Fun Stuff > MAKE
What is art?
KharBevNor:
"Calm down! Calm Down!"
jimbunny:
To pick up on the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance riff, art is a particular event that occurs at the intersection of subject and object. Things are not art. Art is not purely in your mind. When you come into contact with images, words, performances, sounds, etc. in a frame of mind that allows you to appreciate art, art happens. Context - setting, background information - is important, but only as something that contributes to your subsequent judgment of the experience as 'good' or 'bad.' These judgments of quality are not meaningless just because they are not objective. They arise out of the experience of art and are conditional on your present state of mind as well as basically all of your past experiences, including yours and other people's previous judgments of this and other art (and perhaps some inbuilt positioning has some play here as well). Your present judgment therefore has real potential to affect future judgments, perhaps even to affect your future frame of mind such that art does not happen in some circumstance where for someone else it would.
If the above (or something like it with less holes) is accepted, then there are only two things essential to art: a ready-minded subject and an object. The 'artist' - the creator of the object - is subsumed into context, which itself is one factor in the judgment of art.
Then, given the belief that everything has a creator (non-specific - intentional or not), art can potentially happen anywhere, at any time. It does not, though, happen everywhere, all the time.
Liz:
Art is whatever you want it to be.
That is all.
Lines:
--- Quote from: Emaline on 07 Oct 2007, 00:49 ---Words.
--- End quote ---
Something this makes me think of is how the past three years in art school have taught me how important discussing art is. If you can't discuss art and what it means, then it's meaningless. It can be aggravating as hell, but still, it's worth talking about, especially for someone like me who is going to make a career out of it.
I don't remember anyone in this thread bashing photography, either. Photography is an art. I have great respect for those who use a camera and develop their own film and whatnot. The professor I had for my practicum class told us about what she did on her last huge project, which was WWI based, and how she took a few trips to Europe to photograph certain memorials and sites. She had every last shoot timed exactly when each site would have the best lighting so she could get the best possible photographs. It's a science as much as it is an art. ( also respect it as the idea of developing my own film scares the crap out of me for some reason.)
So I have no idea what you meant with your post. If you hate talking about art and what it means, no wonder you hate this thread, but artists have to be able to talk about art. And I don't think the people who've posted hate photography. And I think you used the word "fuck" too much. Cheer up!
Lise:
--- Quote from: Emaline on 07 Oct 2007, 00:49 ---Anyway, best artists in the world are little kids. Give them a sheet of paper and a pencil, and what them make the most beautiful piece of art ever. They don't have predefined ideas of art. They are just fucking free. They think independently. They put whatever they want on a piece of paper. It is amazing.
--- End quote ---
Emaline raises an interesting question about "childhood innocence" and how that relates to creating art- I don't know whether or not we're crippling our ability to do so by deliberating over "what IS art?", but I think we can agree that there's no concrete answer.
Take Marla Olmstead for example, a 4 year old girl whose paintings have sold for thousands of dollars. The validity of her artwork has been questioned by those who initially praised her as a genius, and the documentary "My Kid Could Paint That" serves to solve some of the controversy. http://www.sonyclassics.com/mykidcouldpaintthat/ I personally can't wait to see this in theaters :).
What's all your takes on the issue?
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