Art and Aesthetics - Essay Example

Art and aesthetics: "The Principles of Art" by R.G Collingwood Part 2: Art as Expression The work of art is normally applied to express the feelings of an artist, those feelings that are not easy to express through word of mouth. There are many circumstances when an individual can be asked how they feel, and all they can respond to that question is by saying, “I feel…I don’t know what I feel” (109). In trying to elaborate on these feelings, which an artist cannot possibly put in words, a new channel of expressing oneself emerges in the form of art, where the artist can then express all his/her emotions well without any hindrances, like the one existing when the expression has to be done through a word of mouth (Collingwood, 110). Therefore, the definition of art proper; is the art as a means of expression, since the other aspects of art, such as art as a craft and art as a magic have no real bearing on the essence and the meaning that art has to create, if it is not applied as a means of expression (Collingwood, 105). This is because, under circumstances where art is to be defined as a craft, then it must be divided into the elements of; means and the end (Collingwood, 108). However, it is apparent that art is not divisible into the components of a means and an end, but unfortunately the various answers that have been given to responding to the question; what is art, has always suggested that it is so. Therefore, there is a need to refute the claims that are postulated by the hypothesis that art is divisible into the components of means and end, where the technical theory of art defines the component of means as arousing emotion (Collingwood, 108). This hypothesis tries to indicate that art is a means of bringing onto the fore, something that has already been determined as desirable, so that it eventually influences the way an individual feels. The factual truth about art is that it is not a means that arouses feelings and emotions, but it has some element of interacting with emotions, but what it does clearly resembles arousing emotions, but it is not arousing it (Collingwood, 108). Therefore, the real definition of art has something to do with emotions and their arousal, but clearly exists in two different ways, one being the unexpressed emotion, where an individual feels the emotions in a helpless and oppressive way, considering that such emotions are in existence, but then they have not been streamed into action so that they can be understood, rather remaining suppressed within an individual, thus sitting in as just oppressive (Collingwood, 109). The second nature of emotions is the emotions in expressed way, which then refers to the emotions that the individual has allowed to be known, and as such they are fully expressed and exploited, and they have therefore been removed from the unconscious part of the individual, into being conscious feelings, which has something to do with the way the individual is feeling the emotions. Through expressed feelings, an individual’s mind is freed of the baggage of the emotions, and thus the sense of oppression has completely vanished and the mind becomes eased and somehow lightened by the unburdening of the feelings (Collingwood, 110). This serves as the real meaning of art, and thus the response to the question what is art, can be responded to by stating that; art is a means through which an individual eases and lightens their mind, through unburdening the oppressive emotions inside them, by allowing the burden to vanish into the audience. Therefore, to express emerge as becoming conscious of an emotion, which then means it is not practically possible to apply a differentiation between means and end, when it comes to the functionality of art (Collingwood, 111). Thus, there is a need to differentiate the philosophical meaning of art and work of art, considering that it is through a work of art that the aspects of planning and execution can be differentiated, but there is completely no way of differentiating planning and execution in art, since art just expresses the emotions, and has no distinction of when it arouses such emotions, and when it therefore expresses them. The philosophical definition of a work of art is the transformation of raw materials, by imposing on it a form that has already been preconceived in the individuals mind, such that the end product is the actual form that the individual has previously intended (Collingwood, 108). However, this aspect is completely different from what the real meaning of art is; in that, in art, there is no such distinction between when the idea of the form of the espoused artwork is conceived, and when it is eventually transformed into the real form that has been espoused by the artist. Thus, what already espoused and predetermined objects represent is craft, rather than art. In reality, it is factual that art has something to do with making things, but the distinction between art and craft, which has always been confused in the art philosophy and the technical theory of art is that; while craft has everything to do with imposing a form on raw materials so that the end product is the item that had already been preconceived and meditated in the mind of an individual, art is involved in making things, but the difference is that the things made by art are not material, and the things made by art are not a function of imposing form on matter, and further, the art eventually formed is not accomplished through the application of skills (Collingwood, 109). Simply put therefore, art is an act of making things in a different way, and items that are of a different kind, which do not necessarily represent the intentions of the individual preparing the work of art, but simply a means of expressing what is within the individuals mind, through activating the suppressed feelings and emotions to become conscious, and then applying the conscious mind to unburden the mind off the burden of emotions. In this respect, art is not the mere channel through which emotions residing within an individual are simply expressed and allowed an outlet, without the involvement of the conscious mind, but rather the means through which the emotions residing within an individual can be granted a channel of being felt, in a way that even accelerates and intensifies the feelings, rather than just letting go of them (Collingwood, 115). At this point, it becomes essential then to seek the answer to the question; what is the relationship between art and emotions, considering that a real artist has something to do with emotions, but he does not arouse them. The perfect answer to this question is that; an artist expresses emotions. That having been said, the next relevant question becomes, what is expression, as far as the emotions of an artist are concerned? Expression in relation to art refers to the process by which an artist first becomes conscious of having an emotion, but then there is no telling what exactly the emotion is about (Collingwood, 110). The artist first feels either some form of perturbation or excitement, but still remains ignorant of what could be going on inside him in terms of evaluating and devising the real definition of the feeling, then he takes the step of trying to move himself away from this state of feeling the unknown, through seeking for ways to part with the helpless and the oppressive feeling, which causes excitement or perturbation, but does not go further to manifest itself to the artist (Collingwood, 110). Mostly, the most immediate way for an individual to express such an emotion is to use the word of mouth or to act in a certain way, so as to ease the burden caused in the inside of him, by the persistent existence of the oppressive emotions. After venting the emotions though such means, the individual is not completely ridded off the emotional baggage, but it has already been eased and lightened in some way, but the conscious state of mind of the individual still remains aware of the feeling (Collingwood, 112). However, the only effect of physical or verbal expression of an individual is to make others understand what exactly the individual is feeling, an aspect that is completely different from expression as an art, which goes an extra mile to completely relief the individual of the emotional burden, through expressing the emotions in such a way that the audience who he expresses the emotions to, will understand him better than he himself understand his emotional situation. Therefore, the effect of art as a means of expressing emotion is that of an individual affecting the audience much more than he himself is affected, which is similar to the analogy of the patient and physician situation, where the physician offers medicine prescription to the patient, but the end product is that “a drug is administered by one and taken by another” (Collingwood, 110). This is the real essence, and meaning of what is art. Works Cited Collingwood, R G. The Principles of Art. London: Oxford University Press, 1958. 105-125. Print. Read More