Comparing People To Art

Yes, I'm not going barmy, today's blog is about comparing how we see people to how we perceive art. This week I visited a local art gallery. I enjoy looking at modern art - I'm more a Tate Modern man than a National Gallery man. The exhibition I viewed this week was about the life's works of a deceased German artist. I walked around the exhibition and I have to admit that I laughed at a couple of the pieces on show. I laughed because I was thinking "what is that all about? That's supposed to be art?". I really didn't get it - I didn't understand what the strange exhibits were and why they were supposed to be so fascinating.

As I was looking, in a confused manor, at one of the exhibits, a young lady employee walked over and started writing something down on a clipboard. So, using some of my new found confidence in talking to other people, I opened with a simple question - "hi, so, what are you writing down?". She replied that she was taking the temperature reading inside one of the glass-cased exhibits. Fascinating. I enquired some more and we had a chat about the exhibit (the exhibit had fat in it, sitting on a chair, and she had to ensure that the temperature didn't get too high so that the fat melted back into liquid). I then went on to talk to her several times more as she took me around the exhibits.

It was only after the young lady talked about the artist and explained some of his personality to me, that I began to see the art differently. His personality really shone through in the art on show. This got me thinking - the way that most of us look at people is exactly the same. The first impression we get of someone always comes from looks and we often don't try to see, and get to know, the personality inside before reaching our conclusion about who the person is.

This goes along with my experience of online dating so far, and why it isn't really working for me. People naturally go on their first impressions on looks and then, if they like the photo, they try to gauge, from a screen of text, what sort of person you are. As someone said to me, "Internet dating is all about cursory glances without meeting the person". When I meet someone in the flesh, I let my personality shine through and as they get to know me a bit more (if they give me the chance) then they realise I'm a nice guy. But, with online dating I'm not there infront of them to talk to them and so my personality does not come across. Text chat is such a horrible medium of communication, as there is no emotion involved. So, something you wrote to be funny can easily come across as offensive, if the person reads it a different way.

So, there we go. Today I have compared people and art.