Human beings live surrounded mostly by sound and image. We hear, and we see. In fact, around 85% of human perception relies on vision, which means that most of the knowledge our brain has to process (in its own remarkable way) comes through what we see.
In other words, what we “feed” the brain are images. The important question then becomes: what kind of images are we offering it?
Ideally, we should provide the brain with images that are good, beautiful, and true. Otherwise:
- If the images are not good, the brain will be forced to organize poor or harmful knowledge.
- If the images are not beautiful, it will waste its energy arranging what is ugly.
- If the images are not true, it will operate on falsehoods.
And then comes the sublime—as Kant described it—something that goes beyond the capacities of human knowledge. The sublime should act like “salt in food”: not overwhelming, but essential, giving depth and resonance to experience.
This perspective is a shift: not looking at art from the standpoint of aesthetics or neuroscience, but rather from life itself. The question is no longer art or life? but perhaps art and life? life and art? Or even better: life with art.