The Abstract

Have you ever gone to a museum for abstract art? And have you ever wondered what you’re looking at? Why it sells?

There’s a classic meme of someone looking at a big white frame that an artist left intentionally blank, and it has a price tag of $1000. 

Then there’s also the case of abstract math. This is what teachers mean when they teach things like 7-2, without any context or real world application.

What it makes us realize is that these numbers are symbols, just like art pieces, that encourage the participant to determine meaning. The symbol 7 only means seven whole units because we decided it would. The white frame only represents heaven because we decided it did.