Art's Direction of the Will
Thoughts On: Art & Will
A consideration of art as something that possesses the body and mind.
Is art merely a distraction? What if we were to argue that it not only is, but that such is one of its major functional attributes...
I open with the idea of a distraction as this is the easiest way into this concept. We have all needed to leave home to go to work, school, to meet a friend, go shopping, etc - and been stuck in front of a screen, unable to pull ourselves away from a good movie. Similarly, we have all put on a movie - or more commonly, music - in the background whilst we work or study. How about the commute to work, the house chores, exercise: art so often curtails the pain of enduring these activities, and in some cases makes them enjoyable. We go to concerts, clubs, theatres, cinemas and more to be lost in art. It is no coincidence that food, alcohol and other drugs are so closely intertwined with these events of mass distraction. Art, like various substances, redirects and overcomes the will. Art, like various substances, possess conscious intent.
I do not know what will is. In my best estimation, it is an illusion of consciousness and that faction of the human mind that believes things can be known. Furthermore, the will is a recognition of consciousness's influence over unconscious processes. At once, the will is the ability to think and then throw a stone from a bridge and the illusion that one could understand completely the impact that stone will have when it hits the water.
As art functions, it takes primary influence over the unconscious mechanisms of the body: it moves our limbs, stirs thought and conjures emotion. What is more, it may have us believe we understand - what depends on the object of attention of the work of art. This is what it means for art to take possession of you and redirect the will. We wish to relinquish control of bodily function and to be provided a certain reality, cognition, meaning or understanding by that which is not our self.
This may all sound rather insidious. And what's more, I could just as easily be speaking of aforementioned substances here in place of art: food, alcohol and other drugs. But, the deeper this is pondered, the more it seems to be part of the human spirit and way of things. Human experience consists of the transformation of the self via the submission of the body and senses. One gives themselves to life as to live. The process is at once entropic and transformative. We die and become new people as we move through life; we test the body's reaction to stimuli and attempt to, firstly, internalise and retain this as knowledge, and secondly, allow it to change the mind and body. Art is but one way of doing this. This is why cinemas are designed to dissolve the personal, conscious sense of self and body. We sit in dark, warm, comfortable rooms; our body is suspended in ambiguous numbness, we see only that which is projected onto a screen and are not allowed to speak, only react as the movie allows us to. In the cinema, we become who we are told, we feel as we are told to. This is why we go; we do not know who we should be - we never can - so, why not sample the flavours of self.
What is so fascinating about art is that it is not a wholly deterministic entity. Movies do not make us who we are truly; we are not singularly products of our experience. There are more worlds that we understand. Worlds have will, and in such, they have a sensitivity to self and other. Worlds overlap all the time; the worlds of strangers, of the archetypes; worlds of history, physical possibility and the elements. The history of the relationship between worlds leads back to Tao. This is what we abstractly and indirectly experience and enact with will. We are a unique transformation distinguished from all that has been, and simultaneously are no different from any possibility. Such is why our being transcends experience. We at once embody a history of inestimable transformations that are solidified as ourselves when we are born, and then continue to transform as we live. Art contributes in the ongoing process of the universal solidification and transformation of matter and energy. When we feel possessed by art, distracted, our will redirected, Tao touches us from afar. This is how it does its work.
What does all of this mean? It means nothing more than what is. The meaning of existence rests in a cradle of sensation and thought. It is limited to infinite transformation. There is nothing to be found below this. We may only follow the path - it is only part of us that walks anyway. What does not walk makes up the road.
A consideration of art as something that possesses the body and mind.
Is art merely a distraction? What if we were to argue that it not only is, but that such is one of its major functional attributes...
I open with the idea of a distraction as this is the easiest way into this concept. We have all needed to leave home to go to work, school, to meet a friend, go shopping, etc - and been stuck in front of a screen, unable to pull ourselves away from a good movie. Similarly, we have all put on a movie - or more commonly, music - in the background whilst we work or study. How about the commute to work, the house chores, exercise: art so often curtails the pain of enduring these activities, and in some cases makes them enjoyable. We go to concerts, clubs, theatres, cinemas and more to be lost in art. It is no coincidence that food, alcohol and other drugs are so closely intertwined with these events of mass distraction. Art, like various substances, redirects and overcomes the will. Art, like various substances, possess conscious intent.
I do not know what will is. In my best estimation, it is an illusion of consciousness and that faction of the human mind that believes things can be known. Furthermore, the will is a recognition of consciousness's influence over unconscious processes. At once, the will is the ability to think and then throw a stone from a bridge and the illusion that one could understand completely the impact that stone will have when it hits the water.
As art functions, it takes primary influence over the unconscious mechanisms of the body: it moves our limbs, stirs thought and conjures emotion. What is more, it may have us believe we understand - what depends on the object of attention of the work of art. This is what it means for art to take possession of you and redirect the will. We wish to relinquish control of bodily function and to be provided a certain reality, cognition, meaning or understanding by that which is not our self.
This may all sound rather insidious. And what's more, I could just as easily be speaking of aforementioned substances here in place of art: food, alcohol and other drugs. But, the deeper this is pondered, the more it seems to be part of the human spirit and way of things. Human experience consists of the transformation of the self via the submission of the body and senses. One gives themselves to life as to live. The process is at once entropic and transformative. We die and become new people as we move through life; we test the body's reaction to stimuli and attempt to, firstly, internalise and retain this as knowledge, and secondly, allow it to change the mind and body. Art is but one way of doing this. This is why cinemas are designed to dissolve the personal, conscious sense of self and body. We sit in dark, warm, comfortable rooms; our body is suspended in ambiguous numbness, we see only that which is projected onto a screen and are not allowed to speak, only react as the movie allows us to. In the cinema, we become who we are told, we feel as we are told to. This is why we go; we do not know who we should be - we never can - so, why not sample the flavours of self.
What is so fascinating about art is that it is not a wholly deterministic entity. Movies do not make us who we are truly; we are not singularly products of our experience. There are more worlds that we understand. Worlds have will, and in such, they have a sensitivity to self and other. Worlds overlap all the time; the worlds of strangers, of the archetypes; worlds of history, physical possibility and the elements. The history of the relationship between worlds leads back to Tao. This is what we abstractly and indirectly experience and enact with will. We are a unique transformation distinguished from all that has been, and simultaneously are no different from any possibility. Such is why our being transcends experience. We at once embody a history of inestimable transformations that are solidified as ourselves when we are born, and then continue to transform as we live. Art contributes in the ongoing process of the universal solidification and transformation of matter and energy. When we feel possessed by art, distracted, our will redirected, Tao touches us from afar. This is how it does its work.
What does all of this mean? It means nothing more than what is. The meaning of existence rests in a cradle of sensation and thought. It is limited to infinite transformation. There is nothing to be found below this. We may only follow the path - it is only part of us that walks anyway. What does not walk makes up the road.
