"Solve et Coagula," Take apart and put back together. This formula is an analogy for Art. As a metaphor for problem solving using complex operations, we see many evolving sciences are described as Art forms. The Medical Arts, The Political Arts, The Martial Arts and my fave the Jovial Arts, (Yuck Yuck Yuck.) Many can say these aren't art, and in essence I would tend to agree. But Oh the creativity that goes into one of my readings is enough to tame the Devil himself, (and I do it routinely.)
Problem solved. Let's examine the problem:
Art is symptomatic of suffering.
Art is the curative medium.
All art entails an element of risk, uncertainty, exploration.
Art is preverbal.
Oh oh, I just wrote out 4 more propositional assertions. How do I go about proving this?
THE GREAT COALESCENCE ("The Truth Is Out There." For every problem there is a solution, you just have to ask the right question, {Targeted Attention.)
Let's look at the mess I've already created. Do you get it? (Eh?) Do you even believe me? (Even less likely.) I'm not interested in promoting the occult as I believe it is nothing more than antiquarian rhetoric. But what of the rhetoric? My studies into the primitive origins of religion shows that the beginnings of prehistoric language are the result of rudimentary symbolic artifice, predating what we now call language. It's a kinda radical idea, and I'm no anthropologist, but I doubt I am alone.
People have been going to their (reliable?) family doctors for as long as we have had midwives. You can't make this stuff up. So if Art is an exploration into the unknown, (this is very threatening if we are really honest with ourselves,) we must have that innate capacity for wonder, for an instinct for uncertainty, (Looking outward, looking in?) Creating Gods, Ancestor Spirits, Religions of Reverence and Rituals of Function and Necessity are hardwired into our genetic memory as People. I jokingly refer to our species as the sacred naked snow monkeys, but I mean no disrespect to my tropical brethren. We are a Religious Animal.
The secret of Art, the secret of Medicine, the secret of Statesmanship, the secret of War, It's the secret to Comedy; It's the ability to open ourselves to the possible inevitability of an eventual "Truth," opening ourselves to that which we want to know. Art is dependent on the acceptance of this emergent possibility of an answer to an unknown to which we direct our attention. In this sense anything that requires an instinct or intuitive apprehension to understand could qualify as "Aesthetic." Art requires a suspension of judgement, if you already know the answer, if you already know what's going to happen, then it's not art. There are many important crafts and useful elements of the normal processes of selection in the course of everyone's daily life that can involve choice, but these are usually a matter of practical daily living and do not require constant critical sensitivity. Art does demand a total commitment. A commitment to wanting to Know.
I would suggest that it was the necessity for an "Object" relation to things outside of our preverbal awareness of self, that made art workable. Once we could define objects as having "associated" symbolic significances, (My mother is represented by that rock over there,) the evolution of a spoken, (and written) language was not far behind. Modern philosophers like to give the preeminence of language to be the defining humanization factor that is the all and end all of sentience (human self awareness.) But I still want to assert that humans may have created self referencing "Symbols" for the "Self" in the form of artifacts, before we had actual language. I could very likely be proven wrong.
