Tactility for the Eye

My wife and I took our two little girls to the Phoenix Art Museum yesterday.  It was the first museum trip for us in roughly five years.  Needless to say a lot has transpired in that period of time.  As I moved from one exhibit to the next and from one piece to the next; I found myself inextricably drawn to a majority of the sculptural and three dimensional works.  I must mention first and foremost that "You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies" by Yayoi Kusama, is far an above one installation work that is a joy of mine to visit every time I'm at the museum.  If you find yourself at the PAM, spend some time in it and just absorb it.  

The reason I mention my primary focus on three dimensional works is that it was the first time I've been so universally drawn to them.  This is an outlier for me as I have always seen myself as more of a two dimensional artist (primarily in photography) and typically preferred mediums in the experience of the observable flat dimension.  It stuck me, and more so, when after our visit my wife and I discussed both of our near total lack of interest in any of the two dimensional works: photography, paintings, drawings, etc.  But why?

Our thoughts are that in the digital age, when most of what we observe is to be found on a flat screen, the second dimension finds itself not just physically flat, but experientially.  Screens have made the flat surface of a canvas, photo or paper boring.  What once could be explored on one plane is now oversaturated to the point of boredom.  Its not that the works are flawed, uninspired or lifeless.  It's the over consumption of the superficial, the non tactile, the insensate; that makes us numb to art that once sparked joy.  Is it just us?  Maybe you feel the same way.