the mundane commute. you make your way down the escalators, into the train carriages, you transfer down long, fluorescent-lit hallways, you shuffle step by step in throngs of people queuing for the narrow stairwells, you pass musicians and, most likely, you don't stop to give them money, much less stop and pay any more than a moment's worth of attention to what they're playing.
The Washington Post just published a fantastic piece by Gene Weingarten on what you're potentially missing on your daily commute. They teamed up with Joshua Bell, the most celebrated and talented contemporary violinist, and to do an expose-type mission. They had Bell play his 18th century violin in a D.C. train station and they planted cameras and journalists to see what would happen.
The results are fairly chilling, i got goosebumps just watching the video. Less than a handful out of over a thousand commuters stop to listen to him deftly playing some of the most emotional and technically challenging compositions in the history of music, and he makes less than $40 in an hour of playing. Bell sells out massive European tours, but reported feeling embarrassed and awkward in front of this massive crowd who didn't seem to appreciate his playing whatsoever.
It's a fascinating piece, and brings up some really interesting questions about art -- namely, that old question, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it matter? Considering Kant's theory that the conditions surrounding where you experience the art need to be "optimal," it stands to reason that a train station is quite the opposite of 'optimal' and thus the 'audience' weren't necessarily a-cultural morons but simply not prepared to properly receive -- aurally, intellectually, emotionally -- what was being offered. Hence, a painting in the National Gallery is going to garner a lot more respect, consideration, and admiration than if it were hanging in a pub up the road. So, then, does art need to come with the hifalutin status of a $100 seat at the symphony, or a world-class museum ticket, for it to be truly appreciated/recognised, for it to really be 'art'?
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3 comments:
i think a work can still be art even if it goes unappreciated/unrecognized. i think eugene aget's photos could fall into this discussion, as other artists who died poor but later on their stuff would go on to be worth a bajillion million monies.
it does help to contextualize a work though to best appreciate it, like in a concert hall or a museum, though that also leads to its own problems of exclusivity and requisite expensive, time-consuming, and not-really-practical education.
the video is strange, because clearly the violinist is not your average CTA or O'Hare fiddler. i feel like i'd have stopped and thought him anomalous, but then again, who's fully conscious on their way to or from work?
irrelevant, inconsequential, invisible.
but not out of earshot.
thank you for that fantastic post, kira!
for several years i have designed play-lists for public spaces,
made sound and music for film and television- in this line of work
the client is always concerned with an issue of what is appropriate or inappropriate.
it has always baffled me how there can be so many different opinions of perfection and place. ultimately, i suppose it is a comfort that this site specific is on such a sliding scale.
personally, i enjoy the reverberate space of a train station. i love the sound of passing music. distant, low end vibrations, frequency and harmonics bouncing around the hard walls of a thruway.
i adore the sound of air conditioning coupled with works of art in a museum
the relevance of art within a capitalist society has always been discussed.
should it be received or ignored. is it heard at all?
i believe that we are affected and transformed daily in so many ways that it is impossible to discern. we dress for it or we dress for work -it's in the scheme of things.
some walk past a world class virtuoso with little regard, others may stop a second then turn and walk away.
however, in the alignment of that day, that busy instant on our way, hearing a few seconds of schubert’s ave maria might be the very underlying perfection of a day in a life whether realized or not.
it might even be attributed to another such moment of perception, a passing thought or a beautiful breeze, a smile from a love that changed or came to realize another fantastic day on the way…
that's why art exists for all human beings.
some people celebrate it in huge concert halls and in museums! some pay to celebrate and that's why virtuosos are paid huge sums of money and careers in art are made.
but art always exists whether one sees or hears or not on their way to work.
r s e
i've often been told over the years, whether i'm making art pieces or jewelry, the more you charge, the more serious a buyer takes your work. i think it's crazy, silly, stupid even...but there you have it. i think your post/this experiment proves that sad truth.
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