{"id":13555,"date":"2023-04-08T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/?p=13555"},"modified":"2023-05-07T20:09:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T20:09:31","slug":"aesthetic-resonance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2023\/04\/08\/aesthetic-resonance\/","title":{"rendered":"aesthetic resonance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS FUCKING ESSAY. I WANT YOU TO CONSIDER YOUR AESTHETICS. BUT NO RIGHT NOW MORE IMPORTANTLY I WANT TO ACHIEVE GREATER RESONANCE WITH MYSELF. HOW DO YOU DO THAT? YOU TUNE IN TO WHAT IS RESONATE AND TUNE OUT WHAT DOESN\u2019T<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><strong>\u201cAny great art work\u2026 revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world \u2013 the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.\u201d \u2015 Leonard Bernstein<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdfe180aa-ad2d-4b1a-9a53-515376746483_2466x1756.png?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdfe180aa-ad2d-4b1a-9a53-515376746483_2466x1756.png?w=770&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>BLAH BLAH STORY: While being a little grumpy and frustrated with myself while wrangling with dozens of unfinished drafts, I happened to chance upon a video on my Twitter timeline of a musician,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/steelbeans\/\">steelbeans<\/a>, playing guitar, the drums, and singing all at the same time. A runaway human freight train of rock-n-roll oomph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was transfixed. It was exactly the catalyst I needed to get myself together (to write this particular essay, which is now flowing out of me without much effort on my part). I found myself struck with the sense, wow, look at this guy being maximally himself! He\u2019s in tune. He\u2019s aesthetically resonant. He\u2019s embodying for himself the spirit that I\u2019ve sometimes communed with, and felt disconnected from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019m not usually a \u201crepost from TikTok\u201d guy but hot damn Jesus fuck <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cXRCl2uY1h\">pic.twitter.com\/cXRCl2uY1h<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Greg Parody Account (@How2Drink) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/How2Drink\/status\/1575885810640920579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 30, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you impressed? It occurs to me that not everybody might like it. Some might find his style too noisy and chaotic for their taste, which is completely understandable. Even so, the question I\u2019d have for people is, \u201cCan you see how, even if this is not&nbsp;<em>your<\/em>&nbsp;particular cup of tea, it is exceedingly good at what it is being?\u201d And that question tends to conveniently sort people into \u201cmy kinda people\u201d and not \u2013&nbsp;<strong>can you appreciate the aesthetic force of something that isn\u2019t to your liking?<\/strong>&nbsp;I don\u2019t have to like horror movies to know that some particular horror movie is a very good movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now here\u2019s an example of a different musician, Dimitris Loizos. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@dimitris_loiz\">TikTok<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dimitris_loiz\/\">Instagram<\/a>) He has a completely different vibe \u2013 tender, soulful, nuanced, with really delicious phrasing. There\u2019s an elegant simplicity to what he does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019m obsessed with this guy I just found on tiktok who has lovely guitar tone and\/but his playing seems to be only just *slightly* out of my comfort zone in terms of complexity, ie I\u2019m going to be copying everything he does lol <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3VOv2a1bCv\">pic.twitter.com\/3VOv2a1bCv<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1493826444308271105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 16, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I enjoy both of these musicians deeply, thoroughly. I love them and want to see them flourish. I\u2019m so grateful that I live in a world where such artists exist, and I get to witness them, appreciate them, learn from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I\u2019m feeling petty I might also half-jokingly say that I hate them! I hate how beautiful they are, and how their radical acceptance of what is happening in the moment reminds me of the degree to which I am not doing the same. And here I believe I get a brief glimpse through a window into the lives of people who are overtly hateful towards the creative spirit \u2013 what is a playful self-admonishment for me, is loathsome, corrosive. I\u2019ve received DMs from people from time to time who told me that my tweets helped them to switch out of being a hater. And, at the same time, I know that there are still people out there who find my tweets annoying, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What do I mean by that? It\u2019s a phrase I\u2019ve found myself muttering in many contexts. I know it when I see it. It\u2019s something very powerful, there\u2019s something about internal coherence, external coherence, harmony, fullness, beauty even in imperfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hutchinson Guitar Concepts makes the most beautiful guitars in the world. Art. He works WITH the body of the instrument, not ON it. He respects negative space. Tempo. Rhythm. Pacing. Scale. Few artists appreciate the soul of their work this well. If he did tattoos I&#39;d fly to him <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gPXmMVGqWl\">pic.twitter.com\/gPXmMVGqWl<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/929082158534221824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 10, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Witnessing somebody else embody what I perceive to be aesthetic resonance in its fullness helped to clarify for me the ways in which I have lately been failing to embody my own aesthetic in an honest, full-hearted, full-throated way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It suddenly becomes clear to me that I\u2019m trying on clothes that don\u2019t fit, living in a house that isn\u2019t mine, decorated with objects that aren\u2019t meaningful to me, it\u2019s all discordant and disharmonious and it makes me feel alien in my own skin. I WANT RESONANCE. HOW AM I TO ACHIEVE RESONANCE. WILL CLOSING TABS HELP ME ACHIEVE RESONANCE? NO, I MUST COMMIT VIOLENCE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I am always thinking about this tattoo by Manu Farranon. It is one of the most perfect things I have ever seen in my life <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/e0uPokNOwi\">pic.twitter.com\/e0uPokNOwi<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1468358180686086147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 7, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cpast a certain minimum threshold of idea\/audience fit, you have to solve for aesthetic resonance. an interesting question is, do you see aesthetics as stemming from ideas, rooted in ideas, intertwined with ideas, or separate from ideas?