On the Purpose of Our Art
This is the (working) prologue for my upcoming book, Viewer as Protagonist.
PROLOGUE: ON THE PURPOSE OF OUR ART
Life.
It has come to the attention to many in the wedding film industry that there are two sides to our profession. Art and business. The latter has a strong appeal to both newcomers and the advanced wedding professional for its highlighting of, let’s say it outright, commercialism. The business of our profession is in exchanging their value (money) for our value (work). The art of our profession is our refined work. Sequentially put, if increased commerce is our goal, the increase of our value clearly becomes the vessel… which leads us to questioning how to refine our art.
How do we make better art? This is the question for those wanting commercial success on this career path. But what does art really mean for us? This may conjure many an idea, depending on our tastes and experiences. One could say that a wedding film with beautiful colours is good art, another may say that it is emotional intensity that makes good art, and another might say that an impeccable sound design and composition defines a good piece of art. Each of these descriptions have their merits, but can there truly be so many different definitions of good art?
Our logical minds might not like this, that the success of a business is reliant on countless subjective key performance indicators. Is it colour, sound, composition, pacing, or story arc that really makes a good wedding film? As we continue through this book, you will see that all five of these components are crucial to a healthy wedding film, a balancing act by the editor. However, again, perhaps our obsessive minds need one true answer. What is the one key descriptor of good art?
This subjective genre, whether through visual art, music, dance, photo, film (and etc.), is in many, if not all, facets of our lives. The architectural engineering of our wedding venues, the illustrative/photographic work of our websites, the painting in our chapels, the ringtones of our phones, the foxtrot choreography of a first dance. So, as wedding filmmakers, perhaps we can first explore other art forms to tackle this question. What is the key to good art?
Art as Unification
Historically, significant artworks were instrumental tools in fostering a unified social structure.
In ancient civilizations, such as ancient Egypt and Rome, art served as a testament to societal adherence and religious beliefs. Hieroglyphs in Egyptian tombs, for example, were not merely decorative but encoded the principles of Ma'at, reflecting the cultural expectation of harmony and moral integrity. Similarly, Roman art, replete with depictions of emperors and deities, was a medium to enforce the power and divinity of its rulers, cementing their authority in the public eye.*
During the Middle Ages, the church cleverly used art to communicate religious doctrines to a largely illiterate populace. Gothic cathedrals, with their awe-inspiring architecture and stained glass narratives, were not only places of worship but also visual sermons, reinforcing Christian tenets and community cohesion.* Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci, backed by patronage from powerful entities like the Medici family, intertwined religious themes with humanism, nudging society towards a more human-centric worldview.* Musically, the harmonious works of composers like Palestrina were not just beautiful to the ear, but embodiments of the societal and religious order of the time.* Community and shared spiritual experience was the aim.
In modern times, governments and political movements have often used art as propaganda – a powerful tool to unify (or manipulate) public opinion. Soviet socialist realism, for instance, glorified the proletariat for mass support of communist ideals. Conversely, contemporary art also challenges social norms, provoking critical thought and dialogue.* Street art, as exemplified by artists like Banksy, can be seen as a form of social commentary, questioning and often undermining established power structures and beliefs.* Dance movements, akin to the likes of hip-hop, have created subcultures that transcend national boundaries while creating a global community united by a shared language of movement and rhythm.*
The digital age has further expanded the canvas of art's influence on adhering to a social structure. The proliferation of social media platforms has democratized artistic expression and political movements, playing a pivotal role in uniting people around shared experiences and struggles. Digital art, often viral in nature, transcends geographical boundaries and brings global issues to the forefront while fostering a sense of global community and shared responsibility.*
Art has always been a potent tool for social unification, evolving with the times. Art not only adheres society to its present values but also acts as a catalyst for change, challenging existing norms and crafting new social paradigms.
Art as Medicine
Art, in its many forms, has long been recognized as a potent tool for emotional nutrition.
Historically, the creation and appreciation of art was inherently linked to spiritual and emotional well-being. Through ancient Greek theater, for instance, Aristotle’s concept of catharsis suggests that engagement with drama could lead to a freeing of ill emotions like pity and fear.* During the Renaissance era, the humanist movement placed renewed emphasis on the individual and the exploration of human emotions, experiences, and intellect.* This era witnessed an explosion of artistic expression in all forms - visual arts, music, literature, and theatre - which not only reflected the human condition but also provided a means for individuals to explore and reconcile their internal conflicts. The introspective works of artists like Shakespeare speak to this therapeutic aspect of art, offering both the artists and the audiences a means to confront and comprehend the human conditions of personal struggles and aspirations. Almost as if planned, these historical uses align with our modern appreciation of art as a medium for emotional release and understanding.
