In 2012, I graduated from my small, liberal arts college with majors in art history and humanistic studies. After that time, I spent a couple of months unemployed, and then a couple of months underemployed before I began working full time at a bank—where many would argue I would have been better off getting a degree in something (anything!) besides art. However, I use my art history degree, specifically what I learned from studying performance art, everyday to help me address often difficult human and interpersonal problems with simple questions.
As an art history major, I was accustomed to discussing art from a distance. I became very good about talking about the emotion displayed in a work of art—and its intended matching emotional effect on viewers—without engaging in the work directly. That changed very quickly when I started looking at performance art. It was the first time since childhood I had an actual experience engaging with artwork. It was visceral. It was physical. It was uncomfortable. I hated it.
Naturally, I moved toward that experience with all my being. There I was, feeling actual discomfort in the presence of another human being and not being able to figure out what it meant. Empathy, before this time, had been a straightforward emotion. And up until that point I thought fear was too.
Interacting with the works of performance artists gave me a more or less safe space to address and understand the different reactions I have to those around me—reactions I didn’t even know I was having. For example, there were certain points in viewing some works where my reaction would be on that odd bridge of discomfort and fear. I had no reason to be afraid. I knew this. But some switch in my brain would be flipped and I could go from being uncomfortable in a situation to afraid and wanting to exit as quickly as possible. Discomfort is an emotion that’s easy to address and learn from; fear, however, is a harder place to sit in for very long before taking an action I may or may not have thought through.
Now, this reaction happens at a rather micro level for me and rarely causes me to physically act in a different way (to my knowledge), but it has been important to me to recognize this in myself. Living in a city, I have to interact with all different kinds of people, of a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. I have daily experiences of feeling discomfort, fear, empathy, sympathy, and everything in between for the people I interact with. However, I now have the tools to call into question some of those emotional responses I have to others. If I feel uncomfortable in a situation (ex. I’m riding the train and someone is clearly unwell—whether mentally or otherwise), how quickly does my discomfort around another person turn to fear? Is it solely based on the person’s actions towards others or myself? Or does this person’s appearance, gender, age, race, or perceived sexuality play a role for me? I noticed that in some cases, my discomfort would turn to fear more quickly based on some of the latter factors. This is wrong. This is something I need to address and work on everyday. If, in any small seemingly unconscious way, I am more willing to approach one person with empathy and understanding than another, I want to correct that.
This is something my studies in art history has helped me with, every day. Learning to identify and address these unconscious biases in myself so that I can become a better member of my community (no matter where I happen to be) is invaluable to me.
by Kristen Glomb