Robert Holden, the new traveller

copyright©2010-2012 [n-workshop]

Talking about travel is like talking about sex.

Both experiences cannot be described in an objective way, they are impossible to render to someone who never experienced them, and eventually they both tend to generate mythical accounts.

Some like to be straightforward, delivering the account of where the whole story started, and how he or she travelled through places, emotions, expectations before eventually getting to the point.
Yet, most of us seem to prefer a more discreet way, sharing rather superficial impressions proceeded by hints, as if we can’t recall where we've been.
In both cases our words try to disclose the meaning of our experience by adding sense to it.

I like to think that there is another way: like in a free flow of consciousness, our “talking” becomes a part of this experience – travel or sex.

Travel has very much to do with moving, but we can also travel in our minds or by using Google Earth.
It has also to do with seeing, sometimes with watching: both processes are based on images that we are eager to record as if they could render the whole experience of travel.
But how can we “talk” about our travels in images?
And what kind of images would these be?

The” new traveler” knows a lot about his journey well before starting it. He’s been reading, watching and listening to all kinds of things about his destination. Also, the things he knows before (and after) are well known by other fellow travelers.
What can they then discover?
In fact, the account of these journeys will be more about feelings than discoveries: a very personal experience.

Images come from the space between the vision and the emotion which they create.

Traveling is a state of mind.

Nino Comba