The advent of psychoanalysis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought a more formal recognition of the therapeutic value of art. Pioneers like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung acknowledged the role of artistic expression in accessing and understanding the subconscious mind. Jung's emphasis on the healing power of art and symbolism led to the development of art therapy as a distinct discipline. He himself engaged in artistic activities, such as drawing and painting, as a means of self-exploration and psychological healing.*
Art therapy employs creative processes to help individuals explore emotions, develop self-awareness, cope with stress, boost self-esteem, and work on social skills. As a professional field, this is found in a variety of settings, including hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, and private practice, aiding in the treatment of mental health issues, trauma, and personal growth. In the public digital space, individuals turn to creative expression using platforms like social media. This modern landscape allows for easy and personal dialogue between the artist’s iinner self and an optional support network online– facilitating a welcomed journey of self-discovery and emotional healing.*
Thus, understanding that art has continued to be a contributor to our mental well-being through history, we can deduce that there is an intrinsic value of art to our DNA. In analogue to biological evolution, if history continues to use art for our mental health, it is safe to say that good art is medicine.
What is the key?
The above two foundations of art through human history–as unification for group identity, as medicine for individual identity–can therefore lead us to an underlying use-case or descriptor. The key to good art, on every level of human perception, is the experience of life.
The purpose of art is to experience life in all its forms. If not for the unifying comprehension of the group (art as unification), nor the comprehension of the self (art as medicine), what left is there to the human condition? Nothing. The comprehensive experience of life is the purpose of life itself, and art is its vector.
Our current understanding of the brain fascinatingly illustrates this. The right hemisphere, aware of the big-picture, gestalt understanding of the forest, complements the left hemisphere’s skill as a sequential, logical analyst of the trees. The right hemisphere comprehends the whole whereas the left hemisphere apprehends the parts.* Good art is comprised of the little bits of life that are technically constructed by the left hemisphere (a la precise brushstrokes), for the right hemisphere to understand the meaning, though personally subjective, in an instant (a la the a-ha moment of seeing Starry Night’s existentialism). The brain through all its evolutionary forms, nonexclusive to humans, is life’s greatest tool to experience life itself. And the way it has evolved for us, to experience life through different forms of art, is fascinatingly perfect.
Our nervous system has evolved to feel as much as life has to offer. Our touch, our taste, our sight, our smell, our hearing. The evolution of our neurocircuitry submits a strong argument that our lives were meant to sense and feel as much as we possibly can. Currently, most of our conscious feelings can only attend to one or two sensory experiences at a time,* which is why strong scents in the classroom may tend to decrease our ability to hear clearly, or why we turn down the car volume when we need to focus our vision on a sign. So why have we not evolved to attend to all the senses at the same time?
That would be our goal– to feel it all at once. In the novel Ancient Evenings, American poet, novelist, director and screenwriter Norman Mailer tells the tale of an ancient Egyptian war general who is parting into the afterlife. Once his soul is free of the body’s limited sensory organs, this general begins to feel all his traditional senses morph into one big synesthetic sensation, feeling everything on a grander level. This fictionalized (though intriguing) depiction of a nonfictional figure overlaps well with our conclusive understanding that the aim of our souls, our lives, is to experience as much as possible. We, psychologically, crave affect. But, again, we have no accepted record of biologically evolving and improving our bodies to do this better than it has for millennia. Why? Because art has done this for us.
Art makes it easy for us to feel everything.
Beauty makes all senses
Perhaps it is in our DNA.
It is hard to argue, after all the historical uses and celebrations of good art, that our species is without an objective understanding of beauty–of good art. We have our individual preferences and aversions, of course, yet we will all share an attraction to the world in its infinite forms. If there is one note to take with you as you explore the following pages, it is that we should be helping our audiences experience more of life– if not for the potential commercial success of good art, then for the personal success of giving life experiences to ourselves. As within, so without.
The purpose of our work is to share life. To sense, to experience, to feel all that life has to offer for our audiences. This is the responsible mindset our titles bear upon our profession.
We are artists.
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References:
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2023). Egyptian art and architecture | History, Characteristics, & Facts.
World History Encyclopedia. (2023). A Brief History of Egyptian Art.
Aristotle. (n.d.). Poetics.
Burckhardt, J. (1990). The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (S.G.C. Middlemore, Trans.). Penguin Books. (Original work published 1860)
Jung, C. G. (1966). The Practice of Psychotherapy
Malchiodi, C. A. (2003). Handbook of Art Therapy. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
McGilchrist, I. (2019). The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (2nd ed.). Yale University Press.
Kahneman, D. (1973). Attention and effort. Prentice-Hall.
