In the reading "On Beauty and Being Just" the author Elaine Scarry details and refutes two specific political complaints about beauty. I had trouble following her argument against beauty. I have always felt that beauty isnt a bad thing and I really identified with Scarry's idea that beauty has a "two-part scaffolding". First our attention is drawn to the beautiful thing then our attention is heightened and it can be "extended" to other things. I have always felt that the art that resonates with me the most is the art that somehow heightens my attention, I feel more aware.
Simone Weil stated in the article that "at the moment we see something beautiful, we undergo a radical decentring" and requires us "to give up our imaginary position as the centre...A transformation then takes place at the very roots of our sensibility." He is saying that when we experience something beautiful it changes us, it changes our perception of ourselves and our perception of the thing.
Another interesting idea Scarry talks about is the relationship between beauty and the beholder. the first idea is that "the beholder, in response to seeing beauty, often seeks to bring new beauty into the world. Second, the beholder wishes to fill their consciousness with beauty making their internal lives more beautiful. Thirdly, Scarry offers a more interesting solution. It is that beauty is a "contract" between the beautiful thing and the perceiver. Since beautiful things heighten our consciousness they makes us feel more alive, and in return the perceiver confers on the beautiful thing the gift of being "alive".
It is an interesting space that the artist then occupies between the beautiful object and the perceiver. While we do not participate directly in the exchange of "aliveness" between perceiver and object, we facilitate that feeling through our artwork. It is interesting to think about how we can facilitate feelings of aliveness or heightened consciousness through our use of materials.
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