Descriptions can be a great tool to help viewers understand, criticize, and visualize works. They can help us see things that we’ve missed at first glance or dig deeper into something we have noticed. A great description answers the 5 questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how? They also include obvious characteristics and vividly describe what is going on.
In “We Served… and they felt tiny bursts along the horizon,” Malcolm Peacock uses a very intimate setting and mannerisms to guide the experience. The interaction between the two participants was very personal and a little strange. He uses sounds, and sights to help the participant feel the mood. Throughout the article, the writer, TK Smith, uses precise nouns and action verbs to help us visualize the scene. The sentences, “It was not our meal. It was my meal. He was there to only serve. The performance had already begun,” are so short that they evoke in me a feeling of discomfort. The awkwardness and rigidity of the performance is felt throughout the article.
In “Torque, Jelly Role, and Goose Bump,” Jessica Stockholder uses action verbs, vivid adjectives, and metaphors to help the reader visualize. The language makes you think deeper about what is happening. It is arranged in a poem-like form, and that really catches my eye, but I am not sure if that is a good thing.
In the last article by Del O’Brian, the most obvious descriptions are directly about the work. He uses action verbs like “scribbled” and “scrawled” to help the viewer visualize what the work looks like. I enjoy that they are not concerned with using complicated language because they know how to write for us to see. This form of description is my favorite because I am a visualizer. When I hear things, I see them, and this language allowed me to see the work without being there.
My least favorite was by Stockholder. It just did not do it for me. I was not completely satisfied by the way it was presented and it did not hold as much value to me as the other two articles. I am not sure exactly if this is a poem or a description of something else that has happened. It confuses me. As a description I feel that it is lacking direction, but as a poem it is beautiful.
Articles talked about:
https://jessicastockholder.info/projects/writing/torque-jelly-role-and-goose-bump
“Oscar Murillo Attempts to Embody Protest at Saint Louis Art Museum” by Del O’Brien – ARTnews.com