Acknowledging content
One of the things you’ll learn if you take a good “Art Appreciation” class is the difference between subject matter and content.
Subject matter is what something is on first sight.
“Flicked paint on a canvas,” or “273 seconds of silence,” or “an arbitrary medley of sentences.”
Content is everything else.
How it makes you feel. What it’s trying to convey. How every thing about it—from it’s use of materials, to it’s use of imagery, to the time and place it was made, to the artist’s intent—makes it what it is.
Of course, this applies much more than to art.
Consider baseball. To an average onlooker, it looks like any old American pastime.
But if you talk about baseball with a true fan, what they’ll talk about are the stats of the players or who’s on what team and what the rivalries are and the general spectacle of trading, selling, and buying sportsmen.
And so it's not just about watching a game of baseball. It’s about the drama of the game of baseball.
Drama that's inherent in any sport or creative medium. That's why (some) art sells so high and other art sells for very little. Or why wine can go for $2,000 a bottle even though most wine drinkers can't tell the difference in a double-blind test. Or why people continue to watch “pro” wrestling even though they know it's fake.
It stands to reason that if you don't get the joke, if you don't understand the behavior of certain people, maybe you're so hung up on the subject matter that you don't “see” the content behind it.
Evaluating something based on first impressions is easy and far less complicated, because it allows you to dismiss things (and people) that don’t make sense on first sight. But of course, just as with books, judging something by its cover is a peril. Causing you to recklessly jump to conclusions and navigate your world in monochrome.
The only way to see the big picture, get the complete metaphor, or see the depth and richness of our world is to acknowledge and seek out content. It takes more effort, sure, but the rewards are well worth it.