Appreciation

[Rick]

Thanks Alan,

As a 21st Century man ; I have to admit; yes, I keep a fetish collection; most are found objects, stones or minerals from many different places I have been .

They all represent something special to me that (believe it or not) I believe enhance and empower my life at some subconcious level .

If they did not; I wouldn't have chosen or found them; nor they, me .



Yes, I'm crazy .

[David]

Originally Posted by Rick

Thanks Alan,

As a 21st Century man ; I have to admit; yes, I keep a fetish collection; most are found objects, stones or minerals from many different places I have been .

They all represent something special to me that (believe it or not) I believe enhance and empower my life at some subconcious level .

If they did not; I wouldn't have chosen or found them; nor they, me .



Yes, I'm crazy .

Well call be crazy as well....

[Rick]

So, what do you think ?

Are you crazy too ?

Rick

[Jussi M.]

Originally Posted by Rick

Jussi

So, what do you think ?

Are you crazy too ?

Rick

You need to ask?




Maybe it is so that the so labelled "crazy" amongst us actually are the healthiest? Anyway, I very much agree with what Mr. Bill Marsh has put forth a few posting before only that I would like to change the words "great Art" with "what we identify with enjoyment". – Why? Because I personally feel that the usual associations we get from the word "Art" exclude most of what we identify with enjoyment but not the other way around.

Stones and rocks? Sure. – I usually have one in the front pocket of my jeans. At the writing of this I have two, one in each pocket – the usual good luck stone and its more recent back up

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by Jussi M.

I would like to change the words "great Art" with "what we identify with enjoyment". – Why? Because I personally feel that the usual associations we get from the word "Art" exclude most of what we identify with enjoyment but not the other way around

Fine with me. "what we identify with enjoyment" Whatever terminology you enjoy.

I know there are certain things that fill me, deeply fill me. I have realized that these things also always have new aspects. I have had oriental carpets for many years. I have looked carefully at them for years, yet every time I look at them, and relax, I see things that I have never seen before. New designs and patterns, patterns that I enjoy.

Yet, it takes relaxing and putting aside the rush of the daily activities. That Joshua Bell was playing some of the most intricate and powerful music -- in a subway while most people blindly walked by -- does not surprise me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myq8upzJDJc
you will notice a few people who stood and listened. Some knew who he was, others heard something they enjoyed.

The majority of these people were focussed on the cares of the day, not a 'street musician looking for tips.' Yet later, I could guess, some of these same people may have bought tickets, sat down in cool darkness of the theater and were transported by the exact same music.

I have bought CDs of these pieces and his work is breathtaking. Without telling friends who he is, or who wrote the music, have played it in a relaxed atmosphere and have seen them moved to tears by the grandeur.

So, "what we identify with enjoyment". We, my wife Anne and I, have a diverse collection from many different countries, wide-ranging in scope. China, Indonesia, Philippines, Africa, India, Papua New Guinea, and others. "What is the common thread?"

Simply, we collect what we enjoy. But let me take that a little deeper we feel that it is not really the object itself that we enjoy, it is something beyond the object that gives us enjoyment. The object is a conduit.

Sometimes an overwhelming conduit! Earlier I mentioned the Stendhal Syndrome. For those not familiar, here is a definition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome

[David]

Originally Posted by Bill Marsh

Yet, it takes relaxing and putting aside the rush of the daily activities. That Joshua Bell was playing some of the most intricate and powerful music -- in a subway while most people blindly walked by -- does not surprise me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myq8upzJDJc
you will notice a few people who stood and listened. Some knew who he was, others heard something they enjoyed.

The majority of these people were focussed on the cares of the day, not a 'street musician looking for tips.' Yet later, I could guess, some of these same people may have bought tickets, sat down in cool darkness of the theater and were transported by the exact same music.

I would like to comment that the Joshua Bell example does have a few problems. First and foremost, human beings will follow their survival instincts. Mr. Bell playing in a subway during rush hour doesn't receive the attention it deserves simply because people are rushing to get to their jobs on time. On time arrival to jobs = keeping those jobs=feeding ones family. If you put Mr. Bell in Central Park on a pleasant Sunday afternoon i believe you would see a completely different reception of then music. Their have been so many times when i have had to rush past a good musician playing in the NYC subways that my ear recognized as someone worth stopping to listen to, but my schedule would not allow. It wasn't a matter of venue so much as timing. Of course i would often drop a little something in their music case on my way past if i thought them worthy, but could not stay to listen, a recognition that seems missing in this Washington subway station show.

