How Can You Imagine What You Can't Imagine!
To those who read my latest
Art
post and went "Holy Crap!
What Was That!" (you know who you are)
What I meant to say in the post was...
Art is not always a result of what we create but what we imagine. Take for instance the natural rock formations that we celebrate in all the scenic places of the world - the perfectly spherical boulders, the naturally formed bridges, the panoramic view of hoodoos... Humans did little to nothing to contribute to them, but we still celebrate them as art. They are artful because of their sheer existence.
Then take our activity of painting pictures in the clouds or in the craters of the moon. We can keep on imagining them to take shapes of rabbits and flying horses, and will still not run out of our capacity to imagine. When we do stop imagining, it is because we have grown weary of imagining and would rather think of possibilities as being endless and beyond our limited capacity to dream up.
And even if we consider only the things that we physically create to be art, it is still so vast that we wouldn't know where it begins and where it ends.
Heres an example. If you are given three colors and a sheet of paper, there is no limit to the different paintings you can create with just those three colors. Even your imagination cannot limit you, because if you paint even with your eyes closed, you will have created some art without your knowledge of what it looks like.
Moreover, there is more than just painting that you can do with colors and paper. You can create infinite types of origami. you can create a beautiful papermat or a hat or even wrap yourself in it and walk on a fashion ramp... :) And if that does not satisfy you, you can close your eyes and imagine the paper and color morphing into different things, and then write a poem about it.
And in all this, there is a philosophical angle to art that intrigues us more than just the aesthetic aspect. We are constantly in awe of the idea that there is more to something than we can comprehend. So we keep searching for layers of hidden meanings in poems. We notice subtle nuances in the musical modulations of a singer, we comment not only on the melody and the background score, but also the tonal qualities of musical instruments and wonder how the songs might have sounded if it were played on other instruments, we look for cultural or religious symbolism in a song or a sculpture, we discuss the politics that influenced the evolution of a genre. And beyond all that we theorize endlessly on what art is - given that there are infinite things that can may be considered art - from dance and music to gymnastics and tai chi and so on.
Not to mention, mixing of art - where a flute plays beautiful music, but the instrument itself can be a piece of art in the way it is crafted and painted on.....
I often compare art to religion. Because to a lot of people who are strong believers of god, their vision of god is really that of someone who is capable of doing things of such magnitude that they can't even imagine them. But here's the thing.. if we created god or the vision of god, how can we not comprehend what he is capable of doing? It is because, our reverence is for the unimaginable. God arouses awe because he cannot be envisioned. We are awed and humbled by the belief that there is something that no one on earth can conjure up. That overwhelming feeling that there is something greater out there, beyond our reach, keeps us grounded and aware of how little we know.
Art too is beautiful because it is unimaginable. What more? It derives from religion as much as religion derives from it. But where it differs is that it bridges the gap between the theists and the atheists and everyone in between, because it can both be perceived and be limitless beyond imagination.
For instance, atheists only care about that which they can perceive or imagine and can't feel awe for things that don't quite exist for them, just because they simply cant imagine them! They feel no emotion towards that which cannot be experienced, and that which does not concretely exist. Since there is art that can be experienced and that concretely exists, it finds an audience among atheists. But what they cannot understand is the concept of art that is beyond anything they can imagine. How can you imagine what you can't imagine!
I decided to clarify my views with the hope that you will see the light in enlightenment! :) Out of the goodness of my heart, I am unwilling to wait for you to recognize my brilliance posthumously. Monet denied us the privilege of conveying his vision of his impressionistic paintings while he was alive. If only he felt the need to defend his work, he would havesaved us the mental exertion of figuring out what exactly he meant to convey with his sci-fi like compositions of life that depict change and movement over time and space. He also didn't take the time to thank his family and friends for being eternally critical of his work like I will. I thank my family and friends for being eternally critical of my work (including dad who doesn't read my blog, despite much pleading).
I agree that the Art Post was badly written, which I think was the point I made in the text in orange ;-).. But, that should not detract from the message I convey, in the same way that Mahatma Gandhi's bad handwriting should not come in the way of his writing. :D
What I meant to say in the post was...
Art is not always a result of what we create but what we imagine. Take for instance the natural rock formations that we celebrate in all the scenic places of the world - the perfectly spherical boulders, the naturally formed bridges, the panoramic view of hoodoos... Humans did little to nothing to contribute to them, but we still celebrate them as art. They are artful because of their sheer existence.
Then take our activity of painting pictures in the clouds or in the craters of the moon. We can keep on imagining them to take shapes of rabbits and flying horses, and will still not run out of our capacity to imagine. When we do stop imagining, it is because we have grown weary of imagining and would rather think of possibilities as being endless and beyond our limited capacity to dream up.
And even if we consider only the things that we physically create to be art, it is still so vast that we wouldn't know where it begins and where it ends.
Heres an example. If you are given three colors and a sheet of paper, there is no limit to the different paintings you can create with just those three colors. Even your imagination cannot limit you, because if you paint even with your eyes closed, you will have created some art without your knowledge of what it looks like.
Moreover, there is more than just painting that you can do with colors and paper. You can create infinite types of origami. you can create a beautiful papermat or a hat or even wrap yourself in it and walk on a fashion ramp... :) And if that does not satisfy you, you can close your eyes and imagine the paper and color morphing into different things, and then write a poem about it.
And in all this, there is a philosophical angle to art that intrigues us more than just the aesthetic aspect. We are constantly in awe of the idea that there is more to something than we can comprehend. So we keep searching for layers of hidden meanings in poems. We notice subtle nuances in the musical modulations of a singer, we comment not only on the melody and the background score, but also the tonal qualities of musical instruments and wonder how the songs might have sounded if it were played on other instruments, we look for cultural or religious symbolism in a song or a sculpture, we discuss the politics that influenced the evolution of a genre. And beyond all that we theorize endlessly on what art is - given that there are infinite things that can may be considered art - from dance and music to gymnastics and tai chi and so on.
Not to mention, mixing of art - where a flute plays beautiful music, but the instrument itself can be a piece of art in the way it is crafted and painted on.....
I often compare art to religion. Because to a lot of people who are strong believers of god, their vision of god is really that of someone who is capable of doing things of such magnitude that they can't even imagine them. But here's the thing.. if we created god or the vision of god, how can we not comprehend what he is capable of doing? It is because, our reverence is for the unimaginable. God arouses awe because he cannot be envisioned. We are awed and humbled by the belief that there is something that no one on earth can conjure up. That overwhelming feeling that there is something greater out there, beyond our reach, keeps us grounded and aware of how little we know.
Art too is beautiful because it is unimaginable. What more? It derives from religion as much as religion derives from it. But where it differs is that it bridges the gap between the theists and the atheists and everyone in between, because it can both be perceived and be limitless beyond imagination.
For instance, atheists only care about that which they can perceive or imagine and can't feel awe for things that don't quite exist for them, just because they simply cant imagine them! They feel no emotion towards that which cannot be experienced, and that which does not concretely exist. Since there is art that can be experienced and that concretely exists, it finds an audience among atheists. But what they cannot understand is the concept of art that is beyond anything they can imagine. How can you imagine what you can't imagine!
