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art and context
Wed, June 20, 2007 - 8:51 PMSo I came across this performance that the Washington Post staged in a subway station to see how commuters would react to a virtuoso violinist playing anonymously.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...21.html
The event says some interesting things about context. It also suggests some interesting things about who is prepared to recognize and notice art.
I found myself thinking, that if faced with a similar situation (and maybe we are all the time) that I'd be a person who would stop and notice and appreciate. Do you think you would notice?
Wed, June 20, 2007 - 8:51 PM -
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Wed, June 20, 2007 - 11:54 PM
That first clip...I would tell you that if it's early in the morning and I'm hearing that violin and I'm in NYC and I'm on my way to my job I'm probably just going to be annoyed. Its searingly piercing tones as it slides strands over string--and they think that's not a well known piece? You hear that in every elevator and every dentist office and every hold music ever.
That last bar of whatever he was playing in the last clip. That's what would've gotten me. a lone drowsy sax lifting across the open air and echoing into deserted moments of time, like after wall street closes downtown.... A cellist playing long slow chords through the subway station. The vibraphone. You can always make me pause with a vibraphone.... Who is prepared to recognize and notice art? Who is ART prepared to recognize? People were ignoring him? Good for him. A little humility goes a long way. |
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Thu, June 21, 2007 - 2:01 PM
You minored in "aesthetics". Interesting...
In one of my college art classes, we were asked to give "aesthetic context" to the question, "what is art?" I wrote out some words comparing art to an airplane -- I think the context was mainly about movement and creating a different persepctive, perhaps even a higher awareness. I created two different contrasting representations of airplanes -- one was controlled and in black and white. The other was looser and in color. Between these two, there was a mirror. The notion being that what the viewer brings to the peice creates the context. But train stations... that is another element of context. You might find this blog thread interesting. people.tribe.net/kevinlove...5#comments If it were me during the commute hour, then I wouldn't stop. I probably wouldn't even glance his way. I would (and do all the time) appreciate the sounds and the added ambiance provided during the few moments it takes me to pass by. As for lingering or showing my appreciation, I don't have a history of that. |
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Thu, June 21, 2007 - 8:34 PM
Hi Meli - I think the story makes the point that ART is not an absolute. Like beauty, it is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. So here, the people who responded most strongly to the violinist were those who had spent some time in their lives playing violin. Those people were better prepared to "recognize" this specific sort of art. I tend to think that art is something that happens between an object (or set of stimuli like music) and the observer (or listener). There are others who think of art in a more absolute way and think of observers as being more or less qualified to appreciate certain types of art. So for many of the people walking past the violinist there was no art in my thinking, while in the other way of thinking, the art was there, but they weren't qualified to notice it.
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Thu, June 21, 2007 - 8:45 PM
Thanks Laura - I feel a bit silly that you all saw that article back in April and I just noticed it now. (I even read Kevin's blogs on a regular basis, but I'd missed that one.) Don't agree with Kevin that this means that people suck. Do agree with Brian about the expert critic; pretty much what I was just trying to say to Meli.
One point they made in the article was about ideal viewing being necessary for making an aesthetic judgement. I think that is pretty much it. People need to be prepared to view art and not hurrying off to work in order to have much chance at noticing there is even an aesthetic judgment to make. |
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Fri, June 22, 2007 - 2:26 AM
hey.
I guess I'm still thinking in the aesthetics pov. Hyper violin, no matter how virtuoso while I'm in the Hectic of getting to work would be just an added annoyance. Or maybe I just don't dig on the violin... I suppose I bristle at the broad meaning of "qualified" can be interpreted as. Today I went to the garden of...memories....or something? In this crazy mazy mausoleum and there were lots of musicians of many stripes, none of which really caught my ear. What did happen though to me was seeing this empty chair in a corridor of urns that people passed by on their way from one place to another. I took off my shoes and bag and sat there....and then started dancing. to no music. just to the place. Some people stopped, some people didn't, and I certainly wasn't qualified to be there as in I wasn't on any schedule, and I wasn't making music and I'm not really even qualified to dance....but it felt good---I dunno somehow that fits in. I'm rambling. I agree that the article was kind of making that point although I thought (and it could just be my mood) that it tended toward the "hey these proles don't even know a virtuoso violinist is playing!" I think that it was art whether or not people noticed it. Maybe not for them, because the context is "I PLAY FOR YOUR MONEY PLEASE" so they're already closing down the faculties of seriously noticing it. I'm sure that was all said in the article too. It was rather long. But it would have been cool if there was no place to put money. what if he was just playing. Sure most would assume there's a hat somewhere just hearing the notes but the ones that pause long enough to drag out a quarter and realize there's no place to put it.... Sorry for the ramble. <3 miss ya. |