“Symbols transform us, not ideas” Carl Jung

I’ve noticed that so much of the way we perceive something depends on the box that it’s presented in. For example, if someone goes to a comedy show they say to themselves “this is comedy” and then somehow it’s funnier. Same way you go “this is therapy, he is a therapist” and then somehow it’s more therapeutic than if you just said it to your friend and he said back “I hear you, you’re okay.” Or put another way - why does a dinner taste better with white tablecloths and candles? Because we are symbolic creatures.

I really think as artists we have to lean into this and exploit it. Or at least be aware of it. When people enter That’s not to say it’s always a good thing. The poet Mark Leidner used to do this thing at poetry readings where he would start reading a poem as if it was just banter with the audience, like he was telling an actual story, never revealing that he had even started reading the poem. Here’s his explanation as to why -

“Sometimes poetry is a box we put words into so we don’t have to think about them. If you get up and say ‘This first poem is…’—whatever follows that comes inside the box. You could say anything you wanted, and at the end of the poem, even during the poem, the audience can write it off as ‘just poetry.’ If someone says ‘FUCK FUCK FUCK TITS TITS TITS’ in the context of poetry, no one bats an eye. But if someone says that outside the context of poetry, we wonder, ‘Why are they saying that? What? What are they doing? Are they crazy? Are they a threat? Who are they? What might they say next?’ “

So with art it can go either way, really. It depends on the taste people have in their mouth as they’re coming into it. They’re either primed for a transcendental experience or they’re primed to launch into a tirade about creative bullshit and how all modern art sucks. Insofar as the latter is true, we have only ourselves to blame. But largely people retain a reverence for “true art” produced by “true artists”, and leaning into this external image greatly increases the openness of the viewer and the perception of the work, assuming that the substance and depth is there to be perceived.