Ice Eyes

There is no shadow under this sun, only glaring light passing like an x-ray through the core of things. What can we really see from this blind spot we call phenomenology? This idea of a world existing independently of human senses is so horrific that it causes a surge of anxiety that can’t be controlled. Ice eyes penetrate everything but see nothing.

What is outside human consciousness? To see how events and objects exist in themselves without humans giving them meaning is most likely unattainable for us but it is interesting to sustain this possibility as I find this a very rich ground for creative work. imagining a world without colors, a field of possibility unconstrained by time, a constantly shifting system of energies, is a horrific experience. Everything we are psychologically pivots on our perception of reality, what meaning can there be for us in frequencies and energy fields? The world outside our human perception is as alien to us as are the most monstrous Lovecraftian beings. How can we carry on with our human existence when our perception is so flawed?

In ‘X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes’ the protagonist Xavier, a scientist frustrated with the limits of human vision embarks on a project to develop a chemical solution that would enhance his eyesight.

XAVIER: I’m blind to all but a tenth of the universe.

BRANT: My dear friend, only the gods see everything.

XAVIER: My dear doctor, I am closing in on the gods

After applying this solution to his eyes, he starts seeing through objects, much like an x-ray would, but the more he applied this chemical to his eyes the deeper he would see into things. Eventually his eyes turn black like the eyes of people who suffer from Iridocorneal Endothelial Syndrome (ICE), finding it impossible to sleep or function normally.

Xavier states that:

“There are great darknesses, further than time itself, and beyond the darkness a light that glows and changes, and in the center of the universe the eye that sees us all.”

In the end the protagonist performs ocular self-mutilation in order to stop himself from seeing reality the way he did, a type of mutilation seen in patients suffering from schizophrenia - an affliction characterized by abnormal interpretation of reality. The first version of ‘X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes’ according to author Stephen King ended with Xavier yelling "I can still see!" but this was deemed too upsetting by the filmmaker, even more so than Xavier's act of self-mutilation