Art/Mind

“A myth is an image by which we make sense of the world.” - Alan Watts Myths enact deep psychological features of human behavior in relationship to the world. A relationship is best understood in imagery that shows how elements interact. Modern thinking is so focused on things that can be named and separated, the capacity to see the meaningful relationships is weakened. Philosopher Susanne Langer said art is the creation of symbols for human feeling. This is why she thought of it as the best and most nuanced expression of human psychology. As a field, trying to find categories is inadequate to the range and specificity of our species. Only art, all of it, spanning all times and cultures, gives scope to our emotional range. Studies have shown, the feelings we experience are limited by the language we use to name them. Looking at art broadens the emotional vocabulary. The artist Egon Schiele shows feelings I could never find words for, but I recognize them. For a viewer, recognition is expression. The power of art is its capacity to evoke the feeling of recognition, a connection to a set of relationships that makes sense and strengthens our felt responses to what counts. Strengthening intuitive feeling builds thinking on response to the whole picture and not just a few elements. “The mission of visual philosophy is to see more, to become aware of the complex web of relationships that visual intelligence deals with best, and to express meaning visually. Knowledge of all kinds can be communicated with images” Quoted from my most viewed essay what needs emphasis now is “the complex web of relationships” under assault by modern life. Biology is finding communicating systems everywhere in life, between types of trees, and webs of mycelium, between our organs, connected systems everywhere. The linear analytic character attributed to the left hemisphere of the brain keep breaking any subject into detail. A flaw in modern medicine is the lack of communication between specialties when the human body is an outstanding example of multiple interdependent systems. And medicine depends on images, every kind of scan for diagnosis, after which the label takes over. Language is beset with more and more divisions, new labels and categories to shatter the unity by ignoring it. Art calls to us through relationships. The interaction of the whole has a particular effect on us and an experience of relationship reinforces that capacity. The culture’s tendency to break things down needs counteracting by our visual mind’s capacity to re-integrate. As the saying goes, “Seeing is believing.” To comprehend the relationships is more essential than knowing facts and specifics. Looking at art educates our ability to see meaningful relations between elements that can get lost in focus on the details.