above: Rudolf Arnheim Photograph by John Gay, (c) National Portrait Gallery, London
in the 1950's Rudolf Arnheim wrote in his landmark book Art and Visual perception:
"Art may seem to be in danger of being drowned by talk. Rarely are presented with a new specimen of what we are willing to accept as genuine art. Yet we are overwhelmed by a flood of books, articles, dissertations, speeches, lectures, guides [my emphasis]...
...we feel tempted to assume that art is unsure in our time because we think and talk to much about it...
..We are neglecting the gift of comprehending things by what our senses tell about them. Concept is split from percept, and thought moves among abstractions. Our eyes are being reduced to instruments by which to measure and identify..."
How do our eyes let us wander, imagine, and play in a visceral way?
Arnheim seems to be really pushing the point that our minds to a degree have already been made up when we look at something, we've been told what to feel, and we're losing (remember this is the 1950's!) our ability to let our own perceptions guide our cognitive creation in meaning.
Perhaps this is a psychological symptom of proto-post-modernism*; and interrelationships of various media simultaneously originating from and influencing the culture and society at large?
*did i really just type that word?
Arnheim is an interesting bird. He is deep in waters of perception and experience, and i would say that his discussion about language really butts up against a lot of Continental 20th c. postmodern thought in a not-very-complimentary way... mainly because he doesn't seem to get in on the cultivating-critical-distance end of things. Not surprising considering his background... anyway. Interesting start!
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of the book by Martin Jay titled Downcast Eyes: The denigration of vision in the 20th century? Not light reading but very interesting and highly informative...