As former Arts and Entertainment (A&E) editor for the Voice, I feel it’s my duty to express something I learned during my reign: arts and entertainment, and the consumption of them, improve both your life and the lives of others. On the surface, A&E is entertaining and fun — something to pass the time. However, if you look just a little deeper, you may realize that all A&E is the product of individuals’ artistic expression. Putting value in that artistic expression and the implicit communication of ideas involved in such expression seems only fair.
If we must consume media, why not consume something beautiful? There is value in merely perceiving some facet of art. Art makes us feel. Art makes us think. Further, art can also get us to think of nothing at all. My mind is never more empty than in the moments I’m walking out of an art museum or a concert. In this way, consuming art is a form of meditation. It involves simultaneously connecting and engaging with something and disconnecting from the outside world. Manifestations of art are artistic expressions from those around us as well as those we do not or cannot know. Pieces of art give us a picture of someone else’s world, even if we cannot understand that world and even if the artist cannot truly express their experience or point of view.
One specific example that currently speaks to me is a brand of comedy that one can view in shows such as The Eric Andre Show, Nathan for You and Da Ali G Show. These programs involve a comedian confronting unaware, everyday people with a persona meant to unsettle them in some way. There aren’t words to express the elegance of such situational comedy, so I suggest you watch these shows for yourself. A satisfying picture from my winter break: I introduced my mom, my brother and his fiancé to Nathan for You. They had no experience with the show or what it was supposed to be. My mother’s eyes, filled with dread and embarrassment, looked toward my brother, whose eyes were filled with joy and glee. I watched them watch a comedy show that I enjoyed and re-experienced it through them and their reactions to it. Consuming media, especially consuming media with others, exposes us to other perspectives of the world, both in the content of the art and in the responses it inspires in others.
Another example of the way art can affect me is by watching others produce it. From watching my friends perform at Covers to being around people who are journaling or writing, seeing art production in action is a poignant experience. By sitting in the I.S. studio of one of my studio art major friends and watching her work, surrounded by sketches, wood shavings and stacks of sculptures, I can glimpse the artistic process that will eventually lead to her final project. Creating art is a process characterized by attempting to express something (regardless of whether or not that something will be perceived). There’s something holy in such an environment. Many can connect with what I’m trying to talk about through music. Music has endless facets of artistic expression: lyrics, instrumentation, sounds, performance and associated visual art, to name a few of them. Music incites attitudes and moods in many, through both the words associated with it and the way we respond to the actual auditory phenomena it produces. There is something inexplicable yet intimately relatable in both music and other forms of art.
If you wish to connect with or get to know people, you can consume their art. This includes perspectives from different time periods, cultures, generations, genders, races, upbringings and historical contexts. Art captures, however transiently, some piece of the perfectly subjective experience each individual has. We should try to produce art, too, for others to consume, through writing, doodling, drawing, singing, sculpting, joking/playing, cooking, etc. Art is a form of communication. Let’s pay attention to it.
Mel Griffith, a Viewpoints Editor for the Voice, can be reached for comment at mgriffith16@wooster.edu