The imagery in most worship music is boring. This is because most Christians worship the Bible, and not God, and do not see a difference between representations of God and God himself. Consequently, imagery in worship music becomes rehashes of the Bible rather than anything creative or new (how many worship songs reference rising "on eagles wings"?). And, for the bible-worshippers, it might actually be considered a good thing, because to come up with something new is a violation of the idea that truth is timeless and so anything new is false. Fortunately, the writers of the bible did not see things this way, since they were constantly creating new imagery (while being intertextual and referencing previous imagery). Or, songs rehash other worship songs (how many songs have referenced Amazing Grace, for instance). Creativity is not spitting out verses from the bible. That's a not very articulate rant, but it's been on my mind for some time.
Here's a thought about facts: inasmuch as facts exist (and I'm not sure they do), facts in and of themselves are meaningless. Meaning is external to the fact (for instance, if we take it as fact that Jesus died, there is no meaning in that, we must examine the implications/interpretation of the fact to arrive at meaning). Meaning is always external rather than intrinsic and internal.
I was looking the other day at a portrait photo, and thinking about how creepy portrait photos are. I'm thinking of photos of a single person against a blank backdrop, and how the blank backdrop totally strips the event of any sort of narrative or history, and how much more I like photos that are set somewhere. Perhaps this is why I dislike flower and plant photography, too, because the close up could be of any flower anywhere, and there is nothing happening.
6 comments:
i promise i won't do your portraits.
but i liked the first rant. fight the power.
amen to the commentary on rehashing overused imagery in "worship." and amen to the SPU art department for somehow managing to stick "New Pictures" in the title of my major. (Art: with an emphasis in Illustration/New Pictures) I believe in new pictures, and I think God kinda digs creativity and making things new.
^ row row and you've already missed the point
i was thinking about this during church tonight.
and i'm only going to take portrait photos of myself with white backgrounds from now on... and send them to you.
says the man who is on top of a mountain in his picture...
I've been thinking about the first part of this post for a long time, and so far don't have any responses. I've also been thinking about the last part, because I've never heard anyone articulate a dislike of plant and flower photography. Three million teenager creators of facebook albums titled with lyrics from Counting Crows songs just died a little inside. Also, from now on, I'm only taking pictures of plants that tell a story. Dammit.
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