I will try something a little different, just some thoughts that came to me as I’ve been thinking more of art this year and relation to the senses, my own and in general. I came to a conclusion for the sake of it, so it’s not going to be completely off the cuff on the theme, and I’ll probably forget some of the ideas that have been in my mind over the last few months when I thought I’d write that particular piece. It kind of started by someone asking me ‘Do you like art?’ while visiting a museum. I replied without thinking too much that yes I did, and that I liked everything creating emotions and appealing to my soul. But sometime later I wondered further if it weren’t more a case of art appealing to senses. And as i my wont, I tried to create and push a logic with it (a process that often leads me down blind alleys, and when I express this, people can easily get it wrong and think I believe exactly what I say even when I am only at an exploring and investigating stage – possibly something about personalities, I might do a blog on that at some point but not so sure I’ll bother- as I don’t believe anything is simple and fitting neatly in a box. I mean, I believe what I say when I say it, but some opinions need refining all the time, so it’s best to take some of the stuff as a starting point rather than a definitive conclusion.
Anyway, so where do I start? With art or with senses? I will go with senses, because they are more defined and limited that arts in my view. What is art is a big question, and sometimes it’s easy to believe that anything is a form of art or can be turned into one. Whereas there are only five acknowledged senses.
-Hearing (Music): obviously ranks very high with me as anyone who’s read most of these pages would know. Music is a huge part of my life. I am fairly lucky that I have been able to go to many loud gigs, listen to music fairly loudly on the headphone and actually often work in an extremely noisy environment (that’s not music, but could have been a factor, and it’s definitely involving my ears taking an extra load), and still my hearing doesn’t seem too badly impaired. Been worried a few times, but it’s mostly been the occasional bout of tinnitus, or excessive earwax that had to be syringed off. The most natural association of a sense and an art too. I’m mostly taking my music in, but I would like to know how to be more creative with making it. It’s a process I’ve wanted to restart over a year ago, but been stuttering, not finding time, motivation and obviously not in the ideal conditions living in a flat. Anyway, yes I get a lot of strength and various emotions from music, sadness, happiness, danciness, anger, etc.
Classical, rock’n’roll, pop, electro, whichever way, I’m fairly eclectic. Jazz is generally more of a problem from me (too much for intellectuals? too clever?) but occasionally I can get the attraction. Poetry? Yeah I think that appeals to the hearing too. It’s writing that comes with a sound.
-Sight. Now, the visual arts. Come in many forms. Drawings. Paintings. Sculptures. Architecture. Gardening. I have been suffering from myopia since a young teenager (only became clear to me when sitting at the back of a class as usual, one fellow pupil lent me his glasses and I was like ‘wow, I can see what’s written on the blackboard clearly, is that normal?’), got some contact lenses because glasses felt like they were restricting my freedom. As it is, I am fairly lucky that over the last few years my vision doesn’t seem to have degraded. A few years ago, the ophtalmologist told me ‘see you next year, when I hope to see some degradation at last’. Not quite, but hey ho. But he had to give up as my last visit in fact had me come out with LESS correction on one eye (creating an asymmetry in correction, which is a slight inconvenience as it means right and left lens not interchangeable). Anyway, I digress, but vision is still an important sense to me. I get a lot of pleasure from vision, in nature or artistic creation (paintings and landscapes mostly, but also fashion, I do like nice clothes rather than dull uniform ones), but for instance, I get more from abstract or nature paintings, whereas portraits or scenes of daily life don’t appeal to me (similarly, and perhaps oddly, but that’s my relation to reading, descriptive scenes never appealed to me and I tend to skip them, when it comes to books, I seem to often prefer action, even though the descriptions help my imagining things (probably in a way that is not envisaged by the author), but I like them short rather than detailed). I’m struggling with sculptures (perhaps because a sculpture is rarely abstract though nowadays ok it’s possible and I like these more), but admire a beautiful or original building. Does Cinema come into that? I think as far as senses go it combines both hearing and vision. And much more. So the relationship is a little more complex, because a film has a plot, it can be a pure exercice in style (without much care for the plot) and well, this page is not really going anywhere hear, but let us say I think there are many more arts (official or not) that appeal to the ‘vision’ sense. I’ll come back to it later, but is cuisine an art? It does appeal to many senses, and especially these days definitely to the visual sense even if it’s not the main aim there.
