How can creativity be harnessed to build universal human connection?
When you think of something or someone creative, what do you think of? Do you think of art museums and famous artists and writers? Often we may visualize someone working tirelessly in their art studio to finish an oil painting, or a writer hard-at-work at their desk at 1 am. We also think of imaginative people who brought us some of the most revolutionary, original ideas that today that push the future forward, such as light, circuits, airplanes, and modern medical techniques. Chefs execute creativity in the way they create surprising, imaginative flavor combinations. Health care providers often have to think out of the box they were trained in for complex cases. Drivers often use their creativity to find a quicker or more scenic route to their destination on a map. Baristas and bartenders use their creativity
Art can be used as a medium to connect others to universal human emotions and to each other. Some call this understanding of others’ emotions ‘empathy’, and research finds that empathy can create and strengthen relationships, and bridge misunderstandings. However, empathy is not as simple as just automatically being able to feel another’s emotions. There are differences in the way we experience and perceive ours and others’ life experiences that can overshadow shared experiences and instead of empathy, our biases can turn us to indifference, disinterest, and distrust in others. Thus, although empathy is necessary for achieving connection and unity with others, finding a way to connect without the initial barriers to communication is the first piece of the puzzle. Creating, looking at, and or reading artwork that speaks to universal human emotions such as love, anger, hope, sadness, fear, confusion, anxiety, and distrust can help us relate to and understand others without the bias the human interaction is sometimes entangled with.
As an example of the impact of ‘art’ on human connection, look at the rise in utility of social media for reporting on world news, and how images are speaking more than a thousand words that we do not need to listen to feel the pain of others, and feel compelled enough to make it our own. After decades of densensitization of terrible things happening in the world, this recent awakening has woken us up to the collective trauma that we cannot ignore unless we choose to close our eyes. Trauma has historically created unity amongst those experiencing it, but at the same time it can also make us feel powerless and numb over time. Art can be used as a tool that can heal and replace emotional injuries with emotional understanding.
The Art Bridge is a platform aiming to transform the way we perceive art to speak to the universal human condition, harness the emotions that all humans feel, and to perhaps bridge understandings of cultural gaps and societal issues that impact societies today.
