Philosophy
December 3rd, 2014
In the Legomenon Online Literary Journal & Magazine , K Shabi posted an interpretation of Salvador Dali's Painting 'The Persistence of Memory.' K Shabi basically wrote that Dali was painting an abstract dreamscape. This was intended to explain how time is irrelevant in dreams, therefore the clocks are melting away because they have no purpose in dream land. The picture is supposed to be a dipiction of how there is no concept of time while dreaming and that the clocks are vanishing since they are purposeless. The author writes that this is illustrating how some nights you fall asleep and then wake up thinking its about 3:00am but it is actually 8:00am and the day has begun. Shabi believes that it is impossible to keep time in your dreams and that is what this painting is an illustration of. Shabi also provides insight on the history of surrealist paintings and explains how some believe that the painting has to do with Einsteins theory of reletivity which would completely change the idea of the dream land. This would mean that the clocks represented how the old fashioned technology was withering away Post Einstein world, and how simple machines and wall clocks were primitive and eventually would vanish. This theory is consistent with the idea that Dali used ants as a symbol of decay and the ants were crawling all over one of the 4 pocket watches.
This insight provides fantastic Explanatory breadth because all parts of the Artwork are addressed except for the meaning of the desert but this could have little to no meaning and could just compliment the fact that the clocks are melting. All of the clocks are addressed and the face that the clocks are melting is also addressed. The author also talks about the white object on the ground and mentions that this landscape is in the desert, but does not explain why.
As for Explanatory Depth I believe that this author did a fantastic job because his insight gave me a very new and abstracted outlook on this painting that is actually one of my favorites. The author goes into great detail with two different theories and provides history and relates the painting to the surrealist movements and Dali's personal style and influence. The author did a fantastic job of going into detail with each aspect of the painting even being as surreal as it is.
The author has two theories that are both very insightful, yet simple. He explains them in such a way that is very easy to grasp even though surrealism is one of the hardest styles to interpret. This author captured the meaning of this painting with facts and history, and he also made it easy to follow as to avoid confusion.
As for conservatism, there really is no "modern" interpretation of this piece of artwork because artwork is subject to opinion, it is not culturally based or something that people make a general consensus about. it is debated and often disagreed upon because it is all in the eyes of the beholder.
There is Predictive Power or evidence that suggests that Dali has used ants in several other pieces to represent decay and withering away as he does in this piece with the ants crawling all over the clock that is on the wooden platform. This is consistent with his theory about Einstein and his Theory of Relativity.
The second theory that was stated about the connection of this piece of art and Einsteins theory of Relativity is the best interpretation of the Painting 'The Persistence of Memory'
Though it is a very complex theory it shows strength by having a great deal of explanatory breadth, depth, simplicity and also a great deal of Predictive Power which is hard to accomplish when interpreting such a surreal painting.
Therefore, The second theory is definitely the best interpretation of the painting ' The Persistence of Memory' by Salvador Dali.
-Hunter Stokes
Hunter,
ReplyDeleteI like how in this post you use The Persistence of Memory as an example and you talk abut what it means. Every one has there own opinion about including Einstien. It is true that people think how this artwork is a tAke on time past on the clocks. There is also other meanings to this artwork in there as well. FOr example the darkness and lightness on the landscape can show differnt times of day as well as the tide of the water. You did do a good job explaing this but you are correct in saying that there are a lot of meanings.
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ReplyDeleteHunter,
ReplyDeleteI love this piece of art! I studied it in one of my classes in high school a couple of years ago so I was excited to see you used it in your post. I think you did a really great job at explaining each of the five elements and how they connect and support the meaning of the piece of art you chose. I think it shows you really put a lot of effort into researching and supporting your ideas which is important. However, I think you could have made your inference to the best explanation argument at the end more concise. You included paragraphs on all five on the criteria for it, so I don't think it was necessary to explain things in your inference to the best explanation argument that you previously already talked about in your other paragraphs. Your inference to the best explanation theory should be shorter and just sum up what the main points about the five elements that you talked about to support your opinion and ideas. For example, your first sentence should just say: Relativity is an interpretation of the meaning of artwork The Persistence of Memory, etc.