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDesign is how it works\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cwas talking with someone recently about how imperfect\/incomplete aesthetics encourage creativity because clearly the environment you\u2019re in is in the midst of being created. Sharing works-in-progress is a tremendous gift\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201ca bunch of aesthetics pendulum in &amp; out of fashion as signalling games by elites and elite-adjacent classes, and then the chattering classes trip up over each other trying to explain it with nuanced-sounding narratives. tho usually &#8220;ew the poors are doing it&#8221; explains most of it\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">These ads capture visually how I feel about it. Everything we see and know is a branch on a larger tree we struggle to perceive <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qARVK0TQbW\">pic.twitter.com\/qARVK0TQbW<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/918704621329063938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 13, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Talismans \u2013 THIS SHOULD BE A STANDALONE POST I THINK?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A talisman is simply a meaningful object. Wedding rings are talismans. Oscar trophies and Olympic medals are talismans. The objects have been imbued with meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PA1zc82ekz\">pic.twitter.com\/PA1zc82ekz<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1432734105502830592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 31, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Learning from others<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u201cWhen the violin repeats what the piano has just played, it cannot make the same sounds and it can only approximate the same chords. It can, however, make recognizably the same &#8220;music&#8221;, the same air. But it can do so only when it is as faithful to the self-logic of the violin as it is to the self-logic of the piano.\u201d \u2013 John Ciardi, translator of Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>I think a lot about this quote about the challenge of the translator. We are all translators. We might not necessarily be translating something from Italian to English, but we are translating what we know\u2026 into something that people can understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cThe task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man\u2019s memory. That is our duty. If we don\u2019t fulfil it, we feel unhappy. A writer or any artist has the sometimes joyful duty to transform all that into symbols. These symbols could be colors, forms or sounds. For a poet, the symbols are sounds and also words, fables, stories, poetry. The work of a poet never ends. It has nothing to do with working hours. You are continuously receiving things from the external world. These must be transformed, and eventually will be transformed. This revelation can appear anytime. A poet never rests. He\u2019s always working, even when he dreams.\u201d \u2013 Jorge Luis Borges<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Whu5sgaCX4\">pic.twitter.com\/Whu5sgaCX4<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1432734746992275457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 31, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Man, sometimes it takes a really long time to sound like yourself.&#8221; \u2013 Miles Davis<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aesthetic resonance is aspirational and kind of a moat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wittgenstein allegedly said that ethics and aesthetics are one and the same. There\u2019s much to dig into here but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll get into it in this essay.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/wittgenstein-aesthetics\/\">Some reading here if you\u2019re curious<\/a>&nbsp;\u2013 (plato.stanford.edu)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2731<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>let\u2019s talk about artful incompleteness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My favorite thing about this charcoal drawing, shared by DrPunkNomad, is its incompleteness. I love that there are whole sections that aren\u2019t filled in. I love the contrast between the nuanced detail of shading in the woman\u2019s face, contrasted with the loose and sketchy lines of the man\u2019s. I love that the lines where her hands would be trail off to nothing. I like it more, I think, than I would\u2019ve liked it if it were complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">love to see the sketching process<br><br>(ig: manu_farrarons_tattoos) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Od1AI9qIeA\">pic.twitter.com\/Od1AI9qIeA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1468361866443247619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 7, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve noticed this to be a recurring pattern for me. There\u2019s something lively and fresh to me about the drafted lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\/\/ abandoned<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS FUCKING ESSAY. I WANT YOU TO CONSIDER YOUR AESTHETICS. BUT NO RIGHT NOW MORE IMPORTANTLY I WANT TO ACHIEVE GREATER RESONANCE WITH MYSELF. HOW DO YOU DO THAT? YOU TUNE IN TO WHAT IS RESONATE AND TUNE OUT WHAT DOESN\u2019T \u201cAny great art work\u2026&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[727],"tags":[730],"class_list":["post-13555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drafts","tag-substack"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-3wD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13556,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13555\/revisions\/13556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}