tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post1169406416456235853..comments2024-03-29T08:12:28.476-04:00Comments on Age of Ravens: 4/21/09Lowell Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02359280169506945906noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post-87973484456068740052009-04-23T09:32:00.000-04:002009-04-23T09:32:00.000-04:00No, James Galway doesn't count!
That art &...No, James Galway doesn't count!<br /><br />That art & evolution theory isn't trying to DEFINE art, just examine why we like what we like and why we want to like it. Did you know they're making a live action WTWTA movie? I imagine the sense of that book being awfully hard to capture.<br /><br />I haven't read The Art Instinct, but I plan to. More and more I've come to believe that behavior, and thus our interaction with art, is inextricably linked to (but not solely caused by) biology. <br /><br />Calendars are full of landscape photos because people like that, and they like that because it is comforting, or inspires, or makes us think differently than we might otherwise. Art doesn't need to make us consciously "think" in order to be compelling or worthwhile, though. Some times it simply makes us feel good. Some times it makes us uncomfortable. Both are worth exploring, as a rule, but they don't have to be. The like or dislike reaction, though lacking actual analysis, is probably an unavoidable part of our interaction with art (or anything).<br /><br />Some of the appeal of a natural landscape is that sense of belonging to the world, which is essential to sanity. Tolkien talks about this in his "Fairy Stories" essay, that there is a powerful need in us to communicate/interact with other living things. <br /><br />Some of my favorite pieces of classical music definitely have their ominous or fearful elements, but some appeal because they are simply beautiful (a series of sounds that for whatever reason just sound great), some are jubilant, some are sad (which could arguably be linked to the fear of loss), etc.<br /><br />Oddly enough, it was the band Living Colour that made me really appreciate dissonance in music. A lot of their songs pull off this great, almost visceral, almost frightening balance of dissonance and...sonance? Whatever the opposite of dissonance is! :DART!https://www.blogger.com/profile/07881918126171098381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post-31491121718509486442009-04-22T14:44:00.000-04:002009-04-22T14:44:00.000-04:00I think there's a great deal to be said for the ar...I think there's a great deal to be said for the art and dissonance. It's part of why I moved into some alternate stuff early in my musical listening, Laurie Anderson's performance pieces, Adrian Belew's purely ambient stuff, even Tangerine Dream and Vangelis. <br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I like musical dissonance-- or else a great deal of the 20th century would be closed to me. But there are definitely some classical composers who move outside my comfort zone-- Boulez, some Ives, Messiaen, Crumb. But others like Turnage, Rouse, Webern, and Rochberg work for me. But I'll admit it took some time for me to get to that point. <br /><br />And I find it interesting the idea of growing up in a house with classical music. I mean we had the radio, and other music, but it certainly wasn't anything vital. And that's despite my playing the flute for four years. The closest I think we got was having a James Galway greatest hits album around.Lowell Francishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02359280169506945906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post-44172278440126724092009-04-22T13:53:00.000-04:002009-04-22T13:53:00.000-04:00I overstated my case, but fear is one of the bette...I overstated my case, but fear is one of the better ways to be memorable. Bold substantive and true originality works, but is a lot harder. You can only present each new idea once to a viewer.<br /><br />I dislike "polls" about what we like in pictures, and they in no way define the art instinct. The blue sky landscape is 1. conventional and trite 2. lacks any nooks or crannies to investigate. It is art that comforts. If you're on a great sunny plain, there's no where for predators to hide. By this definition, the book "Where the Wild Things Are" is the opposite of art. Sendak is a fraud.<br /><br />Art works when it changes how we perceive the world. Not when it comforts us that we have nothing left to learn. The poll based evolutionary biologist has created an example of schmaltz: warm greasy comforting lard or chicken fat.<br /><br />I'm not condemning all landscape. Landscape can be great when it changes how we look at landscape. Painters who traveled the frontier to show East Coast urbanites what our country looked like were changing minds. So were the Impressionists when they changed how we understood beauty and light.Gene Hahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07389258008505629339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post-12105802680183873872009-04-22T10:34:00.000-04:002009-04-22T10:34:00.000-04:00[avoids all the "art" jokes]
So odd to hear about...[avoids all the "art" jokes]<br /><br />So odd to hear about someone NOT growing up around classical music, because there was so much of it around OUR house when I was growing up. It's funny what we assume is normal, or how we don't stop to think about how unique our own upbringing was. It's hard as a parent to not try to replicate my own childhood for my kids.<br /><br />I don't believe art NEEDS to invoke a fear response to be memorable, but it is one of the things that can make a work stick in one's head. <br /><br />I just read a review of The Art Instinct by Denis Dutton. The book argues that the human urge to create art and the appetite to appreciate it are evolutionary adaptations. Apparently if you ask a sampling of random people from around the world what kind of picture they like best, the answer is an open but varied landscape with a visible body of water, signs of animal and human life, and lots of blue - a landscape not unlike the African savannas our ancestors thrived in. Grassy savannas contain more protein per square mile than any other habitat.ART!https://www.blogger.com/profile/07881918126171098381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post-4016419842088223792009-04-21T16:24:00.000-04:002009-04-21T16:24:00.000-04:00It's interesting to hear about your background...It's interesting to hear about your background in music. Covering the classical music scene for the newspaper sounds like a pretty cool job!<br /><br />I admit to being a music mooch and a open-minded fan of all genres. When I was 8 - 15 my best friend was a music fanatic. He kept copious notebooks of the Top 40 Countdown, Rolling Stones Billboard lists, etc. It might have been an OCD. It was through him that I got into new wave, punk, alternative music. <br /><br />Then I had my heavy metal boyfriend. Then I had my best friend that liked country. Then another boyfriend that got me into Moby, Olive and some old school rap. Brian's likes create a nice Venn diagram with some of my tastes - 80's new wave, soundtracks, musicals, some pop. <br /><br /> I have always liked classical. But I can't say I know that much about it. I have the pieces that I like to listen to over and over. Like <10 albums. I have recently been buying more stuff from itunes. Right now I'm really into Bach's Cello Suites.Cher Merehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10336087288319886516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764158821384594980.post-39203296540149199122009-04-21T15:09:00.000-04:002009-04-21T15:09:00.000-04:00Dissonance is a fun subject in Art. We want our ar...Dissonance is a fun subject in Art. We want our art to be beautiful to us, but to be memorable it needs to evoke a fear response. A good balance of attraction and repulsion. In perfume, this is why they need musk: a nasty smell that harmonizes with the pretty smells. In visual arts, creeping horror or at least ambiguity serves this purpose. Thus, Francis Bacon has more lasting impact than Mondrian. I'd love to have the dissonant creepy quality of the best Sienkiewicz.<br /><br />In story, the fear is called suspense. Of course, suspense is ruined if you're aping a formula that the reader knows too well. A writer like Aaron Sorkin is a master of misdirection, hinting at one pay off and serving up another. No one else could do what he does, which is why the show weakened when he was forced off.Gene Hahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07389258008505629339noreply@blogger.com