Chat during a four hour long live stream doesn't always stay on topic, and it was one such chat that I heard of the term "The Call of the Void" for the first time when the youtuber running the stream wads talking about the "Little Voice" in the back of his head that told him to jump from a high ledge during a recent trip. Although I had never heard it refereed to as such, I, and I suspect many others watching the stream, Immediately knew exactly what he was referring to. Its the little voice that pushes me onto roller coasters despite my nerves, Its the little voice that would have me leaning a little two far out of the window of my 5th story flat years ago, its the little voice that tells me to walk down the dark paths to find my shooting locations in the dead of night. But it also struck a memory for me from when I was a child, in the backseat of my Dads car driving across the Severn Bridge, she described how when ever she was driving across a bridge she had the sudden desire to drive straight off, I remember my Dad not quite understanding what she was trying to say at the time, but I remember even as a child understanding her entirely, it was the first time I had realised anyone else had this sensation.
So what is "The call of the Void"? In his talk for TEDx Talks Amir Hamidfar describes the sensation as "our attraction, to risk everything, and jump from the edge" (TEDx Talks 2019) the same phenomenon described by the YouTuber, the one my Dads girlfriend described many years ago, and the one I have related to at various points in my life including multiple times while shooting for this MA. Further in his talk, Hamidsfar notes that the sensation has often been related to feelings of suicide, though this has been debunked by research by Jenifer Hames, who found that while over 30% of her subjects had felt the call, the majority had claimed to never have had suicidal thoughts (as mentioned by Hamidsfar during his talk).
Hamidsfar goes on to to define the "Void", describing it as empty and dark, a mystery, an "Unknown". While listening to him describe this, I cant help but be reminded of the nature of my work up to this point, in many cases I have often photographed locations depicting paths leading into complete darkness, my work could also me a visual description of the "Void" as as Hamidsfar describes it. His use of the term "The unknown" is particularly poignant to me, as recently my work has been concerned with Freud's essay on the uncanny, which he describes as "Fear of the unknown". Further to this Hamidfar expands on this idea with his own story of travel, and making changes in his life that would launch him into the unknown, which ultimately was a very positive experience for him, refering to the "Call of the Void" as our minds way of showing us our deepest desires, our dreams, and at this point I cant help but think again on my research into Surrealism and Psychic Automatism, and the artists who tried to connect with their dreams, their subconscious, in order to create new art.
I have endeavoured to gain access to the research by Jenifer Hames that Hamidsfar referenced in his talk, however so far I have received no reply. There is an abstract that is available on the website Science Direct that coincidences with Hamidsfars own conclusion, and that while the "The Call of the Void", or "High Place Phenomenon" as Hames termed it, is experienced by all sorts of people at varying degrees of mental stability, it does seem to be an overall positive phenomenon, with the outcome being a appreciation of life, rather than the will to terminate it. That's not to say of the course that the phenomenon can not lead to dangerous situations, for myself, walking down secluded and badly lit pathways in remote area at night carrys its own risks, risks I take every time I go out to shoot, and while it can never be proven, I can't help but wader how many people have stood on the edge of a high place, and fell, or maybe jumped without thinking about it, responding to the call. While it can never be verified true or not, I cant help but wander if in this moment depicted in the video below, if Reichelt was experiencing the "Call of the Void" during the moments as he stands on the edge waiting to prove his invention works, before he jumped to his death.
Kerr, B. (2019). Afraid you’ll jump, even though you don’t want to? High Places Phenomenon explained.. [online] The Orange Dot. Available at: https://www.headspace.com/blog/2017/04/09/high-places-phenomenon/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].
British Pathe. 2011. 'Franz Reichelt's Death Jump off the Eiffel Tower (1912) | British Pathe' [Online Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=93&v=FBN3xfGrx_U&feature=emb_title . [Accessed 10 October].
TEDx Talks. 2019. ' What the Call of the Void is really trying to tell us? | Amir Hamidfar | TEDxNaghsheJahan' [Online Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F67ZAqwOtA&t=164s . [Accessed 10 October].
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