Wondering Divinity. The Depth and Strangeness of Art
Why art, technology, and music make me feel like more than an animal. And, of course, another prompt!
Art, Design, Photography, Gaming, Music, Words.
Now, prompt obsession aside, I stopped wondering today — starting at the ceiling and a bit sleep deprived — about what art means for humans. I mean, what it really means.
Indeed, I am a woman of art, and also a woman of science. Therefore, I must admit that what I am discussing is mostly my inner ramblings.
My proposed theory (not really, but just bear with me) is that art is what makes us intrinsically human. What deludes us into thinking that this difference is “elevation”, and we are therefore more than animals.
After all, Nietzsche did say “I could only believe in a God that could dance”. Unfortunately — or fortunately — I do not believe that we are more than animals, merely a more evolved form of a similar construct. So, where am I trying to go with this?
Art for me is calm and “spirituality”. Any form of it.
Yes, any. Gaming, new technologies, design, furniture making, painting, poetry, and singing terribly in the shower.
I’ll give a bit of an anecdotical example. When I was young, let’s say around six years old, I had just moved to Italy from Australia. Despite me being born in Italy, for months and months I didn’t understand sh — about what was going on around me. My family’s voices were just mumbles, my school was confusing, reading or studying was almost an unmeasurable task. But I had a teacher, Maestra Loretta, that will never be forgotten. I will forever hold thankfulness for her being there at the right moment in my life. She loved art. She believed that children should learn how to make art, and how to “read” art.
So, she would come to class with printed copied of Van Gogh’s sunflowers, or a painting by Monet, and she would tell us to go near it. We would then have to try to explain why the strokes were special, and different from a more conventional stroke. She would ask us what could we see, in a scene by Picasso. And every year we had art projects to fulfill. My auntie, Annamaria, still has one of my (terrible) paintings on her wall after more than twenty years.
What art did for me was allowing me to finally make sense of the world. To understand people. To ease into the idea that art was my way of communicating with the world, even when I wasn’t the one “talking”.
With age, I still cherish traditional arts. However, I have grown an ecosystem of interests around its big umbrella. Movies, music videos, advertisements, design, graphic design, gaming, photography, architecture. All of these are part of my way to “elevate” myself from my animal self.
Now to you: the prompt:
No matter the medium (digital, physical, technological, or abstract) tell us what does art mean to you? Or what was the first memorable encounter with the medium you most keep close to?
Or, what is the meaning of this all?
There are no rules or formats to the prompt, everything is accepted. Note, if you wish to submit a poem, this would be more than welcome but redirected to Poetry Salad (our poetry sister-pub).
You do not have to have been tagged to participate. If you decide to participate, feel free to tag others. Or not. Up to you: the power to the artists!
Tagging: Carlos Garbiras, yesnodunno, Will Hull, Christopher Robin, Dave Logan, Christine Regan Davi, Jason Casil, Shirley Jones Luke, Sushmita Singh, Atharva Jadhav, Jonathan Hawkins, Vidyasaur, Waking Up Owls, Syakah_Games
