David Hockney talking about the difference between photography and painting:
...the reason you can’t look at a photograph for a long time is because there’s virtually no time in it - the imbalance between the two experiences, the first and second lookings, is too extreme.
I think you could poke holes in this, but I like the model:
- The work of art is imbued with the energy of the artist looking
- The viewer can unlock that energy by looking carefully at the work
The artist compresses their perception of the moment and the scene, then the viewer opens it back up. The unfolding does not fully recover the artist's experience -- and that's even better. The viewer interpolates in their own experience to the shape provided.