Pursuit of happiness?

Is this what this documentary project is all about? The pursuit of happiness?

Strange but I've had this song going round and round in my head for the last few days ... Nuno Bettencourt's 'Pursuit of happiness' ...

I've just been revisiting Csikszentmihalyi's TED talk. He reminded me that Flow is all about the pursuit of happiness. Flow is the state we feel when we're doing something that creates happiness. Perhaps talking about 'happiness' is going to be more easily digestible in the doco, a better way to talk about it, more genuine, than 'flow theory' which sounds dry, complicated and academic?

We're creatures in pursuit of happiness really aren't we? The dominant aspirations we hold: health, wealth, success, security. What do they all have as their underlying feeling for us when we get them? What promise do they seemingly hold? Happiness.

Happiness is transient, something that is continually moving, if you hold on to it for too long it disappears. Once you achieve your health, wealth, success, security, whatever, you only remain happy for a moment or two before you new aspirations take hold that take you to experience a different level of happiness.

Happiness calls us forward.

The entertainment industry is a channel of easily accessible happiness. Easily digestible flow experiences ... take one pill twice a day, if symptoms persist see your psychologist.

Interactive digital video is a bigger pill to swallow ... not so prescriptive, the user has more control over their experience and flow becomes even more precarious. The rules of digital documentary, at this stage of our digital media evolution anyway, need to be more guiding for the user, designed to guide the user into the flow experience.

The young seekers who travelled to Balingup during the 1970s were in pursuit of happiness. Mainstream life wasn't doing it but the promise of building a utopia (happiness) drew them in.

The artefacts that still remain of these pursuits of happiness are the archives that I'm now accessing: photos, super 8, letters, music.

One seeker in particular, Deacon Chapin, was drawn from the other side of the world to capture this pursuit of happiness (a personal pursuit of happiness for him) in a film. The result of that pursuit is the 16mm film.

Leaving one more pursuit of happiness to mention. Mine.

Sweet. :o) ... I think I'm on to something here ... hmm???!