Unlocking Meaning: Signs, Symbols, Art, and Aesthetic Perception
Signs, Symbols, and Meaning
We possess the capacity to speak in a language with meaning. Language provides a set of words and grammar to form meaningful expressions. A language has meaning when the word order and grammar convey significance. Words are signs, that is, something that represents something else for someone who perceives them. The significance or relationship between the signifier and signified in conventional signs is established by agreement. Art objects become signs for humans; therefore, the world holds many meanings and signs that convey understanding.
There is another different meaning, in part apparent and in part hidden: symbols. Symbols can mean something else. The relationship of the symbol with the symbolized object is conventional, social, and culturally developed.
The Symbolic Universe
Human beings interact with the world through language and artistic expressions, which together produce a symbolic universe. This symbolic universe is a mixture of individual experiences and those transmitted socially. Language and art are two tools that help us control reality, as they assist in making sense of our environment and our experiences. Objects and experiences are expressed and called forth through symbols.
The Aesthetic Experience
Key Characteristics of Aesthetic Experience
- It transforms our vision of reality, making us see things differently, often turning the negative into positive.
- It alters the experience of time, as the emotion from something beautiful is remembered forever, lasting beyond the brief moment.
- It leads us to forget ourselves; when we create or contemplate something beautiful, we enjoy it and become absorbed, forgetting our immediate concerns.
- It is intense, but brief; the joy is short, and when it fades, reality can seem harder.
Reason, Imagination, and Culture
We are fantastic creatures, capable of anticipating what has taken place and developing new and different visions and possibilities. We must keep our faculties of knowing and imagining in good repair. Human beings react to stimuli not just immediately, but by using a symbolic system that allows us to interpret them. Our life does not proceed in a purely physical universe, but in a symbolic universe, which is shaped by myths, religion, science, and more. Reason needs fantasy, because the invention of symbols opens the path for humanity towards culture and civilization. Without reason, our situation would be similar to that of animals, and we could not communicate, as society is possible only through the exchange of signs.
Art and Human Communication
Art as a Form of Expression
Through art and nature, people capture beauty and create beautiful objects, giving form to reality. Art is the ability to feel and to symbolize reality, and it is another form of human communication. When we contemplate a landscape, we have an aesthetic experience because we are moved. The aesthetic sense enables this interpretation. This emotion is vital in character, not just conceptual. This aesthetic sense is limited, as the experience or emotion we feel only lasts a certain time.
The Aesthetic Sense
Our personality is enriched when we admire something beautiful. Beauty and the emotion we feel are made possible by the aesthetic sense. The term “aesthetic” means sensitive and refers to the ability to perceive sensations. In Catalan, we use it to refer to experiencing beauty, because beauty is a sensitive feeling.