Of Coronavirus
It may seem like art is the farthest thing one can think of in this time of Covid-19. But art encompasses every aspect of human life – the clothes people wear, the buildings they live in, the music they listen to, the books the read, the medicines they take – these are all products of the human creative capacity. Truth is, art is actually significantly relevant to what the human race is currently going through.
Since the beginning of time, art has always been a central part of the human experience. This so-called technological age of the present calls for more innovative thinking – and art, as always, leads the way. Innovation is a creative output. But, no, not only the mainline artists are involved; all the artists in all fields of human endeavor take part.
Modern-day essentials, such as the internet, which revolutionized human thinking and the way in which people live their lives, were thought up by creative thinkers. In fact, many of the theories of science, which is the “study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment,” have been investigated and then proven because of the human capacity for creative imagination. Creativity is an innate human facility.
Humans are natural artists, although in various individual ways. Every day everyone is confronted with various situations that require thinking imaginatively to come up with explanations or solutions. It’s the same creative thinking that’s being done by those that launch rocket ships and those in the forefront of the ongoing battle against coronavirus.
The great figures of science like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were no lesser artists than Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Those legendary scientists reached scientific breakthroughs because they were creative – they possessed the innate ability to “think outside the box.” The same was true with celebrated military geniuses from Alexander the Great to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Art is in the human DNA. Human beings could not have moved out of caves and onto skyscrapers without their sense of art. Proofs of the human artistic capacity are all around – from the Palaeolithic cave drawings in Lascaux, France to the early tools and pottery of native peoples, to the great Egyptian pyramids, to the mind-boggling modern technology. Art has always been intertwined with human existence.
On the practical side, since art – as everybody knows it – is basically about communication, it can very well help lighten up the situation in case of community quarantine or total lockdown. It is a positive way to beat the isolation and boredom for individuals to engage in something that connects with their emotions and thoughts. It is a means for self-expression.
Conversely, the others who have access to the resulting art works may get engaged by trying to interpret what those works try to express. Here it becomes more interesting. People interpret art as differently as their individual fingerprints.
Each person has his own view on art. Each one has his personal likes and dislikes, his own personal taste. Two people standing before the same painting may see it in two different ways, because it connects with something unique within each one.
Whether it’s a book, a song, a poem etc., everyone experiences an art work in a very personal way. It is directly connected to what one may know and feel, or to what one may figure out beyond what he knows and feels. One puts his own meaning to the art that confronts him.
The same reaction to an art work can be said of one’s reaction to the present coronavirus threat. The seriousness of the situation grabs people’s attention. And people react in their own individual ways – some are worried; others are scared. And like seeing a painting that one doesn’t like, one tries to find a way to avoid it.