Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
process. As stated by Danny Coeyman (dannycoey-
man.tumblr.com/) a portrait, as a vehicle for deep
connection can witness the ways we relate and
our shared humanity. To explore this further, from
2008 the artist draws portraits of people selling him
products on the receipt tapes of these products, right
after completing a purchase: he puts ink on a receipt
tape made from sales and purchases in daily life.
We used to talk about a highly sensitive person
who has a vision about some ideas not only in rela-
tion to the faculty of seeing but also in cognitive
terms. Maybe when we describe someone's vision
as an ability to think imaginatively about future
actions or to experience a vivid mental image of
future events, we may refer to someone's sensibility
and acute responsiveness toward the environment or
other people. Strong stimuli coming from previous
disturbing or joyful events may lower the sensibility
threshold; uncontrollable emotion or even allergic
reaction may happen in response to a stimulus that
had been traumatic in the past. Some hold that one
may learn how to lower one's sensitivity threshold.
In terms of the frames of mind discussed by Howard
Gardner (1983/2011; 2006) in his study on multiple
intelligences, Gardner described some particular
abilities that require sensibility: the interpersonal
intelligence oriented toward the understanding of
other people, intrapersonal intelligence as an un-
derstanding of oneself, and naturalistic intelligence
- an apprehension of the environment. An Italian
semiotician, philosopher, and novelist Umberto
Eco (2002) proposed that human sensibility to
both beauty and ugliness has been different through
the ages. The author argued that a correspondence
between the public's tastes and artists' sensibilities
must be assumed and studied accordingly: “Every
age has its own poetic sensibility, and it would
be wrong to use the modern sensibility as a basis
for passing judgment upon the Medievals” (Eco,
2002, p. 61).
It could be worth one's while to check out how
one's personal sensitivity depends on abstract
thinking ability. A Swiss psychiatrist and analytical
psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961) wrote,
There is an abstract thinking, just as there is
abstract feeling, sensation and intuition. Ab-
stract thinking singles out the rational, logical
qualities of a given content from its intellectually
irrelevant components. Abstract feeling does the
same with a content characterized by its feeling
values; similarly with sensation and intuition.
... I put abstract feelings on the same level as
abstract thoughts. Abstract sensation would be
aesthetic as opposed to sensuous sensation and
abstract intuition would be symbolic as opposed
to fantastic intuition. (Jung, 1921/1971, p. 410,
par. 678)
Elaine Aron (2006) presented highly sensitive
individuals (existing, according to the author,
in about twenty percent of the population) in a
positive light, in contrast to previous descrip-
tions of this trait. However, being sensitive may
make somebody easily hurt because even small
signals are detectable and easily recognized by
someone with heightened sensibility. Jung, who
employed the concept of innate sensitiveness,
had believed the process of art creation might
alleviate emotional distress and feelings of
trauma by revitalizing life-enhancing energies
(Malchiodi, 2006). It doesn't mean sensitivity
is a flaw, in spite of a fact that for some people
sensitivity is considered a weakness, especially
in boys. Some boys are often trained to be in-
sensitive to be considered strong, and thus they
may develop a wide spectrum of unfriendly
attitudes toward highly sensitive people. In
many instances boys are encouraged to shoot,
hunt animals, and fish. They are trained to be
insensitive to pain coming from sport games
and competitions. Military training, especially
intelligence services and espionage training
comprise exercises focused on building insen-
sitivity to own or others' pain. Many domains
of art that require sensitivity (and sensibility)
often evoke hostile reaction and a need to deny
the meaning and value of these qualities.
