Have you ever noticed how sometimes, when you encounter a human work of extraordinary artistry or skill, you have an emotional response, a gentle wave of sweetness, gratitude or perhaps even a mixture of joy and melancholy?

Could we call this the “aesthetic response?”

There’s something about it that’s fundamental. I’m not saying I understand it. I just notice it whenever it comes unbidden like a blessing.

I had that rare response again today when I got about 12 minutes into this unbelievable TED Talk (first video below) by Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of the Handspring Puppet Company.

What happened at 12 minutes? Well, they brought in their life-sized puppet of a horse, the star of the National Theatre of London‘s play, War Horse, first produced in 2007.

Our local theater, Sierra Cinemas, receives regular satellite broadcasts of National Theatre Live productions. It would be wonderful if War Horse could be broadcast here. For that to happen, it would somehow have to get on the National Theatre Live schedule.

More about War Horse: