Ambivalent? Well, yes and no . . .
You cannot get any clarity by looking from a singular perspective.
Our Tour has started millions of years ago
One of our strengths, developed over million of years of evolution, is our ability to recognize familiar forms. We are especially good at recognizing faces. There is even a special part of our brain that mainly copes with faces. No matter how we see a face, even part of it, be it upside down, in strange light, distorted in a grimace, we are able to recognize it. Likewise for patterns we know, or think to know. And there lies the surprise. Ever walked in a dark forest and saw an animal further down, only to find out when closer, that it's an old tree stump or pile of something. We are hungry for the familiar, eager for meaning. We often need to make a very fast decision, our live may depend on it. One time the wrong interpretation of what we see, and the whistle is blown. No second chance. But we don't need that ability all the time.
Loitering through a museum
When spending an afternoon in a museum, looking at art, we are not in danger and can take our time to interpret what we look at. We can see one thing, but after a while we might see in a different way. Some forms of art leave more space for different interpretations than others. Maybe that's why Abstract Art seems harder for some people to swallow. Too many interpretations? No road map?
Follow me to part 2 of the Look & See tour.