Heroes Not Zombies

There are many characteristics and features which seem to define what it is to be a human being. Language, storytelling, the use of symbols, pattern spotting, music, poetry, dance, rituals, problem solving abilities and creativity are amongst them.

But I think art has a very special place.

Deleuze described three ways of thinking – philosophy is our way of thinking concepts, science our way of describing functions and art as our way of dealing with “percepts and affects” – that is our sensations, what we perceive and what we feel.

The astonishing cave wall art found deep underground in several parts of France, and the intricate designs of the Picts and the Celts in Scotland are two of the more ancient examples I’m familiar with. But we find examples all around the world, going way, way back to the earliest traces of the human species.

There’s a creative drive in all of us, and we draw on it in very different ways……from day to day problem solving, to inventing, creating methods and technologies, to the creative expression of the varied art forms which exist.

Some of us are mainly drawn to music, others to dance, some to stories and writing, some to poems, others to the visual arts of drawing, painting, sculpture and photography. And, yes, I’ve left out several other alternatives from that list.

But whatever our preference and/or habit, I find that art attracts. We are drawn to it. We desire art. We desire and seek out the experience of art.

Art provides us with ways of engaging with, and understanding, the world which neither philosophy or science do. You know I’m a fan of “and not or” and I’m not seeking to establish a hierarchy here, but I have a feeling that we are slipping into a more utilitarian, materialistic and reduced way of living, and to restore a balance, to make life “more human” I think we need to give more time, energy, attention to art…..in education, in work and in leisure.