Katie Gross

September 30, 2013

A Meshwork of Humans Seeking Art
Human beings seek to create art, simply put, to better their lives in terms of well
roundedness and fulfillment. According to Hegel, art is meant to awaken us and to
enhance aspects of our souls that allow us to explore ourselves. He says that art is meant
to vivify our emotions, our passions and our inclinations in order to fulfill the heart, to
bring it to life, or to give it life by helping it to experience life by undergoing every
possible form of emotion man is capable of.
The human heart is a powerful emotional storage system. Of course it must be
made clear the heart itself only philosophically yields emotion not literally as Hegel
seems to have breezed over without recognition. Nevertheless, the human heart is like a
filing cabinet of sedentary emotions; these emotions need stimulus; they need some
external or internal factor to call upon them so that man may experience them. Humans
seek to create art in order to self stimulate these emotions so that they can experience life
more vibrantly. The delight that comes from the creation of an original piece of art,
(imitation of nature through art also provoke delight, but in a less powerful way) arouses
passions within us that give man a sense of satisfaction or pride over their life as a whole.
The unspoken goal of mankind is to arouse every possible feeling, dragging the
heart through every possible circumstance and scenario so that it may in turn imagine and
recreate these feelings through self-expression in the form of art. Art serves as a medium
with which to let ones imagination loose; it is as if ones emotions and feelings are
trapped in the imagination, like a child trapped in the arms of the father, desperately
wanting to be set free to explore, but only safely and constructively able to do so if the
arms of the mother are there to catch the child, as art and its many mediums are there to
catch the feelings set free from the imagination. Hegel claims the end of the state or
social life of men is that every human and all of his or her capabilities and powers be
discovered, brought up, and given means of expression of all forms so that they will
naturally branch in every possible direction. The more discoveries and subsequent raising
of emotions and talents crossing over each other in every possible combination leads to
more contradiction; but, it is through these many contradictions, Hegel says, that more
counteracting emotions cross paths, thereby enhancing a new circumstance or condition
of emotion for the heart to endure. We learn from these many contradictions in that we
become more skeptical and logical; we more frequently challenge what is presented to us,
simultaneously building character and gaining wisdom, eventually acquiring a more
universal scope of things.
These many emotions that Hegel urges to be countered with one another could be
thought of like Ingolds concept of the meshwork. The meshwork is an infinite set of
lines that twist and move around each other haphazardly with no predictable pattern. Life
is the meshwork; life is a collection of loose ends that never quite fit together but are put
together nonetheless. The idea of a complete meshwork is similar to Hegels concept of
the end of the state or social life of men. He describes this as the time when all human
capacities and powers have been conditioned and carried out in every possible way; this
is an unspoken goal of mankind and is virtually unreachable but is still strived for
because it lays more lines in the meshwork. As more people explore their creative
capabilities they lay more lines in the meshwork adding infinite layers of lines which,
like added fibers to felt, make the meshwork stronger. More lines, more emotions, and
more confrontations of these emotions make life more fulfilling because they stimulate
our hearts and make additions to the meshwork that is life.
Hegel discusses three major ideas about art that are commonplace but arguable in
a sense that they are outdated or misleading. One idea he touches on is the notion that a
work of art is a product of human activity. This impression had been replaced with the
philosophy that art is now regarded as a result of a specially bestowed spirit, and is
product of talent and genius. Immanuel Kant expresses similar notions of genius but he
delves deeper into the concept that Hegel only grazes over. Kant defines genius as the
talent for producing an art with absolutely no rules, which is also completely original.
Kant goes further in saying that when the genius is activated and starts creating a work of
art, the artist has no earthly idea how the ideas are coming to him, and therefore cannot
explain how the ideas entered his mind nor teach how to replicate his work. Both Kant
and Hegel state that genius is something that is either gifted to the person or not, but this
factor cannot be controlled; it is born or unborn in the spirit and cannot be fabricated.
Both philosophers also insist that the genius must be trained in order to achieve its full
potential. Kants take on genius is that it is natural, creative, and inspirational freedom.
Hegels concept of inspiration is defined as the state in which genius is excited by an
object and can morph itself by the power of its own abrupt jump from one emotion to
another. The product of talent and genius is only apparent in a state of inspiration, as this
is the time that genius reveals itself through a work of art. It could be assumed that
another aspect of the human desire to create art, not just appreciate it could come from
ones hope to condition his or her genius or to determine if he or she was gifted one.
