After getting inspired by my sister and her partner’s work, I did some further research on the relation between our sensory nervous system and imaginations. Luckily, I found ‘The arts and the creation of mind’ by Elliot Eisner has a lot of answers to my questions.

While I and Trang both used the sense of hearing to feel the music, we are individuals who developed differently, thus our sensory system evolved differently. Cultural factors such as language, the arts, values, etc. contributed greatly to how one filter and shape the environment (Eisner 2002). According to Eisner (2002, p. 4), ‘the arts have an important role to play in refining our sensory system and cultivating our imaginative abilities. Indeed, the arts provide a kind of permission to pursue qualitative experience in a particularly focused way and to engage in the constructive exploration of what the imaginative process may engender’. At the same time, ideas and images can be represented and communicated through the editing of multiple art forms (Eisner 2002).

I aim to record the process of art-making to emphasize its relation to the sensory nervous system and also to visualize the distinctness in one’s sensory nervous system. I assume there are many ways to work around this idea. My first thought is to make an experimental video compiling footage of my sister painting, Minh playing the piano, and also clips in which I film to illustrate the melody. This idea could be too ambitious since Hanoi is still in lockdown. Even having a walk in my own neighborhood is currently forbidden. If I’m going forward with this idea, I will have a backup video script for when I could not leave the house.

Reference:

Eisner, EW 2002, The arts and the creation of mind, Yale University Press, New Haven, viewed 30 July 2021, <http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=188042&site=ehost-live>.