What world do you live in?

Perception is the line that guides the journey of life. Even though we live in the same time and space, we each live in our own 'world'. Just as each person's face is different, the height and direction of consciousness are different for each individual. In general, the cognitive limitations of the subject do not allow us to perceive beyond the world we face. Superficial communication that simplifies concepts through language is more convenient for us. Once we become accustomed to this, we no longer expand the possibilities of cognition. In modern consumer society, even beauty is consumed without emotion through a few symbols and words. It is like a one-way street of thought.

Humans are inherently beings who constantly think and evolve. We have a desire to understand life through the process of seeing, sensing, and accepting. The world suddenly appears before individuals who desire this. The world separates from the existing and reveals the unfamiliar aspects of everything we have taken for granted. The things that move us are multi-layered and multifaceted, so they are not easily defined. Layers of meaning more than stars endlessly overlap and divide. Therefore, the world revealed to those who perceive it is potential and possibility. This is because its face continues to change with each deepening thought, discourse, and perspective.

However, unlike the infinite possibilities of understanding the world, we cannot share the feeling and the series of sensations with others because such experiences are things that cannot be explained in a few words. Perhaps this is why we face It may be the source of existential loneliness . We are islands that cannot reach, hear, or fully understand each other. So we try to overcome the limitations of language. Not content with discovering possible worlds that make sense, we try to express our own world and make it real. I think the result of that expression is what we call 'art'. It's like hands reaching out to reach each other.

In this context, art may be a tool to express what appears before an individual. Art may have once been a means of power or display in itself, but modern art no longer engages in decoration. Perhaps this is not a passing fad or trend, but an evolution that has passed a clear turning point. If art in the past was a kind of belief in beauty, modern art can be said to have become a much more pluralistic and humanistic way of thinking.

Modern art helps to expand consciousness by discovering a new world in the gap of the common sense and dull existing world. Furthermore, it seems to raise up fragmented individuals and expect each person to become a subject and find the meaning of existence. If we expand this philosophically, it seems close to the concept of expanding the self limited to the body to the mental world of cognition and thought. Almost all mental arts such as fine art, music, and literature have similar aspects, except for the way they deal with abstraction.

Vassily Kandinsky, 1923 ⁽¹⁾

On some turning points in modern art

(1)

“Painting is about drawing the spiritual. The abstract forms of painting may also be forms that exist in nature.”

Wassily Kandinsky, 1923 - Composition 8, huile sur toile, 140 cm x 201 cm, Musée Guggenheim, New York ©

In the everyday sense, painting was simply a method of drawing things that were visible to the eye. Think of a child’s drawing. They fill in the empty space with the moon and stars, and draw a symbolic mother and father. As consciousness grows over time, the child’s inner world expands. Consciousness becomes abstract, and gradually they feel the desire to draw meaning beyond phenomena. Likewise, modern painting no longer represents objects. Expression has replaced representation. Now, painting begins to subjectively reveal a possible world beyond the real world.

The art of Wassily Kandinsky ⁽¹⁾ shows the process of creating an unfamiliar world through thought. When we observe something, we have a habit of deciding what we ‘know’ as what we ‘see’. However, now I can no longer be sure what semantic layer exists in the object I am looking at. Because I have experienced the cognitive phenomenon of revealing a completely different world with just a slight change in the angle of thought. On the contrary, our doubting inner self also becomes a cross-section of a possible world. This is the expansion of the world.

The important thing here is not to interpret. Contemporary art does not require interpretation. It is not something that can be understood only by knowing something. The essence of art is in the absence of essence, that is, in diversity, as something that is not fixed. In this context, experiencing contemporary art can be an act of constantly discovering an ambiguous 'something'. It is not a beauty that has already been determined, but discovering 'something' that has meaning only to me.

(2)

Op.127: II. Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile (1825)

"It's not only hard to grasp the movement of the theme, but it's even harder to tell in which direction it's going. It's impossible to guess what's going to happen next, and it's also hard to predict what the basis of the variation is. It sounds as if the composer has recorded the ideas that came to him spontaneously. It feels like he's lost track of time and space. It seems to be declaring a new world of aesthetics."

- Jan Caeyers, 『Beethoven, A Life (2012)』

The same thing happened in the world of music. Music is an art with discipline, ^Kanon . Before it was a song and a poem, it was sacred and mysterious mathematics. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" (1722, 1740), which is considered the Old Testament of music, can be said to be the completion and praise of the world that was "discovered." Like classical painting that faithfully reproduced the beauty of the world, Bach discovered and defined the beauty of music.

The first person to challenge this absolute canon was Beethoven. He began to develop beautiful music into an expression of his inner special ideals. A significant change was detected in the String Quartet No. 11 composed in 1810. Beethoven refused to publish this piece, saying, " It is a piece for a small number of sophisticated listeners, not intended to be played in front of the public."

Beethoven, who opened up a grand musical world of another dimension for God and humanity ^{with Symphony No. 9, Chorus (1824)} , turned his gaze to his inner self only at the end of his life. Romanticism that melts the order of discipline and his contemplation on life transcending death are fully contained in his last quartet. The meaningful turning point that emerged from this is String Quartet No. 12 ⁽²⁾ .

