On Aesthetic Disinterest

Disinterest and sympathetic attention to and contemplation of any object of awareness, for it’s own sake.

Can we have a disinterested aesthetic experience of art for its own sake? In response to this question there are two perspectives that can be taken, in order to engage in such experiences; the first in approaching art as a novice, with an original form of disinterest governed by the psychological disinterest that comes with pre-emptive ignorance, and the second as an amateur or expert who has `trained’ oneself to have a disinterested eye toward an artistic creation. In the first instance there can be purity in the untrained, unsocialized, non-ideologized eye, when a person has a response to the art that isn’t grounded in a moray of ideals ands history that can be associated and connected with a creation. On the other end of the spectrum, as with any mental preparatory training, we can work towards a disinterested perspective towards art that is consciously so and not pretentiously and falsely objective. This type of disinterest requires a conscientious disconnection from previous knowledge, prejudices, and normalized categorizations of the aesthetic qualities of artworks.

Not disinterest in the art, but disinterest in the social norms surrounding the art

The disinterest of the novice is a unique place of being. Without any previous experience of a form, what does one see? Without knowledge of the social accoutrements that come in the cultural package of `art pre-experience’, there is the potential for a unique aesthetic witness and interaction with a work of art. Without any training in what a high art is, or the parameters of expert facilitation of art practice, comes the innocence of direct and `unpolluted’ interaction with a creation. Though the novice may lack the training in an art practice, and is not fluent with the historical context surrounding an artist or their work, there is an austerity, integrity, and honesty that make that novice perspective advantageously disinterested. To those with knowledge and socialization regarding an art, this may seem a laughable position, in that ‘low art’ could be considered aesthetically stimulating.

This self-trained disinterest of an amateur or expert very much requires achieving a Buddhist-like detached perspective toward life—to disconnect from the attachments that we may associate with a visual experience, and give it value of its own right. If one knows too much, can one truly be divorced from previous knowledge and internalized biases about creative forms? That is why I insist that to follow…. Suggestive placement of disinterest one must train oneself to be able to do so. Perhaps multiple minds can coexist; the mind that is governed by what one knows and attached to aesthetic experiences, and the mind that will attempt to mentally separate from any predispositions to find a new spiritual experience with the art from a disinterested perspective. A new subjective position of disinterest must be practiced, and learned through repeated application, and mastery would seem elusive without such discipline, as similar with the Buddhist practice of detachment.