New Inspiration

I don't think I should be calling myself a blogger. I have been negligent to my blog as much as anyone could be. But today is a landmark day in my blogging stint, since I had the first comment posted in my blog! I had an immense feeling of gratification when I saw a comment posted and at the same time an urge spurred in me to write more.

This emotion made me muse on the topic for quite a while. I conclude that everyone who is creative in nature, has a desire to be heard, seen or felt. Irrespective of the form, this is a central strand that connects all of such people - self expression. So can an art form be thought about as a medium of expression? i.e. a language. Of course, it can be. Until now I did not say anything original. What next?

If an art form is a language, then it should be following the properties of a language.

Grammar. Syntactic and semantic correctness is essential for effective communication in a language. Do all the art forms have a well defined grammar? Some do, say for instance Bharatnatyam, but how about Baul? I have to find out. For now I will keep this as a hypothesis. Next time I experience an art form, I will have to be more attentive towards this aspect.

Almost all the art forms that we observe are either audio or visual or both. How about the languages, or art forms that appeal to other senses like touch and smell? Do we have a form that is completely based on smell? Well, we have perfumes. Do we have a language of smell? Possibly not. Can one be constructed? I can immediately see a practical difficulty. Odour or smell is the result of small particles suspended in air. It is a bit difficult to control them with precision. But that is really an implementation issue. I will have to see if I can create a workable model of olfactory language.

I think it is easier to construct a language of touch, or sensation. I know we have Brail, but Brail is in essence English, read through touching the alphabets. I am talking about a language which is solely based on touch - the alphabets will be different types of sensations. If this can be implemented, it will truly be the universal language of the human race. I will have to invest deeper thoughts into this as well, when I have more time.