Joined

     If you listen you will hear. " We have to go up to the building and wander round it, both inside and out" (p45) An exploration, an exploration of the symbol. We are alll limited by our thoughts, by our interpretation of art. But sometimes we transcend....this happens when we engage with art. And when this happens - our limitations - our "contingent qualities" (p44) unlock a greater dimension - we have access to the "ideal". 

      "Each and every reading will inevitably offend us in a certain sense by virtue of its contingent qualities" (p44). What he means by this is that our limitations are just that. Limitations. They hamper, they restrict. Growth is denied. He goes on to say " The process by which we liberate ourselves from such contingencies " (by taking our thoughts and liberating ourselves, opening up the symbol, taking that step.) " our contingent thoughts become more " (p44)

          REACHING THE IDEAL

        OPENING THE SYMBOL

        LIBERATING THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF THOUGHT

     The aesthetic experience is an opening flower. It depends upon how we open the symbol. We are all limited in this sense. We open only when we can. And it is this, Gadamer claims, is the degree to which we engage with the aethetic experience. With art. And this he claims is an ongoing proces.

 Roamimg.

     The art will go where it will, taking on the forms prescribed to it. Seperate from the individual but living inside him. In the wind. It is taken up where it is found - enigmatic - yet real. Ready to be incorprated into anyones world view. A ready made basis for all existence - human. Knowable to only one, inspirational to everyone

     Talking to someone is a lot like playing a game of tennis. Except we are both playing a different game, on a different court, hitting a differnt ball

     In the end all things meet up. They connect. "Unity in the work". We are that unity, our experience of every day life is that unity. The temporal nature of life is this unity. I am lead by the art but i am whole by it. How autonomous are we? How much are we influenced by the art itsself?. It is clearly our interpretation. We experience it as ourselves. 

     Transcendence. The meaning is ours. Is created by us, experienced by us, is fully ours but, like Dust (Philip Pullman) we experience. The trancendental nature of art. It's powerful nature, is a product of our manufacture, but when we experience art. What is the external nature of art? Gadamer would say it does not exist. But in another sense, the art is what unites us. The art will go where the art will go - we must follow.

     Only through art can the soul be nourished. The human element of it provides the spark sustained. Alone, the thing is theoretical, even the symbol. But with the arrival of Gadamer's "Festival" the symbol becomes alive. It has heat. Though we cannot agree upon what the Festival is, because it is completely different for everyone - the perspective or interpretation of the "Festival" is totally unique. It is undefinable. Yet when it is expressed - put out there - we give it legs. It is interpreted. The heat is felt and it becomes real in the sense that, this thing - Art - we cannot define - nor express in any meaningfull way - the concept - unexpressable - is taken by the other into his symbolic order and is alive. The human element - the Festival - HITS! The structure of which - can it be defined? Or only experienced? Live, Live for onesself

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     Intensity, a focusing of the Creative Spirit, elaberation on the symbolic, fired by the other, by the Festival. Leading, or to be lead. Life is what you make it.

     Quite literally, what we create is ourselves. We do not have complete control over this as the art leads you. Gadamer is so inspirational with his mix of intention - having a will to explore - and allowing the art to take you where it must.

     Stay posted for more....

       "Unconceptually, we fit into place"

      The world is not an objective thing. It is agreed upon by many different angles It always "is" for the viewer.