The verb resonate, from the Latin resonatum, first referred to sound, but has now taken on an emotional connotation. When something ‘resonates’ it moves us and evokes a feeling of familiarity within us. It works on an emotional level because we relate to it. To resonate is to make, hear, or understand a deep, full sound. To expand, amplify; sound can resonate when broadcast through speakers, and so can an idea or feeling when expressed articulately or with passion. In spiritual resonance the links which unite all things in the Universe (physical objects, mental processes, psychic phenomena, spiritual levels, in other words everything manifested) have as a basis the process of resonance.
Scientifically, making art can be a process of initiating and amplifying a vibratory response (link) in a receiving system that is attuned to an emitting system, in which the frequency of the two systems are close or identical. During resonance, a transfer of subtle energy takes place, from the emitting source to the receiver.
In the light of resonance, metaphysical energy in the form of metaphors and symbols can start to make sense, can become a door toward invisible realities.
I wanted to explore the meaning of a word which is used so often in the artworld, to understand how or why recently, for some time, I have been so strongly drawn to a particular place where a hawthorn tree sits with its roots bared above a huge granite rock, with a well, dark and deep below it, on the site of an ancient chapel at Carn Euny.
What is it about this place that feels familiar I wonder, what metaphors does it offer? It feels cumbersome, inadequate, to explore possible links in words, whereas a drawing, or more precisely the act of drawing seems to come closer to a kind of understanding of and through portraying the process, rather than analysing with the use of words.
The ‘process of resonance’ at times has a spell-binding, mystical, pure quality I feel I may break by transferring to words, diluting and naming. To make marks, the act of drawing, reflects the ‘resonance process’. The drawing acts as a record, is a direct response to the ‘feeling of resonance’ and a device for sharing the delight in the pure, physical and psychological feelings of elation from a connection or understanding arising deep within.
I have been tagging along with the artists group Walking the Land on their First Friday Walks preceded by virtual working lunch, in which we have been investigating ‘sense of place’ through individual and collaborative practice A form of resonance, certainly a feeling of familiarity and connection on some level. Though it has more of a feeling of ‘coming home’ perhaps than resonance. More recently we discussed how sense of place happens and this is one of the things got me to pondering on the resonance process. Distinguishing the two is pondering material for another rainy day, and another blog.
