Hand Written

[Nemesis]

http://www.intpcentral.com/uploads/DSCN0682.jpg

I've always found hand written music to be very aesthetically pleasing, even back in the days when I didn't have the slightest clue about how to make heads or tails of it. Does anyone have any ideas as to why handwritten music and poems and handpainted or hand drawn art is so visually pleasing?

[Shimpei]

http://www.intpcentral.com/uploads/DSCN0682.jpg

I've always found hand written music to be very aesthetically pleasing, even back in the days when I didn't have the slightest clue about how to make heads or tails of it. Does anyone have any ideas as to why handwritten music and poems and handpainted or hand drawn art is so visually pleasing?

because they seem more personal than impersonal characters on a computer or in a book.

[Nemesis]

because they seem more personal than impersonal characters on a computer or in a book.
I think there's more to it than that. Printed things can be aesthetically pleasing too, because everything will be nice and neat and organized and uniform. So why is something that isn't so inherently neat and organized so much better?

[Shimpei]

I think there's more to it than that. Printed things can be aesthetically pleasing too, because everything will be nice and neat and organized and uniform. So why is something that isn't so inherently neat and organized so much better?

because they have a sort of "personal aura" around them.

[Nemesis]

because they have a sort of "personal aura" around them.
I suppose. But I think it's even deeper then that, almost like they were communicating with you, not like you were just reading a story that a person just happened to write.

I wonder what effect it would have on the general populace if Bibles were still handwritten. Would people be any more or less inclined to believe them? I think it would have an effect.

[charred_heart]

the personal effort involved. Hand drawn/hand written work is borne out of one person while computer generated art can be taken from many sources even without plagiarising. Computer generated pieces always strike me as more of a collage than a real work of art.

[Shimpei]

I suppose. But I think it's even deeper then that, almost like they were communicating with you, not like you were just reading a story that a person just happened to write.

I absolutely agree with you. It's not an interaction in the classical sense but something similar.


I wonder what effect it would have on the general populace if Bibles were still handwritten. Would people be any more or less inclined to believe them? I think it would have an effect.

Agree on that again. A hand-written Bible would convey you the devotion of the "copyist", and this can be contagious.

[dunee]

I wonder what effect it would have on the general populace if Bibles were still handwritten. Would people be any more or less inclined to believe them? I think it would have an effect.
the Christian right should be glad Harry Potter is published on a press. The horrors if it should be handwritten!


Yep, personal effort. It is a part of the person on the page (or more accurately a part of their life, energy, & effort). That's why Chinese calligraphers talk about being able to read the "Qi" in the writing.

[charred_heart]

Yep, personal effort. It is a part of the person on the page (or more accurately a part of their life, energy, & effort). That's why Chinese calligraphers talk about being able to read the "Qi" in the writing.
hey, why didn't you quote me? :mad:
j/k

[azurwarrior]

Several years ago, my aunt and uncle gave me some simple, colorful hand-decorated wax Christmas candles. They weren't expensive or gaudy.
There was something about the imperfect, childlike, simple and sincere and all the tradition from simpler, quieter times, olden days that just made me feel comforted and I remembered that today when you brought up hand-written music and calligraphy.
It just seemed more personal, and connected, just like the handwritten music/writing/caligraphy.

[rivercrow]

I think some of the appeal comes from the variance amongst the individual characters. For example, even prints from wood blocks have more variance than something that is computer-generated.

I think this is part of why the old manual typewriters created more appealing pages than newer manual typewriters.

Legibility isn't necessary to the appeal, either. I don't read Chinese, but I have Chinese calligraphy framed on the wall.

An artist friend has told me she likes my handwriting from a visual perspective, but she admits that the more attractive it is, the more illegible it is. She specifically mentioned the variances in the letters as being a quality that enhanced the appeal but reduced the legibility.

[eyebyte_atWork]

I think it has to do with the idea that hand written documents implies that the author had the knowledge being conveyed while a machine only replicates.

Meaning that if you are holding an original work - you are conversing with the learned author of the work in question. They actually wrote it - something they understood and hope the reader does too.

Yeah - hand written stuff does have more of an appeal than machine produced stuff.

I wish I could post my old work in Physics as a visual art piece, but alas - that stuff is stored away somewhere and I have no scanner. Plus I would have to re-write it on papyrus (fancy old paper).

EDIT: Correct me if I am wrong... piano, right? I used to play a long time ago.