Autobiographical Mise en Scene, 1983

Over on my flickr account, I just posted a very old image from when I was 13 years old. I’m calling it an “Autobiographical Mise en Scene,” though I don’t think that at age 13 I would use a term like “mise en scene” — but if I knew it I bet I’d try.

At the regular resolution I annotated (go to the page and mouseover the image, and see the little rectangles to see what I mean) what all the parts of the image mean and what they meant, and what I think they meant to me. It’s very interesting to peer inside my head at 13. I note that I signify both the T-Ball teams I had been on: The A’s in Alhambra, and the International Harvester Hitters in The Philippines. I was not athletic, and I wonder why I would note that then, about 4 years from having been on any kind of team sport. I suppose it meant something to me. I love the little drawing of the TI-99/4a home computer, along with little snippets of TI-Basic. That’s nifty. You can see a closeup view of the image here.

It looks like it was done entirely with calligraphy pens. I had a set of red, green, black, yellow, and blue pens. When dealing with my stepkids, it always behooves me to think about their inner lives, which are no doubt rich. When I look at this, I see how deep I was pondering what it meant to be me, trying to sum up my life, what does it mean? Who am I?

I suppose I do that too, with this site, and with these posts. It’s a good process.