Trust your Senses
"Today is such a time, when the project of interptreation is largely reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobiles and of heavy industry which befoul the urban atmosphere, the effusion of interpretations of art today poisons our sensibilities."
"Real art gas the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable." 1
We are meaning making machines, but at what cost? When looking at art in any form strictly for its content, could be limiting. The common conception of art, that we must look "deeper" or "behind" the direct perception to find any meaning clouds our senses to actually enjoy what we are perceiving. What if the things we perceive have its meaning and enjoyment in its whole being, obvious to the observer. What are your senses telling you right now, about the thing you are perceiving? Our instinctual taste for anything and everything is a human faculty that must be fostered, and not muddied by abstract reasoning. You know why you like something, you may not know on a "higher" or "abstract" or "enlightened" level, but the feeling alone is more than enough to justify the object of perception.
Trust your feelings and taste. Don't allow grandular theories to project and ruin your first hand experience.
Against Interpretation - Susan Sontag↩