[Jussi M.]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Jussi, the reason I included "art" along with "objects" was because I wanted people to consider things like the performing arts. I considered "enjoyment" and "satisfaction" and a few other ways of phrasing the idea I had, but when I went that way I just couldn't get away from food, sex and drugs.

OK.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes David, I agree completely.

Part of the act of appreciation is the time and place.

My original comment in post #1:-


We could argue that the concert goers are paying their hundreds of dollars for a total experience --- the atmosphere, the chance to rub shoulders with important people, the opportunity to be seen, photographed, and appear in the society pages. Maybe. But the violinist is the same --- subway : concert stage. Same man, same music. But unappreciated because of place.


I used the Josh Bell example because I believe that it is pretty well known. I've had it quoted to me in at least three different situations, and quoted to illustrate at least three different ideas. What I wanted to do was to give a simple, easily understood example to demonstrate that the act of appreciation does depend upon more than the thing being appreciated.

I keep coming back to this:-

for one reason or another art or an object can make us feel good

why?

if I read back through the posts to this thread I think I can see a common idea that has been expressed in a number of ways

I believe it is this idea that is what this thread is about.

[A. G. Maisey]

Rick, maybe we're all crazy, or maybe we're all not crazy.

We go for regular trips to places to collect rocks.

Beach rocks, river rocks, volcanic rocks. One time we went on holidays up to a gemstone area in northern NSW, and we collected so many rocks, and particularly thunder eggs, that my wife and two of the kids came home by train.

Now that's crazy.

Mate of mine took his family up to place called Mullaley. Farm holiday. The farm incorporated the site of an old gold mining village, long gone the village, but he found the old village rubbish tip and spent his holiday digging up bottles. His kids came home by train too.

Gathering these sort of things makes you feel good when you find them, and then you put them somewhere around the house, and you feel good every time you see them.

My two desk paperweights are rocks. One is a piece of water worn agate, the other is a piece of water worn bloodstone. I use them like worry beads, and they remind me of the circumstances of their finding. They make me feel good.

So whether its a fetish thing , or just a memory key, one way or another these things have a positive effect on our lives.

Crazy?

Yeah maybe.

But crazy smart.

[Rick]

Yes, mate .
I have a thousand things I have collected or found that appeal to me and bring great memories and pleasure .

Very few of these go into my fetish box .
These few that are in it, are somehow quite different from the others .

So maybe I've drifted us off topic a bit .

Funny how thin the veneer of modern enlightenment actually is sometimes...., at least in my case .
I don't think I'm alone .

Anyway, back on topic .

[A. G. Maisey]

Rick, I'm inclined to think that all of this is most definitely on topic.

My original question in Post # 1 to this thread was:-

I would welcome the thoughts of others on the link between the appreciation of art and objects and the maintenance of sanity in a world that is rapidly decreasing in size at the same time that it is equally rapidly increasing in ordinariness.

Yes, certainly we've tended to focus on art, and collecting as opposed to pure appreciation seems to have dominated the thoughts of most of us, but these last few postsare, I feel, getting close to the heart of the matter:-

for one reason or another a "thing" can make us feel good.


It might be because it stirs a memory, it might because it opens the door to the steppes of Central Asia, it might because it transports us to a beach somewhere on the other side of the world, it might be because it makes us feel safe.

Whatever the reason might be there is a link between the "thing" and something that is happening in our mind, and that link has a positive effect.

I reckon we're on topic.

[Rick]

Funny, you know; many will not show their Pusakas nor even their kerises on this site .

I would never share pictures of the contents of my fetish box .
Beside being off-topic I feel they would be diminished somehow by doing so .

Call me whatever you like .

Somehow it seems like more than appreciation; more elemental .

[A. G. Maisey]

Yeah, I reckon that's a part of it:-

things that one identifies as a part of oneself should remain unique unto oneself

I feel that its OK if we allow close friends to see and handle our keris, but I cannot bring myself to post pics of my personal pieces for the world to see.

Appreciation

Elemental.

The two ideas are probably related, and if we talk "elemental" we can move away from the purely human.

Here in Oz we have a bird called a bower bird. It builds a bower out of grasses and twigs and strips of cloth etc, in which it dances to attract a mate; this bird has an obsession with all things blue, and it decorates its bower with anything blue that it can find.

Don't tell me that bird doesn't appreciate the colour blue. A link between the blue thing and what is happening in the bird's mind, even though it might be driven by inheritance.

As for names, I used to know bloke who would say:- " you can call me anything you like --- just make sure you smile when you say ba***rd"

[Bill M]