Arguably the presence or absence of a genius is not easily detected because it takes time
to develop skills and techniques to allow the genius to manifest itself in its true glory.
Perhaps humans seek to create art in part, or on an unconscious level, to determine if they
were gifted with a genius.
For Kant, natural beauty and the sublime are largely capable of evoking emotion
on the viewer; this idea connects to the object Hegel describes as being responsible for
the state of inspiration. Kant emphasizes form as opposed to charm; it is form that
determines whether or not an artwork possesses natural beauty. Charm includes color or
other external features that may enhance the sensation of the piece but if the charm alone
were judged, without the form, it would be incapable of natural beauty. One may be
inspired to create a work of art by his experience of Kants idea of the sublime. The
sublime is similar to natural beauty although natural beauty is with limits and the sublime
is seemingly limitless, even going beyond the form of the object. The sublime is
distinguishable from natural beauty in that it involves negative pleasure, whereas natural
beauty involves positive pleasure. Negative pleasure could be respect or awe but namely
fear; however, the experience of the sublime is corrupted when the viewer is experiencing
terror. The type of fear that the sublime allows is one similar to the manner one fears
God; in this case one knows He is fearful but is not affected by anxiety or terror at the
thought of Him. The sublime could serve as inspiration for mans creation of art but it is
nonsensical to try to create art that is sublime because the sublime is mostly encountered
in nature not in art. Humans appreciate natural beauty and the sublime and desire to
create art; but perhaps it is through Hegels concept of inspiration that the former causes
the latter; the genius becomes aroused by natural beauty or the sublime, and the result is a
channeling of creative inclinations towards a work of art.
Ingolds treatment of vital beauty ties directly in to earlier points about feelings
and relations that Hegel believes create circumstances that are pleasing to the heart. John
Ruskin, Ingold recites, explains his concept of vital beauty as a quest for new experiences
in the form of beauty or living beauty. Humans may seek to create art as a way of
searching for beauty or as a result of beauty they encountered. In going out to find
beauty, like a slug, the paths that are created by the constant pushing and pulling along
our journey overlay more lines on the meshwork, that is, they further add to the
enhancement of life. Human beings seek to be a part of the meshwork, so they attempt to
do so by creating their own work of art.
Thompsons idea of purification of the aesthetic is related in the sense that in
West African culture, ones coolness is closely related to beauty and purity. It is the goal
of citizens to achieve purity. They have much theory backed by purity including the
symbols of water and the color green. One must gain knowledge of customs and lore told
by his or her ancestors in order to achieve personal purification. Hegels ideas about the
need to present ourselves to ourselves through art relates to Thompsons idea of
purification of self, a state that is the citizens aim. The manifestation of spirit that Hegel
discusses is exemplified in this need for purification because after the necessary rituals
practiced in this specific culture, they consider this purification of spirit to be manifested
in the cool. Their achieving a purified spirit is their way of presenting themselves to
themselves. Their coolness and the forms of expression that coincide with the aesthetics
of the cool prove the success after ones spirit is purified and manifested. The desire to
create art comes after the spirit is deemed pure and the expressions of the cool can be
demonstrated. There are ways of expressing ones coolness, for example through
beautiful, exotic clothing that is thought to mirror oneself to the afterlife. Again, this idea
connects to this need to self define, or to gain understanding of our own spirit through art
or creative expression.
These philosophers pose many explanations as to why humans long to create their
own work of art. In a sense, these concepts merge together and connect in different ways,
posing a multi-sided and thorough examination of this question. Humans desire to
express themselves, they desire to explore all levels of emotions and stimulate the
feelings they were unaware of. Humans long to contribute to the meshwork that is life
and they long to fulfill their own life through constant crossings of emotions and of paths,
which manifest new circumstances that they must endure, thereby enriching their lives.
Humans desire intrigue and inspiration, self-actualization and a sense of pride. Humans
desire to not just feel something, but to feel everything, and to be inspired by everything
and to put back into the world as much as their inner self or perhaps their genius is
capable of putting back. We desire beauty, we desire experience of beauty, and we desire
to find ourselves in our own personal, unique additions to beauty and the meshwork of
the world.





Citations:

Aesthetics of The Cool:
Thompson, Robert Farris. Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music.
Pittsburgh: Periscope, 2011. Print.

Vital Beauty:
Brouwer, Joke, Arjen Mulder, and Lars Spuybroek. Vital Beauty: Reclaiming
Aesthetics in the Tangle of Technology and Nature. Rotterdam: V2 Pub., 2012. Print.

Continental Aesthetics:
Kearney, Richard, and David M. Rasmussen. Continental Aesthetics:
Romanticism to Postmodernism : An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. Print.