Art is Therapy

一直覺得艾倫狄波頓(Alain de Botton)真的很與眾不同，怎麼會有口條和幽默感都這麼好的哲學家，用普世的方法跟我們分享他獨特的視角，如果有看過他在TED的演講《宗教2.0-一種開放的無神論》，就知道他可以很娛樂的跟聽講的人，介紹一些很易懂的生活哲學。今天吃著晚餐搭配看的是這場生動的演講（所以這場是個簡單好懂，配飯也很輕鬆的影片），真是妙趣橫生的聽到Alain de Botton提出好多有趣的論點。

這次演講的主題跟他的新書有關，藝術的慰藉(Art is Therapy)，主題好像很難懂，但其實不然，因為他想講的只有一件事，為什麼我們需要藝術？藝術到底為什麼重要？

很多人都在討論藝術的價值(value)，藝術的表達層次(interpretation)，或是藝術概念(concept)，因為我們一直無法定義為什麼藝術(Art)存在的意義，為什麼我們需要藝術*(need)？在一個我們身處的當代社會中，這樣對藝術存在一種模糊定義的認知下，讓我們對藝術產生了一種如薄霧般的距離感，這場演講Alain de Botton從19世紀開始，從藝術逐漸進入荷蘭中產階級社會的現象作為出發點，來介紹藝術在我們生活中，到底可以扮演什麼像是知心好友的角色？

我整理了幾句我很喜歡，可以來當作Quote來收藏的句子。

9:05 "(Art), the goal of being therapeutic process, is not that you become happy all the time, but is that you become emotional mature, which means the demand of real acquaintance of tragedy: lost and grief, written in the contract of life. Therefore, the ultimate goal of being therapeutic process is a mature human being, but not a grinning idiot.(lol)"
（藝術）作為一個治療的目的，並不是要我們隨時都快樂，而是擁有情感上的成熟，也就是對悲劇的全然理解，那些被寫在人生歷程中的失去，以及悲傷。 因此，藝術作為治療過程的工具，是要讓我們成為一個成熟的個體，而不是一個只會咧嘴傻笑的白癡(笑)。

12:24 "If I say Art is instrumental, Don't panic, 'oh my god, are you from the government? Do you want ART to increase GDP?(nervous)' But it's just a tool to make you less sad. That is the function of ART."
假如我說藝術是工具性的，先不要慌張的說：「我的天啊，你是政府派來的嗎？你是說藝術可以提高國民生產總值(GDP)嗎？(笑） 但藝術只是一個工具來讓你不會那麼悲傷而已，這就是藝術的功用。」

14:11 "ART helps us to remember stuff...///....John Constable got very fascinated by the clouds, in his words, he wanted to bottle them, and then they are more ready to be accessible when you need them. His genius is to capture the fleeting phenomenas and make it permanently available...///... very skillfully bottled particular atmosphere has gotten a name. It means that we are less strange to ourselves, and we can communicate with others.
藝術幫我們記住事情。John Constable對於雲朵非常著迷，以他的話來說，他希望他能將它們裝進瓶子內，這樣一來我們更容易能隨時見到這些雲朵。他巧妙地捕捉了那些稍縱即逝的現象並將它變為永恆.....(這些情境）變成一個精巧收藏的作品，它讓我們了解我們自己，並有辦法(使用它們）與人交流自己獨有的感覺。

In art philosophy, the most initial question to art, is to question the essence of art, the existence of art, the definition of art, and the need of art in life, from the birth to the death.

In this short speech thrown by Alain de Botton, he proposed several primary answers to those fundamental questions. It is a instrument to allow us to express, to remember, to communicate, to share, and to connect to the world. It also helps us to grow, to develop, to sustain, and to leave mark to this world and to ourselves.

From the perspective of psychological analysis and historical facts and objects, he simply pointed out that art can be therapeutical to structure our modern society by comparing examples from how the art was formed in 19th century in the era of Golden Age in Dutch art. The curating concepts, museology and theoretical methodology were also transformed in vivid presentation by lyrical introduction of Alain de Botton. It gives audience a room to interpret the ideas with personal examples, and quietly leads us to understand why art stands a substantial position to our self-awareness and seek for a better, and a harmonized world to be.




(picture from martenbrante.com)