His last string quartets were by no means easy music. Melodies were disintegrated or highly abstracted, demanding tension and effort from the listener. However, intentional dissonance and tension, abstraction and difficulty are not the only essence of Beethoven's late music. Perhaps he wanted to say that there are no limits to what can be expressed in music. This is not an art that consumes homogeneous beauty.

He was not interested in whether his contemporaries understood his music. He was only passionate about discovering and expressing his inner self. He is an artist who discovered the meaning of existence through deep contemplation of life and courageously reached out to acquire that meaning. I think this kind of non-dependent personal perspective and attitude is the basis of modern abstraction. It is the inherent characteristic of art that refuses to live in someone else's world.

Robert Musil, 1930 ©

(3)

“Why, then, aren’t we realists?” Ulrich asked himself. Neither of them was, neither he nor she: their ideas and their conduct had long left no doubt of that; but they were nihilists and activists, sometimes one and sometimes the other, whichever happened to come up.

—Robert Musil, 『Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (1930)』

It is never easy to continue to discover a world different from mine. It is possible only by breaking fixed perspectives and endlessly dividing thoughts. Some things are not well understood, some are not convincing. A subtle discomfort arises in the mind. I just want to lie down, pretending to be unable to overcome the gravity of laziness that wants to live easily and comfortably. However, many artists say that this is our evolution and joy.

Literature can be said to be a field that shows the changes of modern art in a condensed form. Unlike the classics that created catharsis through narrative and expressed beauty through rhythm, modern literature is neither clearly enjoyable nor particularly beautiful. Rather, it exhausts people with undefined ambiguity and incomprehensible confusion. Since the 18th century, Western literature has been advanced as an intellectual art, and after that, through existentialism, it entered a world of extreme difficulty.

Works like Borges' novels, which are said to contain all the elements of literature, or Roberto Musil's The Man Without Character (1930) ⁽³⁾ are difficult to understand after reading them once. In fact, reading such works is very tiring. You can only barely grasp the feeling and surrender your mind. Why on earth do such works exist?

Literature encourages 'beings' to discover something for themselves through a series of unfamiliar or intense emotions. By reading the text, we connect to the writer's unconscious mind and experience the numerous worlds revealed in the process. In order to see far ahead and accept and understand other worlds, we must go through the process of destroying and reconstructing the existing world. Literature constantly reminds us of this fact.

These spiritual arts contain an infinite world. None of them are fixed and defined. Each art simply presents its own perspective. It is our job to connect perspectives and create some meaning. The important thing is that we must discover meanings ourselves. We must discover our own world with our own power. A person who is dependent on the thoughts of others reacts honestly to that dependence. And gradually, he or she does not even realize that he or she is dependent. If this continues for a long time, he or she may eventually forget how to think for himself or herself.

Peter Zumthor, 『Bruder Klaus Kapelle (2007)』 ©

The World of Awakened Citizens

(4)

Martin Heidegger, 『Sein und Zeit (1927)』

The spirit of classical art has since expanded to new media and industries such as photography, architecture, film, and fashion. In particular, it has influenced and been varied in various ways by the highly developed social and technological fields in the process of industrialization. Now, artists must deal with abstract thinking and advanced technology at the same time. In other words, professional artists such as architects, photographers, and designers have the task of contemplating 'existence and the world' like artists of the past, while acquiring practical skills and developing methods of expression.

For example, architect Zumthor says , "If the building I envisioned is exactly in line with its place and function, I am sure that the building itself will have power even without artistic decoration." So this is the 'possible world' that Zumthor discovered. He did not get caught up in classical beauty, but rather interpreted architecture in a new way. And in order to realize his 'world', he learned countless techniques such as architectural technology, understanding of materials, and artistic balance.

This story does not remain in the studios of some elite writers. Possible worlds are given equally to everyone. In our ordinary lives, there are always opportunities for realization. Thanks to the development of technology and the rapid increase in social productivity, you can now access various knowledge at any time, easily use tools, and continue to create and innovate in your daily life. If we can meet and enjoy the countless possible worlds created in this way without prejudice, then we will no longer be a desolate island.

But no one seems to do that. We do not try to look into ourselves, and we do not make an effort to choose. Because we are thrown into the metropolis as ^geworfen beings ⁽⁴⁾ . While our self-esteem is so vulnerable to attack, modern society is a solid algorithmic machine built on agreed definitions and symbols. Society constantly gives us <information> by defining the form and method of 'stimulus and reaction'. <Information> is propagated in the media or imposed by neighbors and friends. <Information> is an order. The direction of my thoughts and actions are determined by the orders provided, and we become addicted to the convenience of 'not thinking'. Now, people start to collect <information> itself competitively rather than dreaming for themselves. It is as if they will fall behind if they do not collect information.

“There is a powerful saying by Gilles Deleuze. ‘There is no corrupt information, but information itself is corrupt.’ Heidegger also says that information means orders. Yes, everyone is gripped by the fear that they might not hear the orders. Gathering information means gathering orders. It is always tense and listening to orders. It is falling down, happily, as a subordinate of a specific person, or as a subordinate of someone who is no one but someone hidden behind the anonymity of the media.”

- Ataru Sasaki, “ Cut off the praying hands” (2012)』