interacting with the otherthing.  

Example of a dialogue with the material “tube”, in one of my paintings;

Meeting with the Tube
Me I don't remember what you look like, I can't describe you if someone should ask me 
if you ask me what your name is, I don't have a clue. 
You are the other, the otherness I can't describe
I can sense you
maybe also feel
something else
something different
not mine
Is it yours?

___________

Lévinas’ sees diversity not as a threat but as an opportunity to become more human by not turning a blind eye to the foreign. Let the foreign, the other, open her up to something else, something beyond and eternal. In the light of this, to have dialogues with the tube is a method of taking in the foreign and starting to think in a different way. To communicate and see the the “thing” as the “otherthing”, has opened up my mind to something that is of my awareness. Lévinas believes that each individual must free himself from the totality to become his own individual and open himself to the others he meets. As an independent and free-thinking individual, she can see from a broader perspective and create her own lens. She is then free to interpret her experiences and renegotiate these interpretations over time. She experiences the freedom to think.