The Emotional Guidance System

From Fear to Joy

Do you know what one of the greatest risks to human beings is in our time?

Overcome by too many stimuli, it is that of no longer feeling anything, of sheltering from all emotions, of anaesthetising oneself for fear of being hurt. In the book “Brave New World”, Aldous Huxley describes a world in which feeling emotions is strictly forbidden, because they are believed to be a collective nuisance, an obstacle to the end of controlling society. If, despite everything, feelings surface once more, then one can always swallow some medicine called “soma”, to re-establish acceptable levels of conviviality. Yet would it really be such a desirable world? It is well known that anger, jealousy, envy, shame and fear, are disturbing feelings, however, the more we try to be rid of them the more they return. So they should just be accepted and not thought of as enemies.

The title of the exhibition THE EMOTIONAL GUIDANCE SYSTEM, hypothesizes that, just as there exists a central and peripheral nervous system, so there should be an organ, a system of emotional and intuitive guidance, a sort of sixth sense which, consciously connected to thought, would ensure alignment with the source of vital and creative energy.

Describing feelings is not easy. I like to think that the word emotion (in Italian emozione) comes from emo-azione (action) rather the action of blood (from the Greek, emo, blood), that is the movement of blood around the body, such an extraordinary movement which quickens the body and the spirit.

For what would life be without feelings and what would art be without feelings? While we change the cultural codes and the ways of accessing culture, today more than ever, technology offers the possibility to researching and experimenting with media and techniques with new instruments. I think that mankind’s need to express his inner world, has nothing to do with the more or less adequate medium. Books, novels, poetry, painting can stir strong feelings within us and words can have a greater impact than a work of digital art.

Indeed, we are confronted with a transformation of the perception and elaboration of thought. The evolution of technique may not be considered separately from that of mankind, from the way in which we see ourselves and our feelings. Of course we burst into tears during the scenes of certain films, because we feel involved, we identify with and become that character, we immerse ourselves completely in the situation and empathize with it. On the other hand, it is unlikely that such a 360 degree involvement could occur in a work of visual art. They consist in two different languages. Our approach in visual art is usually cerebral , more of the contemplative sort. We ask ourselves the meaning of this shape or of that composition, what is the message, rather than letting ourselves go to our feelings. And if a work of art does not provoke feelings, there are two reasons: either we are insensitive, or it is the work which has not succeeded in getting its message across. There are many artists, – to name but one, the video-artist Bill Viola – who have explored the phenomenon of perception through the senses and have made of feelings and sensorial language, the main way to a greater knowledge of themselves. Feelings play a key and important role in our lives. In fact, awareness expands experience when the emotional indicators, feelings, from fear to joy, are aligned with our innermost desires. Emotions have different strokes, and love, joy, freedom, are all saying that we are all one with the Universal Creative Source. Artists have always worked with more or less awareness, with the emotional scale like an energetic keyboard on which they compose words, sounds, images. And in the future, they will be confronted more and more, with the varying degrees of a new evolved perception tied to the mysteries of life and of the human condition.

Stefania Carrozzini