Jackson Pollock & Lee Krasner | Photo by Hans Namuth

Jackson Pollock & Lee Krasner | Photo by Hans Namuth

A case for going beyond words

What do you consider the best form of communication? Is it words, gestures, or something else?

For most, in day-to-day life, language would probably be considered the best medium through which to make ones feelings and intentions known. It’s hard to imagine how we’d go about ordering coffee and talking about the weather without words. That said, what about those less easily explicable concepts? We’ve all been tongue-tied at least once in our lives, struggled to express how we truly feel. And then there’s the challenge of expressing those ideas and emotions that are quite simply ineffable using language? Sometimes, when trying to describe love, grace, ecstasy (to name a couple of examples) language doesn’t seem enough.

For thousands of years humanity has endeavored to capture and communicate the ineffable through creative means – music, dance, painting, pottery etc.

We can imagine that words were not enough for Beethoven to express his romantic feelings, so he composed sonatas and symphonies; or that Picasso couldn’t quite tell you how he saw the world, so he had to show you with paint and sculpture.

Next time words fail you …. don’t get frustrated, just ask yourself: Which other medium shall I choose?

 

 

Published: April 30th, 2015

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S+ Stimulant: Quantum Fiction



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