The Useless Arts?
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How much stuff that we do is useless these days? To bring up a very pertinent point, Video games are, "Useless". There's plenty of things that we do these days that are purely for enjoyment. And that's not bad, we got things like irrigation and assembly lines, we can afford some fun time.
I actually like the way my College handled this. They had a class called, "Soundings". Basically, they required all freshmen, both semesters, to attend 6 special, "Soundings" events. They consisted of theater, concerts, lectures from guest speakers, even a few comedy events or more esoteric events. Go to 6 of them, get a little culture, learn to like broadening your horizons, you get a credit. Nice way to do it, I think. I ended up going to way more then 6 every year I was there.
Way I see it, there needs to be a few people in art and theater and so on and so forth. How else do you get art, movies, etc? A few of those Majors will become famous and contribute to stuff we enjoy. The rest should see the unlikelihood of success coming, and have a backup plan in a job that just looks for the degree of professionalism you get from just going to college.
I actually like the way my College handled this. They had a class called, "Soundings". Basically, they required all freshmen, both semesters, to attend 6 special, "Soundings" events. They consisted of theater, concerts, lectures from guest speakers, even a few comedy events or more esoteric events. Go to 6 of them, get a little culture, learn to like broadening your horizons, you get a credit. Nice way to do it, I think. I ended up going to way more then 6 every year I was there.
Way I see it, there needs to be a few people in art and theater and so on and so forth. How else do you get art, movies, etc? A few of those Majors will become famous and contribute to stuff we enjoy. The rest should see the unlikelihood of success coming, and have a backup plan in a job that just looks for the degree of professionalism you get from just going to college.
Now, now, everything will be fine when they're all working for us who have brains here. I know for a fact they won't be getting any promotions from me.berethond said:
Oscar Wilde is turning in his grave right now! His idea has been misrepresented several times now and its killing me! He indeed said 'All art is quite useless'. The line before it reads 'The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely'.
Put them together and he is advocating art quite strongly. Please stop using misguided half quotes to try and pass yourselves off as widely read and cultured, I hope it had occurred to you at least as ironic that a great writer would be slating art!
Anyhoo back onto topic. I love art, but there are a few too many qualifications for it floating around, which ends up in mcdonalds staff with £20000 debt. Not really good for anyone.
P.S I study chemistry and yes I read the book, just blurring the line between art and science.
Put them together and he is advocating art quite strongly. Please stop using misguided half quotes to try and pass yourselves off as widely read and cultured, I hope it had occurred to you at least as ironic that a great writer would be slating art!
Anyhoo back onto topic. I love art, but there are a few too many qualifications for it floating around, which ends up in mcdonalds staff with £20000 debt. Not really good for anyone.
P.S I study chemistry and yes I read the book, just blurring the line between art and science.
your understanding of art is over a century out of date.Dark42 said:
Wait-Doug said:At least that example of Modern art has pattern, colour, and looks interesting... this doesn't:
Why the Hell do you think that art is all about looking pretty?
The above work that you liken to feces has already served its purpose-
proving that you'd consider a blank canvas art just because it is a canvas mounted in a museum.
I mean, seriously, you're a pawn of the artist.
You people keep complaining about something that you don't even make an effort to understand. You're being just as bad as the people who blame art for criminal acts.
Err, to grab a steering wheel back towards the topic, Arts degrees are odd. Frankly, my difficulty is figuring out exactly what those degrees qualify people to do. I'm not saying they don't signify hard work, I have many friends in the "Arts" colleges, and honestly, they've got it rougher than me sometimes. (I'm an Education major, so there).
What bothers me is the whole concept. I mean, i think you'd learn a good deal more about art spending a semester hanging around a city and looking at the local art than you coudl in a classroom. Aside from constructive criticism, I can't see much value in a degree in a "studio art" such as painting or drawing.
As far as money goes, art is bought and sold all the time. Honestly, Yahtzee, J.K. Rowling, a local journalist, and that guy who makes promos for the board of tourism all have careers and spent a large amount of time in school learning how to write and format. They're all commercially viable writers.
What bothers me is the whole concept. I mean, i think you'd learn a good deal more about art spending a semester hanging around a city and looking at the local art than you coudl in a classroom. Aside from constructive criticism, I can't see much value in a degree in a "studio art" such as painting or drawing.
As far as money goes, art is bought and sold all the time. Honestly, Yahtzee, J.K. Rowling, a local journalist, and that guy who makes promos for the board of tourism all have careers and spent a large amount of time in school learning how to write and format. They're all commercially viable writers.
That's why I intend to go into the life sciences path, because I actually know something about that.loves2spooge said:
Art that does not aspire to be fun and/or nice to look at is probably crappy or propaganda.Erana said:your understanding of art is over a century out of date.Dark42 said:
Wait-Doug said:At least that example of Modern art has pattern, colour, and looks interesting... this doesn't:
Why the Hell do you think that art is all about looking pretty?
The above work that you liken to feces has already served its purpose-
proving that you'd consider a blank canvas art just because it is a canvas mounted in a museum.
I mean, seriously, you're a pawn of the artist.
You people keep complaining about something that you don't even make an effort to understand. You're being just as bad as the people who blame art for criminal acts.
It's fine to have a message, but first and foremost should be something that makes me want to hear it.
