Of fractals, and lions and lenses.

Unlike Merleau-Ponty, who describes “flesh” as the tissue that composes the essence of our ability to perceive a thing, Elizabeth Grosz seems to favor Deleuze and Guattaris notion of flesh, that as a developer of sensation (which is incredibly poetic).  Grosz goes on to cite Uexkull’s notion of Umwelt which describes an entities ability to perceive something as the constraining element of the environment.  From this paragraph take away the notion that perception is our window into viewing chaos.

Through a lens we are able to see.  But, the “seen” is framed by the limits of perception.  The lens, at times, constrains ‘chaos’ or permits us to see more of it than we can possibly understand.  These ways that we view chaos, or the way that the chaos comes to organize itself can be known as art (broad strokes).

But, Grosz cautions that “Art is the art of affect more than of representation” and reminds us that “all forms of creativity, or production that generates intensity, sensation or affect, music, painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, design landscape, dance, and performance” are all art.

According to Deleuze, art does not produce concepts, but it addresses some of their problems and provocations.  Grosz further states that “a work of art is…not a series of sensations that depend on either a creator…or an audience” (59).  So, perhaps art is then more like the chaos that we can frame.  Something that is- that we do not have to perceive in order for it to be (I guess the tree does make a sound).

In his biblical allegory The Magicians Nephew  C.S. Lewis outlines how the God figure (Aslan, the lion) sings the world into existence.  While theologians and scholars of evolution are often at odds, the ideas that Grosz presents regarding music (and art) are quite fascinating.  Using these ideas, I am less concerned with the notion of which came first (music or language) but in examining the richness of being, the poetic way of describing the rhythms and vibrations of the world.

The rhythms (including those experienced in the umwelt), create a reality for those that perceive it, but is a reality beyond a thing’s ability to perceive (through the lens).  This art thing, is a thing, an incredibly powerful thing that exists, and at times (and in ways) we can perceive it, but is nevertheless a taste of chaos.