Tonight the Berkman Blog Group is going on a field trip. We'll visit Boston's Institute for Contemporary Arts, and each blog about their exhibit Getting Emotional. The exhibit is about works that depict emotion.

Take a look at the ICA's page on the exhibit. Take a look right now, then come back and read the rest.

The two photographs on the ICA's page were extremely jarring for me. The photo on the left, of a woman on hands and knees apparently screaming, was very moving for me. Maybe my avoidance of television is re-sensitizing me. But that's not all.

The photo on the right, of a basketball player either cheering or freaking out, isn't on its own as moving as the screaming woman. It does strike a chord, though.

Alarmingly, what's really freaky is the emotional dissonance evoked by the presentation of these two pictures together. Part of that is their appearance on my tiny little screen, catching me unaware because I was expecting, like, jumbles of paint representing "confusion", not actual photos of real live people actually freaking out.

The effect of this was so strong that I couldn't look at that page. I switched away from it very quickly. And I had the oddest feeling, not sadness or fear or pride in connection with the individual photographs, but a mental (not emotional; my mind hurt!) pain at the simultaneous evocation of such dischordant emotions. I think it actually gave me a bit of a headache, and I am prone neither to strong emotional reactions to pictures nor to headaches.

I wonder whether I will experience the same pain at the exhibit tonight. I am worried about that. But also intrigued.