The Importance of Art

Okay, okay. No we haven't talked about art in this class yet, but I want to talk about art so dang it I'm going to talk about art! ...it's more so for review than anything.

Plato had an interesting love-hate relationship with art. While he did highly support the arts, he had certain particulars about the subject. First he believed that true art was that which depicted the origin of things because therein laid absolute truth. While some may argue that beauty for instance is a construct of society, Plato would counter that statement by saying that the reality is we know what beauty is before we are even born. It just is. Secondly he did not approve of anything that demonstrated the "bad side" of existence. This might include any pieces relating to hell or the underworld, constructing figures in decrepit states (not their ideal form) and lastly depicting negative emotions of hate, lust, sorrow, etc.

While I respect Plato's ideal to pursue true Being, I think he underestimated the complexity of such a statement. The whole point of Being is that it is something we are attempting to strive for, but can't necessarily pin-point.

Say we came together as a society and specifically defined what "beauty" is for instance. That would be how society would always view beauty. Just the same as we see the room shown above. According to Plato this would be correct. If we were to allow ourselves to diverge from that definition even slightly though...

Suddenly beauty looks entirely different! This is something we would never have seen if we stayed fixated on that one perspective. Art allows us to pursue ideas in completely different ways and answer the "What if" questions. My favourite example of this is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where we ask, "What would happen if someone were to age backward while everyone else aged forwards?" By doing so we get to see how one might experience life, love, time and more from this perspective. Why bother? Because by asking all of these questions, even the ones unseen in reality, we explore all the possibilities of what something can be in our answers. This also means exploring the "good" and "bad" sides of existence because you can never truly appreciate one without knowing the other. Like we saw Becoming in class, the more ideas you have, the more likely you are to see things for what they truly are in Being. Art is about exploration.

Another vital component of art is expression. Plato says we need to avoid negative emotions because they will merely inspire those same emotions in their viewers. Logical, however I believe that just because these feelings aren't portrayed, doesn't mean they won't exist. If anything, art allows one to release these negative emotions. Art is also a means of communicating. Say I were sad about something and all I could do was say "I'm sad.". It wouldn't convey any real message to someone else because they can only associate it with what they define "sad" as from their experience. Art transcends the need for words by speaking in the universal language of emotion and says things simple words could never express. Dance, make a sculpture or even a short film truly capturing how you feel and it breaks down walls. Suddenly anyone can see your message because you're speaking the basic human language.

I could go on, but I hold a view similar to that of Aristotle, who encouraged all arts and believed it was the method we used to imitate life. I however think it's truly more than a simple imitation. Art is never about saying what something is or isn't, but exploring all of the possibilities of what something can be. Until we discover what these things truly are, art is here to stay.

Never stop questioning.