Dorsky

Dorsky pinpoints what I have found to be evident of great artworks regardless of media: transformative power.

"When film does this, when it subverts our absorption in the temporal and reveals the depths of our own reality, it opens us to a fuller sense of ourselves and our world."

Perhaps cinema is more visceral than other art forms because it demands a specific amount of time from the viewer as well as presenting both a visual and audio experience. Also, the combination of projected light in a dark room makes it easy for us to become enveloped in the action. Now compare this to a room of brightly lit paintings hung on white walls—it's a completely different kind of event. In the gallery or the museum setting, we are able to choose our route and hover at a piece as long was we desire. In the exhibition space, I would argue that it's more difficult to have an immersive experience; or at least, it takes a different kind of mental preparedness. With cinema or TV it can be as if we get helplessly sucked in. This sort of brainwashing can happen with religion too, but that's besides the point Dorsky is trying to make. He is more concerned with the metaphysical.

Dorsky reminds me of Joseph Campbell, who was a mythologist and quite the philosopher too. Here are some quotes:

"The object becomes aesthetically significant when it becomes metaphysically significant."

"Poets and artists who speak of the mystery are rare."

"A real artist is the one who has learned to recognize and to render the 'radiance' of all things as an epiphany or showing forth of the truth."

"What the artist must render is a living moment somehow, a living moment actually in action or an inward experience."

"One looks, looks long, and the world comes in."

Perception becomes the key player in all of this. If we are open enough to take the journey to have an experience with art, then transformation, awe, and evocation of spirit can happen; but still, the experience relies on the artwork's ability to communicate, and so it works both ways between the viewer and the artwork. As with anything, some will "get it" and some won't, but it's likely that when most get it, there's really something to it! Hurray for the Beatles!