What Are Aesthetic Emotions?
What Are Aesthetic Emotions?
Simply put, aesthetic emotions are what we feel while being in the presence of a work of art or artistic performance: contemplating a painting, a sculpture, listening to a concert, watching a film, or attending a theater performance. It is what “moves” us from within, astonishes us, fascinates us, and creates a deep connection with the artistic object. These emotions can be quite intense. Sometimes, they bring out tears, send shivers down our spines, or give us goosebumps. Or we burst into laughter.
It is even more intriguing that we have these emotions because aesthetic emotions, unlike emotions in everyday life, do not seem to have any practical value. To be clearer: emotions themselves always arise as a reaction to what is happening around us and serve the purpose of adapting to a given situation, preparing us for an appropriate behavioral response. For example, when we are alone in a forest and hear a sudden noise of branches breaking, fear is most likely to occur in our hearts, and that fear providing us with motivation and energy necessary to run away.
Another difference between aesthetic emotions and those in real life is that most artistic emotions have a positive valence, unlike emotions in real life where the valences are mostly negative. When we are saying about someone that is getting emotional, we don’t mean that is experiencing boundless joy. Certainly, we can empathize and experience some negative emotions in the perception of a work of art, but usually, these emotions are integrated or “solved” in one way or another, so that in the end we feel a sense of well-being or at least the sensation of having experienced something intense and profound. In fact, the ultimate flaw of a work of art is the inability to impress us in any way.
Why do we need aesthetic emotions?
As we have mentioned before, aesthetic emotions do not seem to generate an immediate benefit for us, yet we still want to experience them: we visit museums, buy artworks, attend concerts, and go to theater performances. Why are we doing this? How is this helping us?
Maybe we are doing all these things because we need “emotional education.” Emotions in everyday life occur in “real-time” and we are often not able to understand them, reflect upon them, and if they are negative emotions, think of strategies to free ourselves from them. These emotions are experienced chaotically and in a mixed manner, meaning that we often experience multiple emotions simultaneously and it is not always clear what we are feeling.
In a work of art, however, the artist deliberately creates emotions through an artistic material that we can perceive more clearly and distinctly. Moreover, the artist can provide an explanatory framework for those emotions. When are watching a film, all the elements are presented for us to understand why a character, at a certain moment, feels a particular emotion. But we often do not know the causes of our emotions; we simply experience them without understanding them.
Aesthetic emotions also serve as a model for those in real life. They possess a kind of perfection that we strive for, and our own emotions bear the imprint of the culture in which we live. Whether we like it or not, we are experiencing and expressing emotions in a certain style, directly influenced by the aesthetic emotions we have. That is why we need to be mindful about the kind of culture we “consume”, because just like there are healthier foods than others, there is also healthier art for the soul.
Wellness Through Art (Sănătate Prin Arte) has as its main purpose to provide art therapy to children (see our projects and activities page). If you feel generous and want to support our endeavour, you ca sustain us in two ways: with a small donation or, just as important, with a share on social networks (see share buttons bellow). Thank you! 🙏
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