Distort Yourself and Reality WIll Follow

I thought that this quote was sick.

The traditional way of looking at skateboarding is largely defined through the mechanical parameters of the camera and its resulting reproductions. This pinhole point of view peripheralizes skateboarding's entirety to focus squarely on the performance of peeking tricks. Specific fractions of skateboarding time get frozen, framed, cropped, colored, edited, and reproduced in the production of both still and moving images. the images we use to portray skateboarding are in fact highly stylized distortions.

But if the camera can be said to inherently distort its subject in relation to reality, it can also be said that skateboarding equally distorts our perception of reality. in this light of skateboarding, time expands as one is actually aware of body relating to board while landing a trick that lasts a fraction of a second. Solid form morphs in shape ans scale as blocks or rails become perceptually smaller as allies become higher. Symbolic value mutates architectural ornaments become objects of recreation. The combination ultimately transforms the real and metaphorical barriers of the built environment into subsequent launch pads of distortion. skateboarding proves; distort yourself and reality will follow.

Thus to see anything anew, its normality must be distorted. When acted upon, the ramifications of such a simple notion become potentially radical and political. this can be seen by the fact that currently skateboarding is simultaneously more popular and more illegal than ever. skateboarding threatens the stats quo  because through direct and simple engagement, it challenges the concrete and symbolic environment otherwise built to foster productivity of conformity for its inhabitants.

With this thinking in mind for Skate & Create, I wanted to put forward a space that embraced such distortion already inherent in skateboarders' way of seeing. in a sense, I wanted to transfer the fleeting views of peripheral vision to the central space of the skate photo. You can see the results for yourself, but simply said, if skateboarding is a way of seeing, thank you for looking, twice.

-Yogi Proctor

Here is the physical manifestation; Emerica's Skate & Create