06 Aug The melody of Noema

When we listen to a song we like and enjoy its melody, it evokes a certain feeling in us. In phenomenology, this feeling is called “Noema,” which is an object of thought.

If we shift our focus to the individual music notes instead of the melody, the noema changes. This change occurs because our approach has shifted. It’s still the same song; we’ve lost the melody.

Noetic content is the fundamental character of our subjective experience, heavily influenced by our cognitive framework. When we engage with something, we are not encountering an objective reality but rather a reality shaped by our perceptions. In essence, we perceive what we want to perceive.

Our sensations, emotions, memories, and culture influence our perception of a piece of art. The way we perceive art is not the art itself but a reflection of our minds and the personal significance we attribute to it. If someone doesn’t understand what a piece of art means, it’s not the artist’s fault but rather an indication that the observer lacks a noetic approach to the content, a way of understanding and interpreting the art.

Noema represents the symbolic, metaphorical, and evocative dimensions that form the basis of our understanding and emotional responses.

The more we educate our perceptions, the more our perception enriches our appreciation and comprehension of music and art. Human creativity and its meaning become more alive and significant in our lives.

Artist’s Notes:

The artwork shows a woman’s profile with a bird on her head (an Egret). In the first instance, our impression of the photo is metaphoric and symbolic.

Its poetry is fleeting, however, because we then begin to intellectualize:

We investigate the parts to see how they relate to the whole.

Here, our mental attitude changes, as does the noema (mental object).

This demonstrates how our approach changes what is perceived.

The Egret catches a fish in its beak, and the animal’s noema is driven by hunger and survival.

The woman has the bird on her head (conceptually ‘on her mind’).

Around her neck is a necklace with a fish pendant made of metal segments.

This alludes to the intellectualized state of the bird and fish.