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tags:artphilosophyexpression
Question
I forget the question exactly but it was something like
What is the most important trait: knowledge, love, wealth, or expression?
I’ll explain why this has roots in me, and thinking of expression has been important since I encountered this years ago.
The first inclination I had is love/knowledge, with wealth being far below and expression somewhere between those. But thinking on it deeper I’ve come to thinking expression is paramount. All other choices, are useless without expression though I feel they would be chosen with greater frequency.
Knowledge requires exchange and communication for it to be worth anything. A single book that is read with a single other person, has a new type of value compared to a solitary read. I can have solutions to vast mysteries of life locked in me, formed in careful isolated deduction and flawless, but if I cannot express that to others, it’s deflated (what use is a “cure for cancer” if kept in me). Even expression to myself in this case, is important in building things. (I remember attempting to parse that Inter-universal Teichmüller theory paper by Shinichi Mochizuki i.e.Viewing yourself, beyond your understanding).
Love also requires expression to work. I can romantically pine all day, and warp myself but that end goal is always expression of that love. This could manifest in loving the person, or acts of love, or creating things. But it is most well served by expression.
Wealth also requires expression to manifest correctly. It can also be done weakly very easily, which might be the reason for making it a lesser choice in my eyes. Proper expression of wealth doesn’t require excessive wealth.
Keeping things in. Not expressing. This is tough.
The first person
Where do you stand, as the first person to solve something? What is your role?
Exhausting
I had privately kept a journal every day of the days events for many years.
It began in an odd way that relates to expression. What I wanted to do was to write every day into this journal, but what I would do was to not have an end in mind. I would write and not stop, no matter the difficulty. Because what I wanted to see was what would come out of me when I was exhausting myself in words. A person can express themselves. They can talk for 5 minutes about the weather. They can talk for 10 minutes about their Saturday and 15 their Sunday.
Once you’ve pushed past all of this, what is expressed? What (if anything) comes out of you when you simply do not stop. Try to write a page. Then two. Then three. Do not stop. Four. What comes out on those last pages and what are you thinking?
I realized this with friends in conversation, or our podcasts together. At some point in a three hour conversation, and the right group of people there is change. I was curious what would happen if I did this in isolation. (Maybe this should be redone, but in voice records - a captain’s log of sorts.)
Is It Necessary In Art?
All the above said, I’ll see the sentiment that art is expression often. It’ll be said that Art allows us an avenue of expression. Therapeutic qualities are emphasized.
Is it true that expression of the artist is always present in the art though? My default is to say “no” - that expression is often what is done, but not a necessary trait. But what is expressed through choice? If a human is present in the production, even the concerted effort of eschewing of expression from something you make is in some way a type of expressed act.
I think the Surrealists or art movement where chance or natural processes are involved, somewhat push us away from expression being the point but not as a rule. I have wondered this growing up. When an Artist paints, they can say this work is a piece of chance - I’ll hold the brush over the picture and let each glop hit the canvas on the floor as directed by the wind and gravity. But a very deliberate artist might handle the brush traditionally, marks against the page with intent. But still the paint is a natural process, subject to physics and chance. Each brush bristle soaks an imprecise amount of paint, their pressure against the canvas twists them in unpredicted ways, further pigments mix and dry with rules of surprise. Sure, that is the joy and it is guided by trends from the artist and decisions by the artist - but still it is as if the first artist, who just drops and gives up her work to wind and chance, is just a zoomed in version of the “precise” artist herself.
Where’s the expression?