I apologise if this blog post is a little bit more unorganised or a mess but today the topic is a little more difficult for me to grasp an answer. After listening to "Rippin' the Rainbow New One" which is a podcast we are meant to respond to the prompt, "write a response about how imagination and culture may play a role in the way that we are able to perceive the world around us. Use at least one personal example. Remember that making links to real life situations is a crucial aspect of the course so feel free to give multiple examples.” This is hard to pinpoint as at first, we have to identify our own form of imagination and culture that may influence our judgement or view of the world. Sometimes, it is difficult to differentiate the aspects of life that influence you as it usually is happening subconsciously so we usually aren’t aware of it happening. However, I will try my best to delve into what has made me perceive the world the way I do.
Let’s keep into the topic of colour like the podcast for a second, everyone sees some degree of colours. Even people who are colour blind usually cannot see certain colours but can see a degree of them. Yes, we know that your blue may not be the same as my blue, your yellow could be my blue but let’s not get into that for now. We may see different colours or shades but from an education and from what we have been told is yellow or blue, we know the colours. Colours are all around us, present in nearly everything, but there is more to what we see. No matter what colour you see or if mine is different than yours, colours contain a spiritual or symbolistic property. This quality is heavily influenced by your culture or religion, artists can choose colours meticulously to convey a certain message, to evoke a reaction with the audience or simply on what is visually pleasing. It is our background which interprets the colours and tells us how to respond. Red can be a symbol of communism, good luck, passion, anger, love or danger depending on the culture or religion you are part of. Let’s say there is a room with two artworks, one is heavily washed with the colour of white while the other is enriched with black. If people from a more western background saw them, they would assume the black painting was presenting a darker scene of death or mystery while the white was pure and peaceful. However, if a person originating from a more Asian background like China, they would assume the opposition, that the black piece was purer and held prosperity while the white had a sense of morning, death and misfortune. The two people would assume different things while the artist could have just wanted to create a contrast between the works.
I can admit to this as everyone should, in Art it is very easy to push your own ideas onto a work you did not create but then again that always could be the goal of the artist. See most just want to evoke a reaction or emotion in the audience, but you always have to be aware of other perspectives that were influenced by different things than your own.
Sorry, this blog will mainly be discussing how culture and imagination develop your perspective on the world dealing with art because it’s what I have experienced the most…Well, what I personal can think of right now.
A big influence of my own perspective of the world was not from my culture but more from the ideas and concepts presented to me from an early age. I have an unusual appreciation for forms and shapes that most people would lack, I shouldn’t say "lack" because it’s not a bad thing. It is just something heavily dominating my imagination of the world around me, it doesn’t matter if you do it or not it’s just how we grew up. In my life, I grew up with two parents who were heavily artistic in their own ways. My father being a graphic designer and my mother being a florist and gardener, they both had the main thing they were captivated by like the natural world or stylistic qualities. However, they both retain an appreciation for art and the forms around us. I have been exposed to this for as long as I can remember and it has caused me to have the same views. Not only the same appreciation for art in general but the appreciation for forms which many would simply overlook. Forms around us or even us, I see the world in a more dysfunctional way as I pay an absurd amount of attention of shapes and figures. These two appreciations come hand in hand, I got into art because of my influences and found body painting because of my appreciations of form especially the human form. I tend to visualise or analyse the human body in a way because of my love for shape but also the possibility of what I could do with mediums. While others won’t even care to focus on anything like the form that much but my parent's influence has pushed me down the road of art, which lead me to analyse or appreciate shapes more than others.
I know, it is something minuscule but it is a change in perspective and imagination as many times I will look at something or someone and manipulate with qualities of them in my mind. I sound really crazy right now but I promise it’s not that weird. It is just something I have a habit if caused by my up bringing that others will not have caused by theirs which may give them traits or perspectives I lack.
