I took this photo many years ago in the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum I’m Glasgow.
It’s one of those (many) art installations which have stayed in my mind forever. Every time I look at it, it feels fresh and inspiring.
I suppose a lot has changed in the years since I took this photo, and I find that the particular reflections, thoughts and ideas which are evoked by any image changes according to what I’ve experienced in the past, what I’m experiencing now, and what I’m concerned about in the future.
What I see now makes me think about the opposing world views of separateness and belonging.
I probably have way too many thoughts about this to put in a blog post, but let me just highlight some of the more prominent ones.
I could start by thinking about an economic structure like capitalism, which has become the dominant global model over the years. Or I could start by thinking about the political philosophy of neoliberalism which has been on the ascendant since the middle of the last century. Or I could begin with the way people interpreted Darwinism and turned it into slogans such as “survival of the fittest”. But maybe I could go all the way back to atomism, reductionism and the particular flavour of rationalism which emerges during the Enlightenment. Whichever of these starting points leads me to a seeing this as a collection of entirely separate heads. Probably all autonomous, probably all in competition with each other, where only the strongest, or most powerful, or richest will rise to the top.
Or I could start from seeing the vast web of connections between everything which exists. I could start from the place where the flows of energy, matter and information form relationships through encounters to create temporary, transient entities which continually change. Or perhaps I could start from the new findings of neuroscience which reveal how intensely social we humans are. Or from evolution and developmental science which shows us how no individual exists in isolation to others. Then I see in this image a vast web of interconnected people, each supporting the other, each forming integrated (mutually beneficial) bonds with each other.
In other words I can the representation of atomised alienated competing individuals, and I can see the representation of connected, collaborative societies.
How do you see the world?
Heroes Not Zombies 
When I start to feel the separation too deeply and the us vs them, I dig down and remember we are all so intimately connected in so many ways.
I hope more and more people will do that too
Sadly, as a fight of good against evil. Now more than ever.
I immediately thought of all the different faces that combine to make oneself. Each face is a reflection of a feeling, an emotion that a person experiences that when put together is part of one whole. All those emotions and experiences come together to make us who we are. Think how complex a person must be as during their lifetime, there are so many faces- how does one begin to understand each persons psyche?