I find it funny that almost every person here seems to look at how useless art is, but limits their view to a painting on a canvas. Art is in the shows and movies you watch, the games you play, the design of your technology, the advertisements you see. Take a look around, every logo had someone design it, every book cover, every car, Art is everywhere. Without Art, society would look like a George Orwell nightmare come true. Do you guys even remember what web site your on? This is a Gaming news website, games whose graphics we're designed by someone with an Arts degree. Don't sit there and try to write on a Forum of this website that an Art's degree is entirely useless, because it's so hypocritical it's laughable. You think this website or the new "Genre Wars" was designed by someone with a science degree? Maybe if you live in the middle the Sahara in a third world country, then yea, Art is a lot less useful then say surviving and eating, but we live in a society where people can't go three minutes without some sort of mental stimultaion or degeneration, depending on if you like to read a book/play a good game with friends over listening about the latest Hollywood fad over watching America's Next Top Model, a show watched by self hating masochists who want to watch an idiot who got a 150 on the SAT make more money in a month then they'll earn in a year.
It helps us raise culture. It shows us that people who are actually interested in the arts are now shallow people. I cannot stand it when I try to talk to someone on an intellectual level most the time they talk about stuff that is pointless and I almost feel my IQ dropped a couple of points.
Examples: Britney Spears is pregnant, N Sync broke up, Justin whoever goes solo. The point is most of our country is so fixated on superficial nonsense that we as a culture have dropped. It is no wonder why other countries do not like us.
We put movie stars above important matters, like the war or the presidency. I don't care about this falls fashion line or Britney Spears being pregnant. In 1,000 years what will be more acknowledged Britney being a pop star or Pablo Picasso's works?
Examples: Britney Spears is pregnant, N Sync broke up, Justin whoever goes solo. The point is most of our country is so fixated on superficial nonsense that we as a culture have dropped. It is no wonder why other countries do not like us.
We put movie stars above important matters, like the war or the presidency. I don't care about this falls fashion line or Britney Spears being pregnant. In 1,000 years what will be more acknowledged Britney being a pop star or Pablo Picasso's works?
That is brilliant. Thank you.Uilleand said:
This thread is utterly stupid in the fact that it insults cultural background, expression, creativity, and all the artists out there. I don't know why you're all bitching about it. Your rationalizations seem to be scraped out of a sewer. Art is not useless. Really. Pixar, Disney, etc. Games have to have artists to design or concept their characters, guns, maps. Sure, it can be a dead-end job if you don't know where you're going, but most people now-a-days are smart enough to have backup like a nursing degree, for example.
Do not discourage people who want to excel in what they love just because you think it's useless. Your opinion on this matter is "fairly useless" so I hope any artists who read your post wont take it to heart. I realize your opinion wont change because of other people's posts who agree with me on this point, but I hope you have some humility, you shameful person. Pfft, and you're getting a music degree. Shame.
Did you even try to consider the higher meaning of that PHOTO, not a painting. A blank slate, an empty life, life is meaningless, a criticism of society in itself. If you don't even want to try to attempt to understand something fully that your going to talk about, don't talk about, go to your next threadDoug said:At least that example of Modern art has pattern, colour, and looks interesting... this doesn't:Dark42 said:ExactlyEldritch Warlord said:Dark42 said:and
respectively
I work at a software company that employs artists, although am not an artist my self. Most university trained artists are completely useless. The bests artists I have worked with spend hours getting the little details right. They follow instructions regarding portions and concept. They revise their work when it does not fit with the over all project. In short they do a crap load of work and often don't get the respect they deserve.
I suspect many people get into the arts because it involves less work than some other majors, however unless you get very lucky you are going to have to work for you money once you get out of school.
On a completely different note I remember Scott Adams (of Dilbert) once write:
Girls want to date artists
Women want to marry engineers
I suspect many people get into the arts because it involves less work than some other majors, however unless you get very lucky you are going to have to work for you money once you get out of school.
On a completely different note I remember Scott Adams (of Dilbert) once write:
Girls want to date artists
Women want to marry engineers
Some people may, but it's negative to make that generalization to everyone. People might just want to learn new techniques, refine their skills with a teacher and a class room, slaving hours to get the little parts of their assignments right. There are plenty of people getting that degree to have an easy degree, but curse all and the expense of a group, regardless of size. Because there will always be the one person who takes it seriously, at least one.hamster mk 4 said:
Meh. I'm minoring in art (because I'm computer science and I want to study graphics) and I often find it more challenging than hard math and science. Of course, I lack natural talent in drawing and I've programmed for a long time.
I must say that I find the purposes of studio art rather esoteric. However interesting a stop motion animation of a cube crawling on the ground is, it makes me wonder what the parameters are for getting in an art show.
Anyway, I do agree that I wonder what people intend to do with a BFA. There are places for them to go (game companies, for instance), but not many other than grad school, and there's only so much of that you can do. You'll probably have to teach people like me how to tone paper or something as a job. What happens after that?
It seems to be a place for either genuinely talented people who can get a good job as an artist (it's possible, just improbable) or people who don't care what their major is, who just want a generic college degree.
I must say that I find the purposes of studio art rather esoteric. However interesting a stop motion animation of a cube crawling on the ground is, it makes me wonder what the parameters are for getting in an art show.
Anyway, I do agree that I wonder what people intend to do with a BFA. There are places for them to go (game companies, for instance), but not many other than grad school, and there's only so much of that you can do. You'll probably have to teach people like me how to tone paper or something as a job. What happens after that?
It seems to be a place for either genuinely talented people who can get a good job as an artist (it's possible, just improbable) or people who don't care what their major is, who just want a generic college degree.