It was a brief image that came to me as snuggled in my chair late one rainy morning. As brief as it was, it kept lingering in my then awake brain. It was odd for it to linger since when pictures cross my brain, they tend to just float away. And yet I can still see this one in my imagination, albeit fuzzily, several days later.
I was looking downhill along a somewhat shady, tree-lined street. I think there were some cars parked along the street although that part is a bit unclear, but there were older two-storey* homes on the sides.
I feel as though it might have been a view that I might have spied from my bicycle somewhere in Montreal back about 65 years ago.
The question is whether it was some sort of amalgam of things seen, kind of AI-like, or was it, perhaps, a real image that my brain captured and, somehow, retrieved all these years later.
I asked Adobe AI to render something with those keywords, but this ↓ was not what I saw. I think my street was narrower with trees actually arcing over the street . My houses were set back just a bit farther and were a different style and not so attached. Nevertheless, Photoshop put together something realistic and interesting in my first ever trial of asking it to render a complete photo from scratch. So far, I have only asked AI to add very small items to photos. It is all just for interest sake.
Now, what say you? Do you think my brain retrieved an actual image from decades past, or was it just sort of composite of things that I may have seen? And was it Montreal, and was I on my bike? Or perhaps, it had nothing at all to do with real sightings.
I am curious, but we will never know for sure.
* I see that spellcheck doesn't like my spelling of 'storey'. It's the more British and Canadian way of distinguishing between a narrative story and a storey or floor in a building
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23 comments:
The brain is certainly a mysterious thing. Last night, I dreamt that I had received a text from my father that he was having a medical emergency and that I had forgot about it and went to bed anyway. It felt so real that when I woke from my dream, I had to get out of bed, find my phone and convince myself that it wasn't.
So my guess is that your brain was just processing how you process photos and was trying to create an image that tickled the right nerves.
It might also be an illustration you've seen somewhere and remembered. Interesting musing.
I wonder why this image came into your brain like that. I sometimes see things in my dreams that I swear are real. Maybe this is deja vu and you'll see it appear?
I'd like to believe it is a memory, perhaps slightly gilded, but something your brain pulled out for you to experience again.
After being in a dream-group (yes in the 80s we did this!) I always think, dreams are a message to the one dreaming. If it had been me, I'd have had a secret wish to live at one time on that tree lined street, a nice neighborhood with old homes and kids could bike down the street in safety. But it was your dream!
Oh, and I love your AI composition. Watch out, you may find another creative venture for your ideas!
AI is getting very clever. I would think it was probably a remembered image.
I don't know about you, but my brain leads a life of its own--wild and free, dabbling among real memories and half-recalled books, tv shows, movies, etc. I very much like your vision of the street. I have a similar image that occasionally come to me in dreams of a narrow dirt road lined with palm trees. From my infancy? (I was born in California but taken to Florida before I was one.)
I took a memory class a long time ago and the professor mentioned that many so-called memories are actually based on photos we've seen. Not actual memories.
As soon as you said, Montreal I could picture a typical street there, and I agree, this is not (from my experience), Montreal. Although I didn't live there (and thus you would know far better than I), my daughter went to University there and I visited several times.
As for the veracity of your memory...I suspect your memory is an amalgam as all vision is affected by filling in the physical blind spot, etc.
Also, I noted a comment above about deja vu. Very interesting, but likewise fascinating is vuja de. If you're not familiar, google it. Vuja de provides a fresh perceptive on so many things.
Another pleasant visit. Thank you very much. Aloha
Interesting. An experience, seen in a magazine or on tv? If you figure it out, let us know.
A calm looking town with gorgeous weather
Trees overarching the road are out on country lanes.
Hang in there with 'storey'. It's,useful.
We were discussing much the same thing tonight. And I am not sure if those bright images from my childhood are real, specific, or amalgams. A few I know are real ... because I could check the image description as an adult with the adult who was also there. i disagree with the comment above this one about the trees ... on the street where I grew up there were overarching trees. I think I can illustrate ... will check.
While they might not have exactly been overarching, we once lived on a city street that was tree-lined and pretty shady. The street was nothing like the one in my imagination, however.
Wow! You created this image using AI? This is so cool! It seems like everything has changed on our island since I was a kid.
It's interesting that a vision from your half awake, half asleep state made such an impression on yuo. It must have been something that meant something. Perhaps the meaning will come clear to you in some future early morning mental wanderings.
Our subconscious is an interesting thing.
I have no way of knowing what your brain retrieved (or not) but it sounds like a wonderful image to contemplate!
I think it was an actual picture that your brain retrieved. Also anything AI generated makes me nervous, hahaha xoxo
I think it was a place you saw at some time. Our memories are like very bad filing cabinets, everything just shoved together, and who knows what might pop up at any time? That said, I do often dream very vividly of places I have never seen. So.m who can say for sure?
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