“In the form of unfelt activities, what could be called matrix ‘of advancing acts that have already arisen from previous situations’ (Langer 1967: 281), constitutes the mood of a feeling, and this mood shapes the kind of conceptual moves that can be made in an occasion of feeling, then this dimension of organic activity should be regarded as a structured and structuring ground that determines the kind of abstractions or abstractive tendencies that can take place within it without, however, determining the characteristics of these abstractions.”

This paragraph has been extracted from the essay Felt as thought (or, musical abstraction and semblance of affect) by eldritch Priest. The essay is part of wider collection which ‘…features new essays that bring together recent developments in sound studies and affect studies.’ (Thompson and Biddle 2013: 250).

Considering the name of the essay, the content of the paragraph may be suggesting the dichotomy and mutual relation between rational thinking and emotions induced by music or sound. Possibly we could extend this to experiencing any art form in general. “…form of unfelt activities, what could be called ‘matrix ‘of advancing acts that have already arisen from previous situations’ (Langer 1967: 281)… “ cited from S. Langer’s Mind: Essay on Human Feeling indicates a collection of experiences derived from ‘unfelt’, which could be considered from rational. This rational thinking may be somehow shaping (‘biasing’?) our momentary emotional experience (abstractions) whilst we are exposed to the art piece. This suggests that our emotional experience of art never exists fully independent out of certain preliminary structures of our own individual experience of life, history and mind.

Bibliography:

Priest, e. (2013) Felt as thought (or, musical abstraction and semblance of affect), in: Thompson, M. and Biddle, I. (eds.) Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 45-64.