Heidegger on Art// Resurrection of Art

Heidegger believes art is dead because it no longer provides guidance to open up the world to us, instead it is merely aesthetic experiences. Art is more than just the form itself, it is more than just an object or that object’s aesthetics. Art reveals different worlds to us and uncovers truth. Poetry is often seen as the highest form of art in many cultures and with many philosophers.

Modern society seems much less saturated in poetry. Popular music contains lyrics that can be seen as far from poetic. In fact, our contemporary society may prove Heidegger’s theory, that art is dead due to aesthetics, to be true.

Photographs and paintings on social media are most celebrated for their pleasing aesthetic qualities

Meanings behind these images seem vague and ambiguous

We are a society drawn towards visuals and sensuous experiences, yet this does not necessarily mean art is dead. Instead of art being flooded with meaning created by the artist, these vague aesthetic images are open for interpretation, allowing the viewer to add his or her own meaning.

Many things we find aesthetically pleasing may not have even been created for the sake of art, yet we could still be drawn to these images. This demonstrates our present society not only finding pleasure in all aesthetics around them, but also finding meaning in “meaningless” objects around them.

We place our own non-material meanings into our aesthetic experiences, and are able to uncover truth in ways Heidegger never explored. In our contemporary society, art is not dead. Art is very much alive, and an integrated part of our lives.

Nietzsche on Nihilism and Tragedy// Film

Nietzsche’s philosophy focuses on Art, Tragedy, and Nihilism. Our contemporary society is not dominantly religious, with the rise of science, many societies look to science for faith and belief. Yet science does not provide us with many crucial answers that we seek, like religion did, such as: Why are we here? Why do we suffer? What is our meaning? What happens after death?. Unfortunately for most of us, God is dead, and we’re not sure who to turn to.

Nietzsche believed that we must turn to art, yet our society is not a dominantly artistic one. It could be hypothesised that our society does turn to art, but not the obvious forms that Nietzsche might have had in mind. Media, film, and television is the modern society’s “art” form, that provides answers for our questions, and meanings for our lives.

Tragedy is found all over our media today, it is a genre that has remained extremely popular for a vast amount of years because of its skilful way of combining the Apollonian will to beauty, illusion and individual form, and the Dionysian will to dissolution of individuality. Because of this combination, the art of tragedy is given great meaning, and therefore, the audience is able to explore this great meaning.

The parts of humanity, society and the world that science cannot explained is either explained or explored in ideas presented through film. Tragic films like Requiem for a Dream (2000) are able to explore these ideas to the greatest of extents. Requiem for a Dream follows the downward turmoil and tragic end of four characters, and combines extremely dark themes with beautiful visual shots, and emotional music. Human suffering is a key theme in this film, and we, as viewers, are able to explore the question, “why do we suffer?”.

Films like these cannot provide straight answers to these questions. Yet films create meanings that were not before there. Morality, suffering, and human emotion is given meaning in Requiem for a Dream, and though this film has a dark end, it is not nihilistic, as we can see the connections between the characters’ actions and their consequences.

Films, whether tragic or not, are a great modern art that can be used, much like Nietzsche thought it should, to combat the dread of Nihilism.

 

 

 

Hegel on Art// War Is Over

Hegel believed that art is important for society and culture as it is capable of revealing truth. Art creates meaning, provides knowledge, and in this way, it can be used as a vehicle to uncover truth.

Modern art tends to be used in this sense frequently. Art can be used to represent the collective human experience and show cultural meaning through sensuous expression.

Yoko Ono’s exhibition, War Is Over!, is able to explore contemporary cultural, social, and political concerns.

War is a huge political concern of our culture, and the threat of war is always hanging over us. These military soldier helmets hang from the ceiling in Yoko Ono’s exhibition are filled with sky printed puzzle pieces. The contemporary audience is invited to take a piece of the sky. Ideas of peace and war are explored here in a very personal way, turning this political concern into a social one too.

Modern art is not limited to previous social and technological boundaries, and therefore has the ability to explore culture, truth and human experience in ways that have never been before.

This artwork presents a chessboard, with only white pieces. In this piece, Yoko Ono explores the truth behind war, and society. The more the players play the game, the harder it becomes to remember who owns which chess piece, and the more difficult it becomes to decipher who is fighting who.

Where we might be asked “who’s side are you on?”, art replies, “there are no sides”. This could be seen as uncovering truth in contemporary society.

Kant on the Sublime// Photography

According to Kant, art doesn’t just provide an experience of the Beautiful, but can also express the experience of the Sublime.

What is the Sublime? The sublime is the experience of the limitlessness and overwhelming power of nature.

Something that is sublime is too large for the imagination to comprehend, yet which we are able to think through reason.

 

These photographs of storms by photographer, Eric Nyugen, are a great example of the sublime. These photos capture the amazing, non-human force of nature. Photography has a strong connection to the sublime. Each photograph has a photographer behind the camera, so we can picture the man taking this photo, and we can picture how small he is in relation to the storm. This communicates the insignificance of human efforts in the face of the limitless power of nature.

 

The immediacy of photography is another way in which photography best expresses the sublime in modern culture. The vigorous emotion is captured in a single split moment, unlike a painting that takes time. No part of the experience of this moment is lost within the process of the artworks creation, as the moment is its creation.

