Jam#6 The Science of Art
Art is everywhere. You just gotta know how to look for it. You see… anyone can look at a famous painting or statue, or listen to a beautiful piece of music, or watch a ballet and say, “now that’s art.” No argument here. But there’s one thing we can’t deny in our appreciation of true art. We all realize that as we admire something from the outside, we are touched somehow on the inside.
Yet the same piece of art can affect two people in totally different ways. So what is it about art… why are we so attracted to some of it, while other works mean nothing to us?
Let’s start by trying to define art. Mr. Webster says that art is a “…skill acquired by experience, study, or observation.”
I don’t know. I mean, I’m not disagreeing with that definition… it’s just that I see it starting way before any skills are acquired, or even studied. Can it be that what we perceive as art, (as the artist or the audience), is more than just a byproduct of our skillful dexterities? I believe art is born in our hearts the moment we allow something to touch us in a memorable way.
Take a full moon, on a warm summer night. You’re staring at the one you love, she says something in that soft playful way… the air is sweet with hibiscus and sandalwood. Suddenly, the creative juices start to flow… “When the moon hits your eyes, like a big-a pizza pie, that’s… amore.” Sorry. Can’t help it. It’s the Italian in me. Gets quiet embarrassing, at times.
Well, this is why I define art a little differently. I define art as… “a state of mind.” You see, if we look at art in a way that not only includes our experiences, but also our psyche, our emotions and our spirit, then art becomes an endless process that enriches our lives in so many ways.
But, the funny thing is, no matter how abstract or personal… no matter how shallow or deep it gets, there is a… predictability to art… a sort of method to the madness. Is it possible that there is even a science to art… a way for us to calculate or formulate an equation to it all? Or should we even bother?
Let’s start with the five senses… taste, touch, sight, smell & hearing. Now we know that throughout our days, there’s always a constant flow of stimuli attempting to enter each of these five portals. From there, our distribution network known as the nervous system delivers these imported goods to central command, (or our brain), where the goods are finally converted into emotional and physical responses.
For instance, take your eyes. Right now, you’re receiving descriptive images of ink on a page in front of you. Once, past your eyes, your mind processes these funny ink patterns into words that form sentences, which your mind will decide to either store or delete… uuhumm, stay away from the delete button for now, OK? (By the way, if you’re listening to this jam, we obviously apply this same principal, through our ears, and so on.)
So where’s the art in all of this? Glad you asked. For some of us, this part’s a little bit easier to comprehend, than for others. You see, somewhere hidden within the 300 or so words I’ve written thus far are key words that should have sparked images in your brain. Most of them are millisecond flashes that come and go, so quickly; you’ve probably forgotten them by now.
Let me refresh your memory with some of these words… portals… world… imported goods… homes… friend… garbage... flash. Now when we focus more slowly and deliberately on each of these words, those images become more pronounced in our minds, right? Take “imported goods”, for example. I see a large cargo container full of packages, sitting somewhere on the dock of a busy port. Now, if I allow myself more time to dwell on this image, more details will appear. I’ll start to see forklifts and ships, tractor-trailer trucks and an overweight longshoreman with a strong Jersey accent.
Now how much of this image did I imagine when I first received the phrase, “imported goods”? Well I definitely didn’t see Jersey Joe, but I know that for a split second, I did see the packages. It’s probably the same image my mind produces every time I use or hear the words, “imported goods”.
It’s the same with any of these words. “World” is another good example. What’s your mind’s eye image of the world? Is it a classroom globe stuck somewhere in your childhood memories, or is it a picture of the earth from one of those space shuttle flights? Whatever the image is, you’ve probably used the same one for quite awhile now. At times, some of these images are updated, but the idea never changes… as soon as a stimulus enters one of our senses; our minds immediately refer to our library of stock footage so that we can quickly process each thought or idea.
The art in all of this is when we decide to dwell on one of these images. From there, a story starts to develop. Suddenly, it’s not just raw data or just imported goods. Now it’s been processed and it means something personally to you.
So consider the possibility that art is the catalyst initiating this internal image recognition process. Think about a famous piece of art… one of your personal favorites. Why do you consider it art? Is it just because someone else told you that it was art? Is it because you paid a lot to see it or hear it? Well, I’m hoping you answered no to the above, because the truth is, the artist who created that piece would probably be disappointed to know that their art made no deeper an impact on you than that.
