Learning Objectives

In this module you will have an opportunity to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences of art with your peers vis-à-vis the art works explored in class. After working on this module, you should be able to:

• Examine how artworks can influence emotion and enhance sensitivity; and
• Discuss how art can stimulate the intellect and foster criticality.

In his book The Necessity of Art, Ernst Fischer states that, “in order to be an artist it is necessary to seize, hold, and transform experience into memory, memory into expression, material into form.” This statement summarizes the creative process in the production of art. The diagram below (Figure 1) shows the completion of the creative process with the participation of the audience, which includes you and practically anybody else. As Preble (1989) points out, “as a viewer, you share in the creative process when you recreate the work of art as you perceive it. The full pleasure you can experience through participation in the arts results from your curiosity, intuition, and concentration. Art, for you, cannot exist without your participation.”

But even among the temporal arts, presentation can elicit varying responses. Consider for example the reading of the poem “Funeral Blues” by W. H. Auden.

Similarly, different styles of art can have varying effects on your perception and interest. Consider the paintings of Johannes Vermeer and Edward Munch. The former uses a more naturalistic style (see Figure 10.3) while the latter employs distortion (see Figure 10.4).

Viewing contemporary arts, on the other hand, is quite challenging because they demand a particular way of seeing. Indeed, your response to works of art, past or present, is mediated by myriad of factors such as your class, gender, education, and the like.

Art and its affects

Art elicits an emotional response. In the past, there have been advocates of taking a disinterested attitude when dealing with works of art. Jerome Stolnitz (1978), following Immanuel Kant, referred to an “aesthetic attitude” which he defined as "disinterested and sympathetic attention to and contemplation of any object of awareness whatever, for its own sake alone.” (Stolnitz,1978:410). However, looking at a landscape painting may evoke memories of a past vacation, for example, or a textile might remind you of your grandmother. Indeed, one can become more involved with an art work in light of associations or evocations, and in such circumstance one cannot remain unaffected. Indeed, art has the power to make one feel deeply.

For this reason, the study of art involves the affective domain as much as it does the cognitive domain of learning. The domains of learning (including the psychomotor domain) were first described by educational psychologists Benjamin Bloom, David Krathwol, and their colleagues in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The affective domain refers to the area of feelings or emotions and includes responding to (e.g. enjoying) and valuing the learning experience or the subject being learned. In the case of art, two types of affective responses will be discussed below- empathy and aesthetic chill.

Empathy

Empathy, as Edmund Burke Feldman characterized it, is used to describe when you feel into a work of art while perceiving it; he writes, “the term is used in attempting a) to describe what happens to a viewer as he perceives a work of art and b) to explain the origin of the viewer’s feelings about visual form.” (De Leon Jr. 1978: 96). For example, in plays, movies, or novels (temporal arts) we tend to feel empathy for the protagonist as the narrative unfolds, to the point of identifying with the character. We feel we have some sort of connection with them. Feldman construes this as a form of mimicry. He said, “ the only way we can “see” the emotion of fear expressed by an actor is by summoning up that same emotion in ourselves.” (De Leon Jr. 1978: 96).

'Aesthetic Chills'

This concept, which has gained ground among music scholars, refers to how some people feel chills such as “goose bumps, shivers down the spine or hair standing on end” when they listen to a piece of music. (Nusbaum: 2012). But, this only occurs at “transitional points in music, such as sudden changes in harmony, and ,thus, the “feeling is transient, lasting a few seconds (Mcrae: 2007: 6). Related to the feeling of being ‘surprised’, which is often unpleasant, aesthetic chill, however, is always pleasant. (Mcrae: 2007:6).

Art and the Intellect

In the preceding discussion, the emphasis was on how the affective dimension impacts how you deal with works of art. You were asked to examine your emotions and feelings with some of the selected art works. In this sub-topic, the emphasis will be more on the cognitive aspect. For indeed, art does not only fire the emotion, it also stimulates the intellect; this aspect particularly concerns your capacity as human agent to analyze or to make sense of the art work’s value. In short, if works of art are products of culture in which the latter (culture), deals with the production and exchange of meanings, then, art works are thus subjected to the process of interpretation in order to know their meaning. Faced with a work, whether it is a poem, a painting, or a photograph, you find yourself asking, “what does this work mean?,” or, “what is this work trying to say?” That said, as stated above, your capacity to interpret is overdetermined by multiple factors of your class, gender, education and so on, hence, as a result, there will be plurality of meanings with regards to the interpretation of works. As stated, “cultural meaning is thus highly fluid, ever changing thing, the result of complex interactions among images, producers, cultural products, and readers/viewers/consumers. The meaning of images emerges through these processes of interpretation, engagement, and negotiation. Culture is a process, in a constant state of flux.” (Sturken and Cartwright, 2001:69)

Conclusion

This module focused on the affective and cognitive elements in dealing with works of art. The recognition of the affective aspect indicates its significance in your personal experience with works of art. It signals your response ranging from the positive end like identification and relaxation or downright aversion or derision. On the other hand, the cognitive aspect deals with how art affects your intellect. Having equipped you with the critical tools, you were able to engage with the work’s context and meaning. Over all, how art affects you is mediated by various factors such as your education, class, gender and many other forces.