Joy Prior
VAEDU 397
Sec. 001
Mark Graham
The Re-enchantment of Art
I’m a student at Brigham Young University and the other day I in the testing center I saw a new pencil sharpener. You stick your pencil into the sharpener, and when the pencil is sharp a blue light flashes on. It felt like an electronic slap in the face; not only are you going to fail your examine but you are so dumb that you cannot even tell when your own pencil is sharp. It gets worse above the pencil sharpener is a sign, when the light flashes blue your pencil is sharpened, that’s right the pencil sharpener is that cool. In short the testing center expects me to know how to statistically predict the next election, label every country in the world, but not figure out an automatic pencil sharpener. After rolling my eyes I sharpened my pencil, and sat in a plastic desk for the next two hours while I filled in the answer sheet and wrote out responses. I had just finished the book The Re-enchantment of Art, and was still thinking about beauty and art. The pencil sharpener intrigued me because I wondered how it would be received in the art world, and if inventors should think about their inventions as art or conveniences.
Gablik’s book The Re-enchantment of Art is about society returning to a sense of magic or awareness in everyday objects. The author makes the argument that art can no longer simply be about art, or simply be nice to look at. It has the power to be influence entire nations, “Community, as it is being enacted here, is the ability to touch others in ways that matter to them-to give them a voice (p. 105).” This is probably an obvious statement. There are countless paintings, statues, and drawings that have people claim to have been impacted by, but I don’t believe that is the type of art work the author is focusing on. Preschoolers even know how to draw their family house, or their best friend and them on the playground. Even just a crayon and paper can become a horizon of expression. This is not the type of enchantment I believe Gablik wants the reader to become aware of.
An enchanted piece of art work is a part of the magic that happens every day. We have art in our houses such as family pictures, blankets, and the magnets on our refrigerator. This is the art that enchants us daily. To simply be an observer of art is not enough to embrace the spiritual side of art, “The experience begins with a feeling, a sense of something that wants to materialize itself… What the world lacks today is not so much knowledge of these things of the spirit as the experience of them. Experiencing the spirit is all. To believe is okay, but a personal experience is better, a direct feeling with something (p. 44).” To become reconnected with art we must recognize that we are artist. We are all artist because we are constantly creating. Some artwork that we create daily might be how we dress, how we made our bed, the way our car exhaust fogs the clouds, or our garbage bags decorate the land fields. Our mediums vary from the traditional sense of oil and canvas, but enchanted art is not art for the sake of art.
The real question to ask ourselves is not if we are artist, but it is to ask ourselves what type of artists are we. Our art work reveals our perspectives and values. The pencil sharpener at the testing center is an art work that sales the idea if you buy me you will no longer have to worry about unsharpened pencils, because every time you sharpen your pencil it will be perfect. To simply invent or create something without reflecting on we are revealing about ourselves is foolish. I wonder if the person who invented the pencil sharpener that flashes blue when my pencil is sharp though of what their invention says about them. This art work is a part of my life; I cannot help but to consider it art, because it is a creation. If all inventors thought of themselves as artist I wonder if there would be any more automatic pencil sharpeners, but inventions would enchant and enrich our society beyond the level of simply for our convince.
Gablik, Suzi. The Re-enchantment of Art. Thames and Hudson Inc. New York, New York. 1991. Print.
