Our family set aside the afternoon today to watch a movie we’d seen before – Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli masterpiece Spirited Away.
Why watch it again? Because we were able to see it as intended: on the big screen, thanks to a special event re-release.
Artwork has an intended medium, and it’s worth experiencing it in that medium, if at all possible. Orchestral music is much more thrilling in the concert hall than on a CD. But Jacob Collier’s multitracked music often rewards listening on headphones, to get the intended immersive experience. There is something transcendent about hearing-or singing-Renaissance music in an appropriately reverberant cathedral, but it’s not so great to hear a metal band in that kind of a space.
The same is true for works of visual art, for theatrical productions, for every artistic discipline.
It’s not always possible, and not always easy, to experience a work close to as it was intended, but it’s rewarding and illuminating when you do.