What does imagination represent and how does it influence the
way we perceive art? Find more about this subject in the article below!
Imagination
could be defined as the work of the mind that helps us create an
artistic product, for instance. We can examine the different
psychological reasons and resorts on which human imagination depends.
Non-musicians, for instance, who are usually less capable of perceiving a
musical piece through the same critical and analytical perspective of
musical experts, are merely capable of transposing the audio excitation
that usually translates into their minds into powerful emotions, into
visual images. Thus, we could say that non-musicians "read" music
through images, with the help of their imagination.
The ambiguous
affective excitation can be manifested as personal reverie, incapable
of adhering to the musical object. If it does adhere, it can only turn
musical fragments into images. Even while the subject is in the process
of creating his very own musically emotional sphere, it may happen for
this sphere to go beyond the audio limits. Like a powerful excitation,
it can make the individual's entire sensitivity system vibrate. This can
be called sensorial transposition, transfer, correspondence, etc.
There
is only one type of sensitivity at work in the aesthetic emotion. The
entire human spirit takes part in the creation of this kind of emotion.
There are a priori forms of the sensitive intelligence, so to say and
these are in fact the great general laws of aesthetic sensitivity. There
is also intelligence in action, the need to know things, to understand,
together with the skills of intellectually representing and stylizing
things. Imagination has the tendency to complete and go beyond the
defined aesthetic feeling. In a way, imagination proclaims the unity of
arts, beyond the peculiarities of any of these arts. Baudelaire was
perhaps right when saying that in every work of art there is a missing
part which is completed by the aesthetic subject's imagination. Each art
actually represents only one aspect and artistic moment. At their very
origin, arts get mixed in a sort of synthetic confusion, out of which
they get differentiated in order to express themselves in their
individuality and specificity.
Nonetheless, the deepest musical
contemplation can quite often result in images and also a sort of mind
poetry, images that are filled with musicality. Henri Delacroix compares
the way of perceiving music and art in general, to the religious
contemplation. He thus explains how certain mystics "find shelter" in
the Divine shadow and reject everything that is labeled as distinct and
ascertained. But there are other mystics also to which ecstasy is
translated into visions. The void of the imagination often comes from a
critical attitude, from choosing indifference and repression. Other
mystics get rid of their visions by plunging into action.
On the
other hand, there are mystics who accept and embrace their visions. They
find them useful, something that they can learn from in order to
develop spiritually. Visions can thus serve to explain the ambiguous,
confused states of mind. Thus, they are the expression of ecstasy's
utilitarian sense. At any rate, the analogy of the work of the
imagination with the process of a vision-creating into the mind of a
mystical person is quite interesting. Delacroix says that the state of
ecstasy is first and foremost a state of mind that wants to impose
itself onto the human spirit. Regardless of any elements that are
stranger to the nature of contemplation itself, visions can be regarded
as the expression of ecstasy's lyrical element. Because visions can
satisfy a mystic's deepest tendencies and spiritual desires, they are
cultivated and searched for.
Many people have the tendency to
associate music with a certain interpretation, a science, an object. We
are meant to search for meanings and intelligibility. In a chaos of
impressions, we are looking for a certain map to get oriented. And
because it does not pertain to chaos, music can direct us towards
certain clear schemes. And instead of remaining immanent to the music,
it can rise in front of the human spirit like a sort of symbol. Whether
we associated music with visuals or not, one thing is for sure: all arts
are interrelated and interconnected. And through the work of the
imagination, they can be used together to enhance our aesthetic
perception.
