Something for the senses

The term aesthetics originates with the German philosopher Baumgarten. He used the term aestheike to refer to the realm of sensual experience as opposed to conceptual thought. Analysing aesthetic from the realm of senses can be a very interesting vantage point. Especially since sensual experience is far from universal. One can think of painters like Van Gogh and Gauguin who moved southwards to experience more powerful colours. But the senses also have a class character besides a meteorological one. Bourdieu's theory of classes comes in handy here: he conceived a class to be defined by three factors: 1) the actual position in social space 2) the specific experience of this space, what he termed the "class unconscious" 3) the symbolic forms through which this class unconscious is made conscious.

As I was watching Elfriede Jelinek's Babel a few weeks ago it made me think about the class character of art. The first and most obvious sign of the elite character of the performance were the numerous references to Freud. One a more subtle level was the sensual experience. It was nothing short of violent. At one point blinding lights, at another loud disharmonic music (I actually experienced physical pain during that part) and at still another a very graphical description of a date, where one partner eats the other - all told very tenderly to soft music, a perfect fusion of Eros and Thanatos, the only sign of violence being the bright red background. It was a very strong statement on desensibilisation. Now who was it intended for? First of all it demanded a contemplative analytical standpoint on life. Not only were the Oedipal motives meant to be deciphered with a view to psychoanalysis, also the violent attack on the senses was to be analysed and pleasure derived only from this contemplation, not the play itself. Still another question is, who can enjoy such a violent attack on the senses. The masochist comes to mind first, of course. But he would derive pure pleasure from the senses and not engage in the contemplation the play was meant to trigger and therefore miss the point altogether. Another answer presents itself then: the one who has spent all day in a quiet office, free from violent sensations and is well rested to suffer through the violence induced by the stage. The person working all day in a factory is well used to such violence, surely too tired of it to derive any sense of enjoyment from it and is not very likely to read Freud in his or her free time.