What is it about art?

One of those things that my brain keeps running back to when I don't have anything else to occupy it with is, what makes good art? What is it about a song or a movie or a photo that makes us respond to it?

I was leaning towards the "element of surprise" for a long time. My theory was that we like to be surprised and we are naturally atracted to things that catch us off-guard. Plot twists in books or movies are a good example. Who wants to read a novel where everything that happens is absolutely predictable? Music is the same way. A song with big swings in dynamic range really gets our attention. Even an unexpected change in key can take a song we were already enjoying to a completely new level. Musicians tend to build patterns of notes but what engages us is the variations they take away from the pattern. Even a preacher can surprise us with a bit of insight that never occurred to us before and we walk out the church saying, "wow, that was a good sermon!"

Well, that's the way it seems to work for me anyway. Maybe I'm oversimplifying it a bit.

I've been thinking more about the role of imagination lately. Specifically, the part of a work of art that lives in the mind of the viewer. To read a book is a completely different experience from watching a movie. To some extent a black and white photo works the same way. The colors are left to the mind of the viewer. Photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson was known for his attempts to capture the "decisive moment" in his photos. By doing so he left the outcome of the moment to... your imagination.

Sometimes the artist's imagination creates the element of surprise. A good example may be when Robin Williams lands in heaven depicted as a Monet-like painting in "What Dreams May Come." It's so incredibly beautiful that for a moment you are taken aback.

So art surprises us, and it challenges our imagination. But what is the source of our emotional connection to it? Sometimes it transcends entertainment and touches us in a we actually feel.

I guess I may have accidentally stumbled on another thing I like about art, it defies you to define it.