-Smell. Now while hearing (music) and seeing (paintings) are senses that are easy to naturally associate with an art, we’re reaching the senses that have no such association historically. Also, just occurs to me in relation with the senses, they can obviously come in negative and positive experiences. There are such things as dissonance, ugliness and stench. But a nice smell triggers pleasure, attraction, delight and possibly anticipation. Perfumery. Is producing perfumes an art? I don’t know. But I like the smells. Well, I have a (now mostly cured) trauma linked to the (possibly fake) psychiatrist I encountered in 2002, meaning that for a while, every time I encountered anyone wearing that foul fragrance I thought ‘wanker’. Definitely one I’d never wear. I’d been offered some samples by a mate’s girlfriend (who used to work in Sephora) and thought that was nice. And so I tried several others and for a while wore a bit of fragrance now and then. Until I stopped. And then many years later, during COVID, as I found myself buying old fragrances I liked and new ones too (not a 100% success) and so regularly lightly wear something. I have my favourites, but don’t try to associate me with anything particular because I must have about 30 different ones! Actually, the first perfume back was coming a few years before, when at John’s Christmas lunch, Neil brought some Mercedes-Benz perfumes he had been working on so I got home with two bottles. Anyway, yes, smelling plays a part. And cuisine. The nice smell of a dish when it’s cooking and before you eat it. Cuisine is definitely an art.
-Taste. Now what? Obviously (or not, my style or absence of it is really rubbish, but I’m not trying) now the ONLY ‘art’ associated here is cuisine, right? Food overall, of course, the best tasting sense example comes form Proust and his madeleine. But sweet/sour, the art of cooking, you get some amazing experiences out of it. I was lucky enough to know a couple of people who worked as chefs with top chefs and in big restaurants so got to experience some of the finest cuisine. Also to be going out a few times with someone who was going to incredibly good restaurants on occasion, so I have been priviledged to taste stuff from the cuisines of Robuchon, Roux, or Savoy, among others. It’s a pleasure I haven’t had/taken in ages, but yes, it does make you realise that cuisine can be elevated to an art form when you know how to cook and combine the ingredients just right to give you an amazing tasting experience. And that’s the thing. Lots of the ingredients in themselves I would never consider eating on their(my!) own, would say ‘I don’t like that’. But in the context and with the incredible way they were prepared, everything tasted fabulous.
-Touch. Now. An underrated sense. An underused sense. And yet it’s everywhere, and it’s the sense you are the least likely to not have or lose. COVID put back into reality that you can lose your sense of smell and taste without it being necessarily a permanent disease. Blindness and deafness are well known and can occur at any time and permanently, from birth or later in life. But numbness (guessing it could be the generic sense for loss of touch?). Is it possible to lose the sense of touch with every single part of your body? I don’t know, it feels like as long as there’s an inch of surface of you that exists, then you have touch. Whether you are oversensitive or not, there is still a measure of touch possible. And yet, somehow, in this modern world, when everything is computerised, and so much is virtual, when some are trying to sell us life in the ‘metaverse’, ‘augmented “reality”‘, etc. , it seems like touch, more than any other sense, is in danger of being lost. So what’s left? We need to hug/kiss/make love/whatever, touch the ground, a flower, an animal, touch each other, and feel we exist. Some of our cultures (especially in the West and North) are maybe more distant (getting less now? the world seems to be torn apart more than ever between extremes) in that respect, but it’s something we will always need a measure off, lest we become creatures without contact (hell even paying is contactless now…) and like the inhabitants of Solaria in the Asimov book. So at the end of the day, maybe there is an art linked with touch. It’s the art of being a human being.