Essays

Art is like Sex

   Art is like sex, the best leaves us with an experience that makes us want more, the worst makes us run away and hope to forget. The comparison works both for the artist when he creates a work of art and then for the spectator of the work when he experiences it.

   Like with sex, too much technique and repetition can kill a work of art even before it is completed. The artist should have the sensation that every work he creates is the only one, something slightly risky with an un-guaranteed result. When the artist approaches his work with a preconceived formula in his head he may fall into a series of prearranged technical actions that lack any real inspiration, the resulting work will often be lifeless and dull for all the display of technical mastery. Just like in sex, the artist should be in the moment when he is creating, this leaves him open to the unexpected surprise that may in fact turn his work into the most memorable of experiences. For the artist the risk of trying something he has never tried before and does not already technically master can be the doorway to creating the most inspiring work of art. When the artist works in this way and has this experience, he simply cannot wait until he is back in the studio again.  In short, there should be risk, there should be a sense of being completely in the moment, there should be the unexpected surprise and the artist should feel real satisfaction with what he is doing.

   For the viewer of a work of art the metaphor holds true. It would be good to say here that not every work of art is meant for every person, but that there is a work of art out there for each of us. When viewing a work of art for the first time, the viewer should feel some immediate sensation inside of him in reaction to being in the presence of the artwork. It should challenge and surprise him. It should give him an intense emotional reaction that will later leave him replaying the experience of having seen the work of art long after he is away from it. The work should create the need in him to experience it again and again. As with sex some increasing experience of viewing art will help the viewer understand better what it is that he is looking for or likes. Unlike most relationships though, cheating is recommended when it comes to art. The viewer may be loyal to a work of art or to an artist in general, but the more experiences the viewer collects the more he will appreciate what he already has seen or he will discover even greater experiences that he could not previously imagine, in either case the result should be that the viewer has had a memorable and emotionally intense experience with an artwork. The experience of viewing a work of art should be a profoundly emotional event that leaves the viewer feeling like his entire universe has shifted, if not then the viewer should really just move on and forget the experience. Just because a spectator has not had such a moment with a work of art does not necessarily mean that art is not for him, it probably means that he has not yet found the right work of art. 

    Finally it would be good to point out that like with sex, no matter how many books you have read on the subject, or opinions you have heard, both for artist and spectator, in the end it is an extremely personal experience the outcome of which ultimately depends entirely on the particular individual involved; the theories break down and we are left only with one choice, to stop talking or thinking about it and come what may, give ourselves up to the experience.

Prelude for a Response

     We are living in unprecedented times, both for the extraordinary new possibilities offered by the advancement of technology as well as by the challenges that this technology is creating for traditional societal structures, self-identity, national identity and what it means to be a citizen of the planet earth at the start of the second decade of the second millennium AD.  There is a sensation that events are speeding up, whether this is resulting from an actual increase in extraordinary events, or a perceived acceleration due to the ability of such events to be immediately reported to a global audience via information technology, the result remains the same from the human perspective.

        The last 20 years gave us a remarkable and diverse number of human achievements that  often carried with them an equal if not greater number of challenges confronting both the global society at large and the average citizen of every nation.  At the start of the 90’s we witnessed the dissolution of the former communist block, the hegemony of the United States over the world, and the rapidly-rising economic power of south-east Asia. We saw the spread of the internet, and then the advent of wireless technologies which placed the power of the internet, (including the ability for video, text, photo and voice), directly into the hands of an average citizen. The last ten years witnessed an increase in fanatical belief systems, both political and religious, the worst a combination of the two; terrorist attacks were broadcast live to the world while we grew exhausted by continuous war in the Middle East. The last years saw the divide between the rich and poor increase, the rich never having been richer and the poor never so poor, all the while this phenomenon reached an apex in the years of the global economic crisis. The same ten years gave us an increasingly anxious sensation about the health of our planet and the sense that our species was facing an increasing risk of self-annihilation as a result of the exact same technological development that seemed to offer so many new possibilities for our evolution. The period also gave us the most extreme weather patterns seen since humanity began keeping weather records, every year new records were broken for flooding, hurricanes, tornados, droughts, snow storms, and wild fires; simultaneously the polar ice noticeably melted and the oceans began to raise. The last four years saw the advent of the mega social-networking sites, the largest of which was Facebook, for the first time in history over 500 million people came together in a manner that allowed them to disseminate information instantly to a mass audience directly from their mobile phones, laptops, or home computers; in effect each Facebook user became his or her own broadcasting entity with the possibility to be heard by an audience which was for the most part unrestricted by borders, politics, or traditional social structures. This new technology also empowered the youth of the world, making them the prime force for world change, a first true glimpse of which was seen in the series of street revolutions that occurred at the start of the new year in 2011: revolutions primarily driven by the youth, supported and organized through information technology, and moving faster than the governmental structures of the nations effected could act to suppress them using traditional methods.

         Everything elaborated above is virtually unique to the developing epoch in which we now live, a moment of moments where an individual‘s ability to accommodate these rapid changes in his or her mind is being pushed to a limit. All of this is creating a psychological and spiritual stress that an individual may find hard to cope with. Some are turning to traditional religions, seeing in these times the signs of the end of the world and the God-sent demand for man to return to traditional belief systems, while others are looking to un-orthodox forms of spirituality that they feel will resolve their anxieties in ways more in-tune with the contemporary world; some are resorting to science and logic believing that the way out of the problems being created by technology is to gain an even greater understanding of the fundamental laws governing the physical universe; others are preferring to immerse themselves in the world, concentrating on the physical reality of the moment, burying their anxiety in the action of life.

         

         In this moment, beyond speculation, we do not know with certainty exactly what specific outcomes will arise from these times or how mankind as a species will choose to respond to the challenges now confronting him, the individual responses of the average man likewise remain uncertain . What is certain is that mankind as a species and each man singularly are now confronted with a unique moment in history that questions traditional and contemporary assumptions regarding both mankind’s place in the world as well as the individual’s place in society, irresistibly these challenges demand a response both from the global society at large and from each individual member of society in particular.