As usual I use painting as an example that can clearly be related to other media.
Paint as a medium has particular characteristics tied to the way it takes the physical into a complexity of image making that is both related to and in some ways different from other media.
When most people* think of visual art they are considering the output or art product so they imagine a painting or sculpture to be static. The action happens in the making process and in general the observer of a painted or sculpted object does not participate in activity of its making.
We do have categories of visual multiple media works that combine visual arts to three-dimensional motion. Kinetic art moves in space, performance arts engage an audience and interactive works include participants. But what about visual art that is still, presented as static product, a stable object
A good static piece is only motionless in its three-dimensional space. An artifact that is apparently sitting immobile in traditional three-dimensional space is engaged in other modes of motion. An object, a solid entity holds form through time and is thus able to directly interact in different temporal locations. So, an image object travels in time. It exists through changes of date and location, from the studio one year to a gallery another and so on.
A painting is a three-dimensional art object even if it portrays a fairly complex two-dimensional image. A painting object next to a reproduction of it exposes the apparent difference between the forms. A poster or jpeg reproduction may be a deformation of a painting yet reproductions are related distortions. With reproductive technology images achieve a whole new range of mobility.**
Anyway, both painted object and reproduction travel through space in time.
It may be that what is apparently sitting immobile in our traditional three-dimensional space is engaged in still more modes of motion. We use the word emotion. We say a work of art moves us. What is that about? It is worth considering the association of motion in relation to emotion. We use the term when our mind/body, our consciousness, is stirred or moved.
How is it that a painted object can act on our feelings? This is a root of why we consider art objects different from other objects.
In general it is the motion in consciousness that is motivated by experiencing the presence of the object that identifies a thing as art. In many cases the art object is constructed intentionally to influence human emotions. Yet, occasionally a thing becomes an art object accidentally. Often art objects reach straight for human emotions through senses. Some reach for the intellect first. Usually a combination of sensual material and intellectual symbol is employed.
Art activates a motion that happens in a place we call our mind. From mystics to physicists we have discussion relating the idea of a fifth dimension as zone humans experience in this place we call consciousness. We think and sense or feel in consciousness. Our thoughts and feelings travel in consciousness. Yet a continuing issue of consciousness is in understanding its empirical characteristics. With art we have a clear example of a physical tie to consciousness.
I suggest that the arts are historic traditions as well as contemporary explorations of what might be a fifth-dimension of space that we exist in and know with the part of our body/mind we currently refer to as consciousness.
It could be argued that the arts are transmitters or communication devices that broadcast nonlinear messages. A viewer who is moved by a work of art is receiving a transmission. Clearly both art makers and viewers have varying levels of skill in transmitting and receiving information. There is certainly a level of uncertainty as to the content of the transmission. This does not make the arts ineffective communication devices; on the contrary, the arts expose the very real confusion inherent in all communication systems.
This is an interesting area for collaborative inquiry for hard science and hard art. I use the word hard art as a parallel to hard science as a category of art that is interested in empirical research, practice and a real world. Hard art is related to theoretical art in a way that hard science is related to theoretical science. Practice and theory do not conflict they are integrated. Practice that ignores theory does not progress and theory that ignores practice remains imaginary.
Elsewhere, I have and will address very real ways the arts are used to manipulate minds and behaviors. The realness of what arts are and how they function is relevant to the real influence the arts have on the construction of civilization. It is no secret that voters vote and consumers buy with their emotions not their reason. It is a compelling challenge to consider the structure of why this is the case.
Notes
* I don’t really know most people, but I often hear of them.
** Some images are made as prints or digital files so the print or digital file is not a reproduction
I consider this text to be theoretical fiction indicating that theory as a form of fiction writing. The equation is: fiction is a form of art and art is real therefore theory is real.
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