 

We can paint from our imaginations, we can write a poem without an image. But, we cannot take a photograph of our imagination, and our imaginations can not conjure the sublime. In this sense, photography can effectively capture a sublime moment by  communicating the limits of the imagination, and the accessibility of reason.

The Sublime is something hardly seen in many contemporary works of art, yet its presence is still dominant in a lot of photography. Photography is our new vessel for which to further explore this idea of the sublime.

Kant on Beauty// Claude Monet

Kant believed art’s beauty can be a universal language. Art and aesthetics are very closely linked in Kant’s view of art. The universal validity of subjective taste is seen as problematic in many cases, especially in modern art. Yet, Universal Beauty could still be a valid theory in certain artworks, such as many of Claude Monet’s paintings. In the featured painting, Sea Study (1881), we can see an example of a universal subjective judgement of taste. It is a disinterested, beautiful aesthetic piece of art that reflects the beauty of nature. The beauty of nature is related to the beautiful, not the agreeable, as with the agreeable it is not expected that everyone would find that sensuous experience beautiful. Yet with the beauty of nature, there is an assumption made when an individual sees this beauty, that this beauty is universally recognisable.

What makes this painting, The Water Lilly Pond (1899), so famous, and so instantly and universally recognisable as beautiful art? The colours and domination of nature in this painting not only reflect the beauty of this scenery, but actually enhances the experience. Monet’s use of strokes, colour and artistic techniques creates more than just a visual experience for the viewer. Instead, there is an all-empossing aesthetic experience of nature. Monet’s style communicates the movement and atmosphere of this natural scene, making this experience not only visual, but an experience that captures all of the senses. Perhaps this is the beauty of nature that is found so universally pleasing.

 Impression, Sunrise (1872)

When we gaze at a sunrise or sunset, we are experiencing more than solely visuals. Perhaps this sensuous, aesthetic experience is what causes nature to be one of the only things that can still be considered universally beautiful. Monet’s ability to reflect and enhance these sensuous experiences in his artworks are what make his artworks so famous, and so universally recognisable as beautiful.

 

Plato on Love// Hedwig and The Angry Inch

“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”

– Plato (Plato’s Republic 380BC)

For Plato, love is divine, inspired madness. The lover desires beauty with a passion and pursues it, yet the lover himself is not beautiful, therefore the lover desires what he lacks.

The desire for beauty moves from physical to intellectual love. This theory is featured and explored in the musical film Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), which tells the story of a transexual woman, Hedwig, who struggles with her art, music, and search for love. Hedwig’s search for love is a pursuit for her other half, just like Plato’s idea of love.

“…human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.”

– Plato (Complete Works 1997)

Plato’s theory is explained in the song ‘The Origin of Love’, which is brought to life by cartoons. An image of a face splitting in two becomes a symbol for Hedwig’s broken sense of self and lack of identity. This symbol is shown tattooed on her thigh.

Hewig believes to find her other half in Tommy, but later learns that he does not compliment her. By the end of the film Hedwig loses all her feminine costumes and make up and walks the streets naked, androgynous, and whole. The tattoo on her leg is shown as a complete face, which symbolises that she has found her identity within herself and become whole. The argument made in the film is that humans are whole, not halved, and do not need to aspire to a transcendent realm in order to find knowledge, unity and beauty.

Film is a form of art and can be used to explore philosophical ideas and theories and apply them to real life situations. If the nature of love is not a pursuit, what else could it be seen as?

The idea of “soul mates” is a problematic one. Humans cannot see themselves as half a person until they meet their “other half”, as in a modern society this puts too much pressure on the individual to find this person, and too many expectations on their “other half”, to be the perfect compliment to this person. All humans are fundamentally flawed, and no human can live up to these pressures and expectations and still live a full, healthy life. In this sense, humans should see them selves as whole individuals, independent and free.

Yet, life can still be seen as a pursuit, perhaps not for a perfect partner, but for something more conceptual, less material. We are “whole” in the sense that we, as individuals, are one full soul that experiences the world around us. Yet we could also be born as a “half” in a non-physical sense. When we are born, we are merely a body and a mind that takes in our surroundings and communicates them back, but there is a part of us that is empty, we lack passion. Life, then, becomes a pursuit for passion, something that engulfs our soul and being and gives our otherwise nihilistic lives meaning. We can find our passion in art, actions, other people, or ourselves. So perhaps Hedwig and the Angry Inch, doesn’t completely refute Plato’s theory of “The Origin Of Love”, but adapts it for our contemporary society.

Plato on Morality// Bill Henson

Plato’s theory states that art has irrational corrupting power, and should therefore be censored. This discussion of censorship continues today, such as the moral debate around Bill Henson’s photography.

Art or Pornography? Henson’s provocative photography of prepubescent subjects is the topic of contemporary controversial discussion. Following this controversy, the child pornography law that defends artistic purpose was removed. There are two major positions taken in the discourse around Henson’s work. One side still admires Henson’s work purely as art, his use of controversy allows Henson to explore and express new forms of art and ideas. The second extreme position strongly believes Henson’s work is purely pornographical, it is a corrupting and illegal practice that should be completely censored.

In Plato’s theory, Bill Henson’s photographs would stand as a great example of how morally corrupting art can be, and how it should be censored from an ideal state. Yet do we not, as viewers, have the ability to critically analyse artworks and meanings? Can not most people look at these artworks as art, and still understand that child pornography is wrong? Passive audiences are prone to moral corruption, but modern audiences are certainly not completely passive.