You see… our favorite pieces of art become our favorites because of the internalized images they remind us of, certain memories and feelings that we dwell on. Suddenly, you’re thinking about someone you haven’t thought about for awhile, or an event that happened years ago. You stop and recollect the emotions and the experiences… perhaps a discussion you had with a friend on your various interpretations and impressions on that piece. You take a deep breath, blink your eyes and raise your hand to your chin… and the moment’s gone. But the smile lingers, because that trip down memory lane has re-confirmed your connection to that piece of art.
A similar thing happens when exposed to new art. The reason we’re attracted to it is because of our “state of mind” at that moment. Instead of hitting the delete button, we allow our thought processes to create a memorable story.
This happens a lot to me with music. I could be in my car, and a new song comes on the radio that catches my ear. Well, don’t you know it? The next time I hear that tune, my mind instantly snaps back to where I was driving the first time I heard it. This may happen for a while until a new image or experience becomes attached to that song. Now, what that artist has accomplished was a way for me to associate his or her song with a memorable event in my psyche. As a result the words and music to that song paint mind’s eye images or sort of visual metaphors, if you will… and if it’s really good, it will continue to allow for more and more images over the years, whenever I happen to hear it again.
There’s so much more to the science of art. We haven’t even touched yet on the dynamics of creating… as an artist. Better for now to stay focused on the science of how art affects us. Books have been written on this subject, alone. If you care to look into it more deeply, just google the phrase and you’ll have plenty to chew on. But more importantly, for this jam, I wanted you to realize that although there may be a science to this thing we call art, there’s also a state of mind that we must consider before our equation is complete.
Here’s what I mean. I came across an illustration recently of a diagram explaining what causes a rainbow… to be a rainbow.
Isn’t it something how the band of colors painting the sky after a spring shower, are all just angles and degrees thrown together into one big extra credit math question on a final exam? It never ceases to amaze me how we’re able to condense practically everything in life down to an equation of some kind. Look around you. Try and find something that hasn’t been examined, explored, analyzed, synthesized, calculated, integrated or studied in some field of mathematics or science. It’s just not possible. Even something as simple and as beautiful as a rainbow can be distilled down into a bunch of numbers and lines on a piece of paper. Now, although there’s a purpose and a certain value to all this, there’s one big problem here… there’s no color! We’re staring at a black and white rainbow for crying out loud!
But, nonetheless… here’s my formula to the Science of Art. Are you ready? Here it is Chris. The next thing I am about to say is that which is my theory. Ehemm… my formulation is as follows:
s (m+M)
where:
A = art s = stimulus M = memorable occasion
p = portal m = mind’s eye image
e = emotion L = logical response
Ridiculous… right? But don’t you know that some of you are trying to figure it out, anyway? I can’t help but think that this is what we do with God, at times. It’s like we can’t wait to take what we learn in our experiences with God and distill them into neatly packaged formulas. The problem is eventually, it takes over our praise and our worship, our prayers and reflections, and before you know it… our minds start to reduce God to a bunch of numbers, angles and equations. Takes the color right out of the rainbow… doesn’t it?
Look… here’s the low down. We need to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that we need to understand all the who’s, why’s and where’s that make up our relationship with the King. Because one day we may turn around and realize there’s no color left. Then we find that… our worship has become calculated, our prayers become formulated, our fellowship becomes isolated and our giving… just plain stinks.
If you get anything out of this jam, take this to the bank… Love, with a capitol L, is always the master artist. He lays it out there in nature and He’s got it going through us. Some of us recognize that we are just His middlemen, while others still think they actually created something on their own… (Talk about your massive egos). No matter who you are, where you’re at, or what the art is, there’s a jam in there waiting for you to join in. But whether you pick up your axe to play or not, isn’t the issue here. Whether you’re on the stage or in the upper mezzanine, what really counts is if you’re taking the time to make it last. Are you going to allow art to enrich your life and share it … or are you going to hit the delete button?
But hey… sometimes that delete button comes in pretty handy. I mean, we don’t categorize everything in our lives as art… do we? Let’s jam on the Art of Science next and see what cats like Einstein and Paul the apostle had to say about it.
Jammin exercise: Think up your own definition of art. How does it affect you? How does it affect others? What does art mean to you, and what role does it play in your relationship with the King?
