I was struck by something I heard on a bbc4 programme about Aristotle last night: science is an endless conversation. This is no doubt true, I thought, but art is, among other things, the means by which we have that conversation. I’d evenn go oe step further than aristotle by saying that every field, not just science, is a conversation All forms of communication are on some level, artistic: even the precise, stripped down unadorned form of writing found in scientific papers. (my physicist brother, Mark, may be alarmed to find that he, too, is an artist, but he makes artistic decisions each time he composes a sentence). Even in writing these words, I am making a piece of art, contributing to the never-ending conversation about the world around us.

All art contributes to that conversation. I find writing the most direct and specific, which is of course why it is usually the art form used to explain and communicate complex ideas. But I see all arts as capable of enhancing and clarifying the world around us. Film or photography, for example, have the ability to shed light on the world particularly sharply. Even the programme on Aristotle contributed to the conversation

But it got me thinking again about those who can’t contribute, who can’t communicate – what of their voices? I think I can make my thoughts known quite well, and enjoy doing so, on various subjects, on my blog. Lyn can express herself artistically through her music and paintings. Yet as a disabled person, I find myself regularly preoccupied by the fact there are those who are unable to express themselves. Often, if you are unable to make your thoughts known, you are seen as a lesser person. I have this fascination with film and it’s relationship with language; I think it stems from my fascination with communication. Most people, I guess, take communication for granted, but even what I am doing now, in typing these rather disorganised words, is a very valuable skill. Those who do not possess it, for whatever reason, are seen as non-people. The ability to make one’s voice herd seems central to society: it’s as though, if you are unable to contribute to the great human conversation, as I once wrote here, then you are not fully a person. Being a VOCA user makes one realise how central the ability to express oneself, in whatever way, is to human society.