Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
You See Art, I See Art, We All See Art
My Dad was a big fan of Hee Haw.
For those not blessed to ever have caught an episode, it was a TV comedy revue show at its height in the 1970s with a strict country western bent. Some people would emphasize the word bent in that sentence.
As he had it on every Saturday, I did manage to see probably more episodes of the show than were probably good for me myself. Fans will tell you it was harmless, and really, they’re right. All done in good fun, in a certain style you could always count on. Oddly enough, they never had Marcel Duchamp as a guest. Though the people they did have on were odd enough.
I bring the matter up as a matter of Taste, which is my theme this week. My father’s taste ran to Hee Haw. In fact, he was once visibly moved by hearing Roy Clark’s rendition of “Somewhere My Love” on the guitar, during one of the show’s rare serious moments. It was presented very quietly, as they were consciously doing “art”.
All right. Well, I never hear the guitar feedback solo in the Velvet Underground’s “I Heard Her Call My Name” without a little shudder. And I don’t mean of horror.
Extending the concept through one more generation, my son Dylan is a passionate aficionado of Grindcore metal music. How do you think his father and grandfather might find that?
Will we all simply disparage each other over our different preferences, or will we accept that what anyone likes might just always come down to a matter of Taste? I think that’s a fair assessment.
But where does a person’s sense of aesthetic Taste come from?
I’ve argued over the last two weeks for a process of visual art appreciation that when I last left it, was up to Five Levels, allowing for modern art and the very idea of Marcel Duchamp appearing on Hee Haw. The fundamental process remains as:
Level One: experiencing the art object physically
Level Two: assigning isomorphic meaning to the object
Level Three: assigning value judgement to the object based upon the isomorphic interpretation assigned
Obviously Level Two is where you develop your personal sense of Taste, and Level Three is where you apply it to the world. And I think the whole matter has to be broken down yet again further to the old brain/mind schism.
The brain may perceive an object physically, but it is the unique realm of the mind to proclaim the object as art or not. Although an interesting argument might be made for something like the Golden Mean, there is no specific physically perceived quality in the world that automatically registers objectively on the brain as art. Aesthetics are an applied concept to the world, not a derived one.
Hence I may say there are only three levels involved in art appreciation, but in fact there are uncountable numbers, once you get the mind actively involved. The brain perceives the object, but the mind interprets it as art. What might that interpretation be based upon? What influences go into creating the mind? Enabling it to form its impressions, opinions, and passions?
Any number of things! Your social history, the culture you exist within, the traumas or delights you’ve experienced in your particular lifetime, how healthy you feel that day, what you associate with any given object regarding past positive or negative encounters, how you’re getting along with your boyfriend, girlfriend, or the world in general, sometimes maybe even just what you had, or didn’t have, for lunch … Any number of inputs any given moment. A whole mess, not necessarily functioning logically or reasonably, culminating in your personal Taste. Which may be more socially or culturally dictated depending on who you are, or more subjective, or flip flopping between the two. Your aesthetic Taste builds over time into another vital component of the ongoing process of “this makes me me, and you’re not.”
Any given piece of art, modern or otherwise, may strike a note with an individual the piece’s creator may never have been able to anticipate, or be able to interfere with or direct in any way. Once you put the piece out there, baby, whether it’s a painting, a sculpture, an installation, a poem, or a love song, it’s fair game. Or a urinal, don’t think you’re getting away with anything, Marcel.
Again, we’re talking about a process so fundamental to the development of our personalities, it can be very easy to overplay the value of Taste. Somebody’s Taste? Rendering them judgemental? The classical music lovers calling the country western fans stupid, and the country western fans calling the classical music lovers pretentious? If the final arbiter of Taste is always the individual, then there are no objective standards. So value judgement can only be applied to the medium, not the experience.
Aesthetic fulfillment, even if you’re not actually calling it that, is just as legitimate for those who watch Hee Haw as it is for those who go to art galleries instead. Acting judgemental about it unfortunately seems to be a natural part of the ongoing human need to shore up one’s self esteem at the expense of others. The need to be seen as being better than …
I say if it makes you happy, fine, it’s art then. Maybe not for me, and I’ll point that out, but that doesn’t invalidate the experience for you.
Besides, you’re probably still shaking your head about me and the Velvet Underground anyway.
*******
REALITY FICTION UPDATE!
And what is Reality Fiction, you may well ask?
Simple. The concept of the Reality Television Series translated to the printed page. 40 characters from my backlog of generally unpublished material are gathered together to compete in a different theme each Episode, with one or two characters being eliminated each sequence until there are only two left to fight it out in the final. The winner gets a short novel of their own as the grand prize.
But somehow, things always seem to go horribly wrong ...
What’s happening now?
The action continues in the Jungle Adventure, “The Third Eye of the Many Legged Python”. Lost civilizations, odd ancient idols coming to life, beautiful lost jungle queens, your classic, always cool big game hunter hero no matter how sweltering the heat, the danger, or the lost jungle queen … All that, plus the Iron Clown.
Continuing Friday at: http://realficone.blogspot.ca/
REALITY FICTION TOO! EPISODES TO DATE
EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR: PULP FICTION
“The Red Moon of Pango Pango”
EPISODE TWENTY-THREE: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The Imp of the Reverse
EPISODE TWENTY-TWO: FAIRY TALE
Princess NoName
EPISODE TWENTY-ONE: THE WEDDING
Dearly, Beloved
EPISODE TWENTY: EXISTENTIALISM
Face the Hangman
EPISODE NINETEEN: ABDUCTION
Abduction/Apperception
EPISODE EIGHTEEN: MELODRAMA
“Terror in Tarnation! A Thrilling Narrative in Three Acts”
EPISODE SEVENTEEN: POETRY
“landescapes”
EPISODE SIXTEEN: SILLY EUROPEAN SPY SPOOF (DUBBED)
“Diet Ray of the Stars!”
EPISODE FIFTEEN: EROTIC SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE
“The Shadow of Her Passion”
EPISODE FOURTEEN: FLYING:
“Sky Calling”
EPISODE THIRTEEN: SLAPSTICK:
“The Phantom of the Werewolf”
EPISODE TWELVE: DAIRY FARMING:
“Early One Morning”
EPISODE ELEVEN: BURROUGHS:
“Chapter Nine”
EPISODE TEN: WEREWOLVES:
“The Silver Solution”
EPISODE NINE: WRESTLING:
“Suckerslam XIV”
EPISODE EIGHT: JANE AUSTEN ROMANCE:
“The Proud and the Senseless”
EPISODE SEVEN: THE JAZZ AGE:
“The Bucky-Dusky-Ruby Red Hop!”
EPISODE SIX: SUBMISSION:
“Re-Org”
EPISODE FIVE: MASQUERADE:
“The Eyes Behind the Mask”
EPISODE FOUR: SELF HELP:
“Sausage Stew for the Slightly Overweight Presents:
Some Several Suggestions Guaranteeing Success for the Mildly Neurotic”
EPISODE THREE: NUDIST:
“If You Have To Ask ...”
EPISODE TWO: FRENCH BEDROOM FARCE:
“Un Nuit a Fifi’s!”
EPISODE ONE: STEAMPUNK:
“The Chase of the Purple Squid!”
A J.H.B. Original!
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