Art

It depends really... it's rare that art makes me 'feel' anything, although I often find it very interesting to look at and admire the work that's gone into it. If we're talking emotions, I'm more likely to have a response to photography than paintings or sculptures. Music and poetry, on the other hand, can make me feel all kinds of emotions. 

Yes, music and poetry I do respond to and consider a separate thing to visual art, although I suppose in terms of connecting to the emotions of others through their work it is equivalent. I can admire art, in as much as 'the colours are nice and it has good depth', I'll walk around the gallery with my friend though and he is seeing frustration, passion, hope... There was an exhibition with natural wood sculptures and I found joy in imagining these abstract shapes as birds and sea monsters, while he seemed to be actually connecting with them. My parents never bothered with art though so might just be something I've never learned.

Yes, music and poetry I do respond to and consider a separate thing to visual art, although I suppose in terms of connecting to the emotions of others through their work it is equivalent. I can admire art, in as much as 'the colours are nice and it has good depth', I'll walk around the gallery with my friend though and he is seeing frustration, passion, hope... There was an exhibition with natural wood sculptures and I found joy in imagining these abstract shapes as birds and sea monsters, while he seemed to be actually connecting with them. My parents never bothered with art though so might just be something I've never learned.

A good exhibition will let the audience make its own mind up, regardless of the purpose or agenda of any of the artists. Everyone will assign their own individual meaning to works of art because they are looking at it through their own eyes with their own schema, experiences, thoughts and opinions.

The joy I found in it though was through my own re-imagining of what the shapes could be, rather than what the artist had created. It was very different to what my friend was experiencing. Like DuckBread says though, maybe that's just us as different people, rather than a ND/NT thing. There has been such a range of responses on here that I think there may be as many separate views on art among us as in the general population.

It sounds like you and your friend just appreciate art in different ways

Feeling joy about a piece of art is just as valid as your friend seeing frustration or passion or hope.

I can go round a gallery or museum and nothing stands out at me, I can go and am on board with the whole exhibition, or I can go and just find one piece which blows me away and I might not be able to understand why. I find joy in the nostalgic or whimsical. I'm covering all types of visual art in this including photography. You might just need to find out what makes you tick. Equally if it's of no interest,  don't force it. I'm not particularly into sport of any kind so don't bother with it.

I studied history of art, but often I don't understand modern abstract pieces until I've read the information about it.