On Art - Voices - An Opening

[D Akey]

. . .<snip>

Their idea was (and is), according to this principle, if an artwork is handed down in some form incomplete, either unfinished or damaged, we still should be able to have a complete understanding of its meaning ... And, perhaps more importantly for my purposes, an artwork does not have to depict fully a scene for the entire scene to be understood ... This is a strategy I often use, by cropping or otherwise limiting what the viewer sees ...


Qian Zhongshu, the famous 20th c. Chinese critic (who was fluent and highly literate in five or six Western languages, and was expert in comparing Eastern and Western sources), wrote an essay about this concept (see source below); he first connects it to Chinese painting, and then to the act of reading in Chinese and in Western texts (he gives Shakespeare's line in "Rape of Lucrece" as evidence: "A hand, a foote, a face, a leg / Stood for the whole to be imagined") ...


It has been my experience, as I've looked at artworks over the years, that the best linger in my mind, and what lingers never is the whole work, but a highly charged detail, a color, a line, a shape, a mood, a harmony or a contrast ... This notion was expressed by an ancient Chinese writer in relation to a poem he was critiquing: "When the reading is over, something lingers." (quoted by Qian Zhongshu, p30)

Thanks for that. Explains your journey. Very Eastern. And it's great when one has ideas to work from. A personal Art Paradigm allows for one to run free while always being able to come back to that for new variations to explore. It's very fertile.

I believe a song lyric line sticks in my mind for precisely the same reason. It popped out of a song that was good so far as it goes but not the kind that would expand one's consciousness. This line does, despite the story telling aspect to Me and Bobby McGee by Kris Kristopherson:

". . . Looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains. . ."

Has context in the song, but it's the mark of a deep thinker to have thought of a relationship thus. And I quote it here because one could easily take it out of that song and apply it to the kind of thing of which you speak. It was written when the culture and philosophies of the East really broke big like a cultural wave on the Western scene back in the 60s. Wasn't the first time, certainly, that the East has been a huge influence on Western artists. But it was when I was living, so it meant something to me.

[chinapete]

I believe a song lyric line sticks in my mind for precisely the same reason.

If I were a cognitive neuroscientist, I'd ask why it is that my brain is wired to repeat lyrics and melodies in my head totally not consciously provoked and at the weirdest moments, but I have to make a conscious effort to recall even the simplest painting, including any of my own ...

[D Akey]

Good question. I will take a couple guesses.

First, I think audio is more primal. We were hearing in utero long before we were seeing not developed until a while after birth. We heard our mother's heartbeat and presumably other noises, as mothers to be claim that babies stirred when singing to them. A famous passage from the Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word. . ."

Second, I think that the process of a song or lyric popping into one's head which is on topic relative to something we are experiencing may be a little like the same process that happens when we're dreaming. They say that at night we are processing the data from the day, and I have experienced dreams as mocking up through symbols something I'm working through or processing. I believe there is stuff operating outside of our conscious thoughts, beyond working ideas out in conversation. It's as if the conscious mind can't block and clutter it. So it goes directly to the essence.

Also, Songs are like mnemonics. Very memorable.

Music is distilled emotion. And the emotional component often tends to stand out in our memory. I'm not sure visual art has the same juice. It can, but as a rule it doesn't become so personal (in my opinion). Also with music it has the element of time and you are held captive for the duration of the song and themes often repeat and weave in and out, so it's a deeper experience, whereas one can be done with a picture in a second or longer, but it's up to the viewer how long they're there.

And there are different types of people who are inclined more one way than another. Developmental teachers are aware of it. Maybe you're auditory inclined.

Music and song have worked that way for me, but I differ from you in that I don't remember entire songs vs incomplete visual memory. I think my auditory functioning was developed pretty much automatically but I tend to remember mostly special passages and hooks to songs and forget the rest. I sort of needed to train my visual memory for the purposes of making a living at Art. Yet I was the kind who relied heavily on visual reference and models to do my best work because my clients wanted that kind of product from me.

Believe me though, I have seen guys who can draw out of their heads the most amazing full blown drawings with amazing skill. Many of them started out drawing comics for a living, and with the volume of what they did, they just got good and it sunk in. In other words, I think they developed it.

I suppose we could speculate for a good long while on they why's of it. But the practical upshot of it is perhaps to play to our strengths or pull the impact from one form over into the other. Dunno. It's fascinating to experiment with creating an experience.

[chinapete]

I think audio is more primal

What we are saying here about sound is consistent with the title of this thread, "On Art - Voices" ...


Anyone who has visited the Black Paintings rooms at the Prado in Madrid will be aware that Goya went deaf at the age of 46 and at the end of his life produced some of the most powerful images of pure art (I mean that he painted for no particular audience and without any need for or expectation of monetary reward) on the bare walls of the small house he was living in ...


I'm sure we can safely assume that the cave-dwellers of Lascaux some 17,000 years ago did not have an advanced language, and yet the wall paintings show extreme sophistication in visual representation, and include not only clearly recognizable human and animal forms, but also abstract designs ...


The phrase "In the beginning was the Word" acknowledged the total eclipse of the visual arts handed down by generations insisting on the written word without illustration, but progress had been made because a more human voice (the Word) could be identified with a written text (the words) ... One of the most revered images in medieval Christian art is The Annunciation, the visualization of the moment when Mary hears the voice that turns spirit into flesh ...


There is a lack of symmetry in our audio and visual systems ... Sound may be the more primal -- I wonder why so many on this forum did not express more of a visceral reaction to The Scream, and instead think that Munch is a fraud and his drawing worthless ... At the very least, he had the courage to say, I'm not painting what I'm seeing, but what I'm hearing ...


I look at artworks with a single purpose in mind: To know what it is I feel ... With Munch -- but it doesn't have to be him or even The Scream, it could be a child's drawing or any of the works on this forum -- I am reminded of the primal feelings that motivate me to paint ... Without that scream in my head, I'm simply going through the motions, and producing artworks or whatever, but really am out of touch with myself and the world around me ... Of course, my scream is a positive urge to create, and not at all like the haunting blood-red sky Munch drew and then verbalized ...

[D Akey]

Nick's thread:

http://www2.ambientdesign.com/forums/showthread.php?40697-Fabulous-advice-from-Neil-Gaiman

Thanks Nickillus. Please check his thread:
"Fabulous advice from Neil Gaiman"

Hope you don't mind, Nick, since conversation's been rather thin of late. . . Neil Gaiman is a very practiced and entertaining speaker.

http://vimeo.com/42372767