A Small Theory of the Visible Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

A Small Theory of the Visible - Essay Example Reality, and not just the wilderness, is something that lies outside of what is practical, and can only be properly appreciated from a kind of receptivity that the artists perspective can capture. There are profound insights to be had from taking this view (Williams; Berger). Williams in a way hopes to frame the wilderness as conceptual art, as living art, or as performance art, at any rate a form of art. This is not an empty exercise in highfalutin aesthetics, or an attempt to cultivate an elevated mind. This is not empty intellectualizing, but something rooted in the way the wilderness and its experience can be made more immediate. This is not to say that framing the wilderness as art is something that has some outward economic, financial, or utilitarian function, to improve humanity. This is not it at all. In the mind of Williams this has more to do with the proper framing of the wilderness in terms of a perspective that in a way restores its sanctity, its religious essence. Art i s something that has no defined use in society, and it has the ability to jolt and to shock people into paying attention, away from their smart phones, their computers, their mundane interests, their conversations, and the business of life. Why shouldnt the wilderness be framed in the same way? There is something ultimately mysterious and indefinable about the wilderness, something that cannot be tamed and cannot be domesticated and caged in aquariums, or in natural history museums. There is something ultimately mysterious.