Bogus Art Genuine Appreciation
(I wrote this while I was making a film inspired by
VS Ramachandran's book called "A Brief Tour of
Human Consciousness: From Imposter Poodles to Purple
Numbers". The essay has very little to do with
the book or the movie, but it really was a
consequence of everything I had been reading about
related to art and the mind at that time)
40,000 years ago, the "Mind's Big Bang" contributed to the explosion of human mental abilities, including art, language and culture. Until then, we lived with social and mechanical intelligence and probably a quest for natural history. It is said that due to certain environmental triggers that acted on the human brain, it pre-adapted to create those cultural innovations that make us uniquely human.
Art, math and even aspects of language are said to have been invented "accidentally" in one place of the brain and spread very quickly using what are called mirror neurons to other places. Certainly this accident is the essence of human life. Whatever we are, as we know ourselves in our conscious thought is a result of this evolutionary phenomenon. We are now a species that can appreciate beauty.
Still, the Mind's Big Bang obviously cannot be the only answer to all the riddles of evolution. How we evolved is really a mystery, and one that we have to work by ourselves to figure out. All the same, leaving those intricacies of the human brain to the neuroscientists, I choose to shift my attention towards the less formidable folk, art and art appreciators.
"Art" is defined much more broadly than most people realize. It is debatable whether art is truly art if it's meaning needs to be explicitly stated. Or simply put, from an intellectual point of view, art seems to be dependent on context, from an aesthetic point of view it is boundless. However, with more art appreciators than artists in this world, and more art than art appreciators, the intellectual point of view seems to find itself struggling to override the aesthetic point of view. The former is always convinced that there is an explanation for art and that the significance of art overshoots plain enjoyment. This only makes sense, given that to an art appreciator who already appreciates the aesthetic, the intellectual explanation adds a new layer of wonder.
Take Pythagoras for instance. He exposed a mathematical explanation for what intervals in music are considered harmonious by the greeks. They are in the ratio of 1:2, 2:3, 3:4. In fact, his rational view of the world, extended to his thought that the essential qualities of man and nature – reason, masculinity, femininity, justice and marriage had objective representations in whole numbers or in relationships between whole numbers. Not only was everything composed of numbers but he also believed that the explanation of an object's existence could only be found in numbers.
Beyond logical explanations, our engagement with art calls upon our most subtle and complex forms of perception. It develops forms of literacy that give us access to different kinds of meaning. They cultivate the sensibilities so that the subtle is seen, the covert counted and the important effectively articulated.
It goes beyond an amateur's graffiti and doesn't stop at Van Gogh's starry night. It communicates emotionally and intellectually the individuals thoughts and feelings concerning themes about self, dreams & visions, issues, or relationships.
Art exists where it is not seen and where it is known to a few. A beautifully structured computer code supporting your Apple computer is as much art as Roger Federer's multi-faceted game. It doesn't stop with what is created by man. It is in everything that suggests anything. In point of fact, it is hard to speculate what came first, art or religion and in what way they influenced each other. Truth be told, if art is the same as beauty, and beauty is all-pervasive, including our perception of the supernatural, even in our devotion, then art is beyond our imagination. Our lack of imaginative capacity then only be blamed on the overwhelming nature of art itself and not the limitations of the human brain. From what I learn, art might actually be nature's first attempt at virtual reality.
40,000 years ago, the "Mind's Big Bang" contributed to the explosion of human mental abilities, including art, language and culture. Until then, we lived with social and mechanical intelligence and probably a quest for natural history. It is said that due to certain environmental triggers that acted on the human brain, it pre-adapted to create those cultural innovations that make us uniquely human.
Art, math and even aspects of language are said to have been invented "accidentally" in one place of the brain and spread very quickly using what are called mirror neurons to other places. Certainly this accident is the essence of human life. Whatever we are, as we know ourselves in our conscious thought is a result of this evolutionary phenomenon. We are now a species that can appreciate beauty.
Still, the Mind's Big Bang obviously cannot be the only answer to all the riddles of evolution. How we evolved is really a mystery, and one that we have to work by ourselves to figure out. All the same, leaving those intricacies of the human brain to the neuroscientists, I choose to shift my attention towards the less formidable folk, art and art appreciators.
"Art" is defined much more broadly than most people realize. It is debatable whether art is truly art if it's meaning needs to be explicitly stated. Or simply put, from an intellectual point of view, art seems to be dependent on context, from an aesthetic point of view it is boundless. However, with more art appreciators than artists in this world, and more art than art appreciators, the intellectual point of view seems to find itself struggling to override the aesthetic point of view. The former is always convinced that there is an explanation for art and that the significance of art overshoots plain enjoyment. This only makes sense, given that to an art appreciator who already appreciates the aesthetic, the intellectual explanation adds a new layer of wonder.
Take Pythagoras for instance. He exposed a mathematical explanation for what intervals in music are considered harmonious by the greeks. They are in the ratio of 1:2, 2:3, 3:4. In fact, his rational view of the world, extended to his thought that the essential qualities of man and nature – reason, masculinity, femininity, justice and marriage had objective representations in whole numbers or in relationships between whole numbers. Not only was everything composed of numbers but he also believed that the explanation of an object's existence could only be found in numbers.
Beyond logical explanations, our engagement with art calls upon our most subtle and complex forms of perception. It develops forms of literacy that give us access to different kinds of meaning. They cultivate the sensibilities so that the subtle is seen, the covert counted and the important effectively articulated.
It goes beyond an amateur's graffiti and doesn't stop at Van Gogh's starry night. It communicates emotionally and intellectually the individuals thoughts and feelings concerning themes about self, dreams & visions, issues, or relationships.
Art exists where it is not seen and where it is known to a few. A beautifully structured computer code supporting your Apple computer is as much art as Roger Federer's multi-faceted game. It doesn't stop with what is created by man. It is in everything that suggests anything. In point of fact, it is hard to speculate what came first, art or religion and in what way they influenced each other. Truth be told, if art is the same as beauty, and beauty is all-pervasive, including our perception of the supernatural, even in our devotion, then art is beyond our imagination. Our lack of imaginative capacity then only be blamed on the overwhelming nature of art itself and not the limitations of the human brain. From what I learn, art might actually be nature's first attempt at virtual reality.
