What is the value of art?
As a visual arts student and a musician, I have to confront these questions often. There is a large gap between the aesthetics and the purpose of fine arts and contemporary art, as well as how people define art. I think of art as something human created, which often includes the process of interpreting something. Something interpreted by a person is already human created, thus how the person expresses it becomes art.
This is the conclusion I reach when I think about how art has only existed in human societies, and not in other living beings.
However this thought changes when I am interpreting a piece on a violin, and when I listen to a song on the radio. These two are completely different cultures and ways of thinking. A piece by Mozart would be immensely offended if it were told to be art of equal value to "Friday" by Rebecca Black. There seems to be "good art" and "bad art" which depends from person to person, and often "bad art" is said to not be a "proper piece of art" ie. not worth being called art.
Still, I draw the boundaries of what art is as something that is human created.
An interesting example of what I still call art is what was shown in a presentation a few weeks back: Mandelbrots set, a fractal pattern created by an equation plotted on the complex plane. Although it is on its boundary of being an art, the pattern made by this equation is a discovery, which could only be plotted by the creation of computers. It is like doing an observational painting an apple: we did not create the apple, we are discovering its form, and we are able to depict the apple using the paint brush.I think the Mandelbrots set image along the same principles, that it is still an art because of how it is created.
There are different criterion by which we judge and place the value on art:
-Aesthetic
-Its statement
which in its sub categories has:
-Political
-Historical
-Sentimental
-Religious
From an exercise we have done in class, which spend 150CHF freely on a set of paintings, we saw that the way we judge art depends greatly on who we are. When I buy art, I buy it because it has the "I want to put it in my living room" factor. Some people enjoy the meaning of the art much more, and others like the impact of the statement the art makes.
Excellent reflection as you provide an interesting and valid argument for the Mandelbrot set being considered art. Of course this is controversial and it remains a curiosity that we are, as a class, so divided on this example. You also provide some good thoughtful insight and references to personal examples. In what ways might Art be considered an area of knoweledege? What knowledge does it provide?
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