To Be or Not To Be Moved

Many years ago, I worked in the hospital as a peripheral vascular technician; completing studies on various veins and arteries. As a student, my favorite area of the body was the brain and the vascular system of the brain. I found the brain incredibly fascinating and mysterious. As a musician, I can attest to the physical responses to music and the feelings that accompany different pieces of music. In her book, How Art Works, Ellen Winner discusses the biological responses to music sharing that

[There] are two parts of the nervous system that are crucially involved in emotion: the brain’s limbic system and the autonomic nervous system and [music] affects both; activating all of the limbic and paralimbic structures of the brain (Winner 44).

This corresponds to what we know about the brain and how it responds to all kinds of stimuli.

There are two areas that are particularly important to consider when talking about brain response to music: (1) neurochemical, and (2) music-evoked and attachment-related emotions. First,

[intense] pleasure from music activates the release of dopamine in the brain, a neurochemical response to pleasure (Winner 44).

This positive response encourages us to want more of the same thing. This could explain why music is such an integral part of human culture. Second,

music activates the hippocampus, which is involved in music-evoked positive emotions as well as attachment-related emotions such as love, compassion, and empathy (Winner 44).

Our individual experiences associated with music contribute to the positive emotions that we feel while listening to a particular selection of music. Winner concludes that there is sufficient evidence

from brain imaging and physiological measures… that most people are indeed experiencing emotion in response to music (Winner 44).

Our brains respond to music. We can see it and feel it. The problem comes in expressing what we feel.

[Philosopher] Susanne Langer believed that the meaning we assign music [is] outside the range of language”, yet we attempt to use vocabulary to describe what we feel or what is being expressed. Winner asks:”[Are] the words we use to describe any emotional experience fully adequate (Winner 46)?

Words seem to lack the full measure of the experience. However, much research and study have gone into developing a scale by which to measure the effects of music. One of these is the Geneva Emotional Music Scale, which focuses on nine groupings of terms

intended to capture the very large numbers of nuanced emotions we can feel from music (Winner 49).

The most common types of emotions have been labeled under “aesthetic emotions” and include terms such as

feeling moved, nostalgic, enchanted, dreamy, and tender (Winner 49).

These aesthetic emotions are some of the same terms used to describe visual arts, nature, and various life events. I would include the fantasy genre in both literature and film. If music didn’t evoke a response of some kind, there would be a debate or philosophical arguments on whether it was so; as is the case with visual art.

When we look at a painting or drawing, whether abstract or representational, we are apt to comment that it is sad, joyous, tragic, conflicted, agitated, or calm… These are emotional properties that we feel we see directly, yet we know they are only metaphorically possessed by the physical picture (Winner 60).

One of the things that I found incredibly interesting about this text is how it has lined up perfectly with the information that we are discussing in the Modern Art course I am enrolled in. We have been discussing Fauvism, German Expressionism, and the Arts and Crafts Movement. For these artists, color, line, texture, and composition become the most important ways in which to express emotion. Every artist approaches their work from different perspectives. I am fascinated by the core values of Vasily Kandinsky’s work and expressing the spiritual.

Painting was a spiritual activity for Kandinsky. In his book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky writes,

Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposely, to cause vibrations in the soul.

He believed that art should not be merely representational but should strive to express spirituality and the depth of human emotion through abstraction, much like music does. This expression is translated by the spectator and the emotion is evoked by

what the spectator lives or feels while under the effects of the form and color combinations of the picture (Kandinsky quoted in the video, The Case for Abstraction).

The intention of Kandinsky and other artists like him was to evoke emotion. Maybe evening moving them to tears.

It has been suggested and argued against that the visual arts may draw deep emotion from the viewer. Winner states that

the visual arts (like all arts) can move us strongly, and there is fascinating evidence about the areas of the brain that are activated when paintings move us (Winner 77).

Winner elaborates on this idea by sharing the experiences of those who were moved to the extent of physical reactions. This phenomenon known as the Stendhal syndrome (attributed to the French novelist) is a condition characterized by the confluence of different symptoms, both physical and mental, when in the presence of a beautiful piece of art. The Florentine psychiatrist, Graziella Magherini postulated that

the Stendhal syndrome can be experienced by anyone who looks at works of art with an open mind and a desire to experience strong feelings (Winner 78).

Applying this idea it seems reasonable that individuals who visit the Mark Rothko Chapel would have profound spiritual experiences. It is designed specifically for the purpose of meditation with its open space and contrasting darkly colored paintings that line the walls of the chapel. Visitors come away having had varying experiences. The visitor’s book has some comments that support the concept that the visual arts can move the viewer to deep emotions:

“I can’t help but leave this place with terms in my eyes.”

“Was moved to tears but feel like some change in a good direction will happen.”

“My first visit moved me to tears of sadness.”

Winner shares that

many of the comments said something about the loneliness and emptiness of the paintings, reminding them of death and loss (80).

As Winner shares these ideas, I immediately think of artwork exhibited at the Norton Simon Museum. There is a wing in this museum that features floor-to-ceiling portraits. The figures are larger than life and seem to age as the oil cracks in the same disorganized fashion as the lines and creases that appear on the skin as we age. There is another wing with paintings that are much smaller, yet they are awe-inspiring. Still Life with Fruits and a Vase, painted by Jan van Kessel, is extraordinary and appealing to my senses. It is currently on view at the Norton Simon Museum along with its companion. What impresses me the most is the effect of oil paints on copper. The surface is smooth looking and the grapes and the glass look translucent. I am struck with awe and amazement and I agree with Winner when she states that "the visual arts (like all arts) can move us strongly..." (Winner 77). I may not be moved to tears by this work of art, however, I am struck with amazement. 

References:

Winner, Ellen. How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration. Oxford University Press.