42 equals:
The
“Expression and satisfaction of the longing for transcendence is, for humans
“the meaning of life””; to be independent while coming together.
To
this I agree, but how long do we allow it to?
As the last free write ended up developing a tangential idea
from The Cave Painters this weeks
free write will cover the importance of feeling, chapter 6 of What is Art for?
Earlier in the class we had proposed that the purpose of art
is transmission and communication of ideas that are difficulty to express in
another manners; that Art works as social glue. Traits that are deemed
Universal, as art is, must be tied into an early, universally shared
experience. As such our ability to
appreciate art as a mean of empathy is developed as a child.
Bawlby contends that the propensity to attachment is an
indelible part of human nature and that it leads us latter in life to try to
find unity and a meting of the minds.
Agreeing to this point, disagreement arises with the
assortment that there is also an inherent appetitive need for the infant
and juvenile to form a close exclusive bond
with its mother or mother figure. Bawlby assumes that “ that selection would
have favored the survival of young children who have a positive attachment to one protective figure.”
Contrast this with the work of Sarah
Blaffer Hrdy. Her work puts forth that the mother is less important
then the fact that the child gets enough care to feel safe. In most of our ancestry this care
and safety was provided the mother and other clan members. Using the term Allomothers
for these caregivers, complete care during childhood can be seen in traits as
social “compliance,” respect for others, and self-control; traits that build
upon art as a behavior. The study
Hrdy used “showed no detectable
ill effects from day care only when infants had a secure relationship with
parents to begin with (which I take to mean that babies felt wanted) and only
when the day care was of high quality.” This is not the reality of our only 12
weeks of parental leave society and shift quality daycare.
So if a child feels safe in relation to all the people
caring for him or her, then they are able to develop the necessary traits to
appreciate art. If modern life
requirements do not allow this feeling of safety, the child will become
detached from their caregivers, and people as a whole.
But detached children don’t always become “lonely, socially
deprived adults” as Bowlby explains them during his description of the symptoms
of loss. “Being extremely self-centered or selfish, being oblivious to others
or lacking in conscience are probably quite adaptive traits for an individual
who is short on support from other group members.” These traits sound also
carry the ring of the modern values of a capitalistic worker; these so-called
negative traits can make detached children finically and socially successful.
Since the success of the person no longer is dependent on
the ability to bond, this trait will no longer be selected for.
Defining the evolution of art as humanities long attempt at
transcendental expression and communication, the ability to empathies and bond is key.
If Hrdy is correct, could our commercial world lead to the lost art as we know
it?
Article Mothers and Others by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy:
I actauly feel that the more evolutionary traits (previously meant for survival) that we loose, the more we are able to dedicate our energy to art. I guess what I mean is that even though the role i'd art in our society and the meaning it has in our Personal lives changes, art will still function to act as a intercultural tool for subcommunication. No matter how detatche the people of a society become or how unemotional or objective our humanity becomes, we will still use art as a means for designating humans as 'special'.
ReplyDeleteI think we'll never loose art.