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Monday, July 28, 2003
The arts and the indispensability of man’s nature
By Blessie Rose Carpena
Art holds aesthetic values. But to simply say that art is just a source of beauty is inappropriate and deficient. Its scope is broad, its purpose and benefits are innumerable, its wonders are inconceivable, and its concept is complex and unfathomable.
To speak of the arts is a tough one for a freshman, business management student like me. But being a human endowed with senses gives even the less-talented person a grasp of the importance of its existence. This makes me speak of a complicated topic on why we should support the arts, or in a simpler and shorter statement - that art is indispensable.
With the rise of new technological innovations manifested by the revolutionized communication system and rapid industrialization, man has been able to control, manage and minimize the use of time and effort. Man creates the things that seemed to be far-fetched during the old ages of great philosophers. For during those times those things existed only in the mind. For man has made life easier and simpler than ever, I would agree that man is powerful. But my conviction would be in discord to believe that man is superior. Man’s dependence on art has been apparent ever since the first writings in history were recorded.
The discovery and revelation of our culture and birth of civilization were substantiated by the arts. Writings and images on cave walls and clay tablets of prehistoric times opened the gateway to understanding the nature and development of man. The arts through these writings in literary form and music had existed as a means for communication and expression. The arts have been a pleasure to man since time immemorial and have evolved through theatre, sculpture, painting, and even architecture.
Up to the present day, an art still serves as an avenue for communication and expression. Digging from these two, an art favors man without bounds. It does not please only the eyes or the other four senses but it reaches the soul. An art appeals to the emotion, the sole thing that makes us all human.
Through the three essentials that constitute an art - the artist, the audience, and the work of art - the art conveys different interpretations and messages that inspire, empower, and heal. It serves as an outlet to pour out emotions that are sometimes overwhelming and distracting. Moreover, the arts can be an effective channel to course information. Issues concerning human rights, health, power, and the like are better expressed artistically than theoretically.
Art is not always definite. It comes in divergent perceptions and vivification relying on the beholder’s impression and judgment of the masterpiece. This proposition of an art arouses the audience’s view that would lead them to inspiration, empowerment, healing and even action. Art fosters creativity and boosts confidence. This is better pointed out and well enunciated in an aphorism of a philosopher named Ayn Rand that “Art is the technology of the soul.”
Taking it philosophically, man as a conceptual being needs art to concretize his metaphysical view. Our human consciousness works in abstractions. We all have a view of what reality is and this is provided objectively by art. Our capacity to visualize opens for us the hope to change whatever is wrong in the present. As Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher, puts it, “We have art so that we shall not die of reality.” And another philosopher justifies that art has the power to portray the heroic or a mortal ideal. Thus, art models reality in an exceptional manner.
An artist is an activist. But heroism is not the only color in his palette. He possesses other pigments to highlight other aspects of life. He is then able to mold a better society. And looking at it optimistically, he can change life as he touches it, illuminates it, and paints it with his brush.
Man is powerful but not superior. Our ability to create and change things does not bail us out from just being creatures under nature. We can improve the living with the aid of our knowledge in modern technology but we can never alter nature for it is never under our control.
Nature and arts are the two sources of beauty. Nature is an art itself designed by the Omnipotent and Art is a Nature to man. For man has sense, as sense is the soul of art. As long as we feel, think and create, art will continue to exist. And as long as art is a nature to man, we cannot get rid of it or even alter it, and we can’t do without it. This artistic nature will surface always and only to man. And no matter how powerful we become, we cannot give our creations, even those that are almost like us such as robots, the sense and feeling to obtain this artistic sense.
So it is simple then. Art makes us human. Therefore, it is not only essential but indispensable.
(Blessie Rose Carpena is a second year BS Management student at the University of the Philippines. She is the second place winner of Arts Council of Cebu’s “Why Support the Arts” essay writing contest.)
(July 28, 2003 issue)
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