Alien Tour - Sculpture Garden

I will be missing class on Wednesday, June 20th (because it's my birthday) and so I am completing the in-class assignment on my own. The assignment was to give an alien a tour of a certain part of campus and explain to them the purpose of it. I chose to tour the sculpture garden. Our Q&A after the tour went as follows: Me) This is the sculpture garden. It is where we go to see beautiful things. Alien) Why? Me) Many people take pleasure in looking at beautiful things...both nature and what we call art. Alien) Why? Me) Well, we live in a tough world where there's stress and pain and suffering and looking at nature and art can help us relax and feel better. Alien) Why? Me) There is something inherently peaceful about nature and certain types of art. That peace can be gained sometimes just by being around it. Alien) Why? Me) That's hard to say. I think it's because we have removed ourselves from nature and art by surrounding ourselves with technology which is usually far from peaceful. So returning to nature, which is where we used to live, we are returning to a simpler, quieter world. It is clear by reviewing the above dialogue that I hold certain assumptions about sculpture gardens, and nature and art in general. First, I hold the belief that people enjoy sculpture gardens for their beauty and peacefulness. Our sculpture garden on campus supports this belief in a few different ways. First of all, in addition to sculpture there are loads of trees and a variety of flowers. This tells me that people enjoy the nature as much as the sculptures. Secondly, there are benches and seating scattered throughout the garden... and not just in front of the sculptures. It is clear that the intent is for people to sit and stay for awhile. Lastly, the sculpture garden is in a part of campus away from the main traffic areas. It is tucked in behind the performing arts center which isn't used on a daily basis. This tells me that part of the point is for the garden to be quiet and peaceful. The other assumption I made is that people find art intangibly valuable. The school took the time and money to build the garden, and several donors gave their time and money to support it. I doubt the school would have bothered if they didn't believe that people would appreciate having the garden there. And they wouldn't have been able to find people to support the cause if those people didn't also believe that people would use the garden and appreciate it being there. Overall, these assumptions colored everything I said to the alien and perhaps made it impossible for me to clearly explain the why's and how's of a sculpture garden because the alien didn't share my worldview.