How do you define art?

[Not G. Ivingname]

Now this is one of the most subjected and conterversial topics in human history. Philosophers have spent a life time thinking about this, it has popped up time and again when ever a new entertainment media comes up to power. I seen everything from "it has to move you" to "only a single part made by one person can be art" to "it has to have one author." Now, I ask of you my fellow Escapists, how do you define art? Now, remember, how somebody defines art is how they define art. Trying to argue against somebodies belief and opinion is both frutile and disrespectful. So please, PLEASE, do not flame, argue, or make fun of somebody for how they define art. I am just asking this as an experiment to see just how many ways people would define it, not as flame bait.

Now, how do you define the very idea of art?

 

[fulano]

You define it every generation or so. It has to be catchy, constipated, and somehow has to grant social status to either you or your "legacy."

That was pretty much it.

 

[SturmDolch]

Something someone says has meaning. If I throw a piece of garbage into the trash, that's all that happened. But if an artist did it, he can say he was throwing away the freedom of man into the gaping maw of the political judicial system and he'll win an award.

Art has to mean something to someone. And something that is art to one person isn't necessarily art to another. I found Machete to be art. A person going to see an artist spray vaseline into a 3x3 room out of a hose might not agree.

 

[Guy32]

Something someone says has meaning. If I throw a piece of garbage into the trash, that's all that happened. But if an artist did it, he can say he was throwing away the freedom of man into the gaping maw of the political judicial system and he'll win an award.

Art has to mean something to someone. And something that is art to one person isn't necessarily art to another. I found Machete to be art. A person going to see an artist spray vaseline into a 3x3 room out of a hose might not agree.

That's better than anything I would've come up with.

 

[Paksenarrion]

I believe there was a 3rd Rock from the Sun episode that dealt with this question...

"What makes porn pornographic, and what makes art...art? I mean, I'm staring at this picture of a naked woman washing her car, and I get nothing, but when I look at this picture of Venus standing on a seashell...Wow!"

 

[CitySquirrel]

I believe there was a 3rd Rock from the Sun episode that dealt with this question...

"What makes porn pornographic, and what makes art...art? I mean, I'm staring at this picture of a naked woman washing her car, and I get nothing, but when I look at this picture of Venus standing on a seashell...Wow!"

There is some truth to that. Just look at Joshua Bell. People pay thousands of dollars to hear him play, but... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bell#Washington_Post_Experiment

 

[Meilow]

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." - Edgar Degas

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Art is all about context. Personally, art has to be some way a person is conveying an idea or emotion that is beyond simple verbal or written communication. The context of said expression also plays a role in "art-ness" though, and it's a nebulous thing at best.

 

[Zhougdog]

Anything that isn't videogames.

 

[verindae]

Anything that isn't videogames.

That's a very topical argument currently. Personally I feel It's entirely contextual and relative to the individual. I remember hearing once that for something to be art it must have no other function, but that's just an opinion relative to the person who said it.

It's an age old argument I think.

 

[zHellas]

Now, how do you define the very idea of art?

A visual expression or explaination of emotion.

Just off the top of my head.

 

[katsumoto03]

Something someone says has meaning. If I throw a piece of garbage into the trash, that's all that happened. But if an artist did it, he can say he was throwing away the freedom of man into the gaping maw of the political judicial system and he'll win an award.

Art has to mean something to someone. And something that is art to one person isn't necessarily art to another. I found Machete to be art. A person going to see an artist spray vaseline into a 3x3 room out of a hose might not agree.

Nice explanation man. Better than anything I could've come up with.

 

[theSovietConnection]

To me, it has to be something that moves me, that manages some form of emotional or psychological feedback, aside from thoughts of "This is absolute garbage".

 

[Thaius]

Well this would be a working definition, obviously, subject to changes as it is discussed over time, but I would define it as:

An intentional work created with intent to incite emotion or, through a creative presentation, thought in an observer/participant.

I will also say that I am an artistic objectivist. Though I know that the quality of a given work of art is subjective, I also think that the definition of art is an absolute thing. Or, at the very least, we must operate by a societal standard of a particular idea of art if we are to fully explore our artistic and creative abilities as humans.

 

[lacktheknack]

I believe there was a 3rd Rock from the Sun episode that dealt with this question...

"What makes porn pornographic, and what makes art...art? I mean, I'm staring at this picture of a naked woman washing her car, and I get nothing, but when I look at this picture of Venus standing on a seashell...Wow!"

Simple: Can you look at it with your mother?

OT: Art is anything that conveys emotion.

 

[2fish]

Expressing yourself through some medium is art? Also being pretentious/creepy/a misanthrope/odd/dead always helps.

Art is a lot like music what is techno music and what is a drunk chicken walking across the soundboard? That is up to the person listening to it all art is subjective to quote myself

Spoiler

?It is a bunch of dots?. I don?t get it"

versus

Spoiler

?Oooh that?s cool?

 

[BonsaiK]

Now, how do you define the very idea of art?

This topic comes up here about once a month and it's really only got one correct answer. People who say "it has to move me/speak to me/be amazing/stir emotions/require technical skill" or something like that are obviously wrong, because otherwise then there would be no such thing as "bad art". Plenty of bad art does in fact exist, so there's obviously something extremely wrong with that kind of definition.

What defines art in reality is not the art itself, but the "frame" around the art. Without the frame, we don't know where the art begins and ends. Someone throwing a tomato against a wall is not creating art, he's just creating a splat on the wall. However, if that person then defines a frame around that splat (which may be a literal physical frame or just a spatial measurement) and says "within this frame lies my art" then it becomes art, because now we know where "the art" is and where "the rest of the world" is. The "frame" can also exist in time instead of/as well as space. Music is a good example of art that exists within a "time frame", which can be stopped, repeated or even left running (as a "work in progress"). Art objects can also exist in a more abstracted kind of way, such as a computer program that may be art, or an artistic performance piece that exists in a certain place/time. The frame doesn't have to be placed by the creator, either. Someone walking into a factory may hear all the different machines clanking in a particular rhythm and perceive the result as an art piece, however to the people working on the machines, they may not perceive this.

Of course, you, or someone else, may think that the tomato against the wall is total shit, and that's fine. That doesn't make it "not art", what that makes it is (in the eyes of that person) "bad art". Anyone disagreeing with this is confusing the words "art" and "artistic", and the real question they are answering is not "how do you define art" but "how do you define something to be of artistic merit". Now that's a worthy question, but it's not the question that you're asking - however it's the question that over 90% of respondents to this thread will answer instead of the question that was put to them.

 

[Dr. Whiggs]

Effort, talent, and inspiration. Beauty or at least intriguing ugliness.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Art: A message that conveys genuine meaning.
It's one thing to read or listen to a subject. You can (dis)agree with that subject's intention. Understand that subject academically, but never actually comprehend it completely.

Art, to me at least, is when you can truly understand another being's position, if only for a brief moment.
I hate how pretentious what I just said sounds, really (and it isn't meant to be pretentious). But that's how I see it.

 

[x434343]

Art is a piece of media, be it paint, sculpture, film, music, performance piece, photograph, literative work, poem, or game, that either recounts a past experience (such as a battle or a childhood), else it causes the experience-er to think about life, love, ethics/morals, society, or the human experience.