Art, and What to Do About It
This entry was posted on 3/8/2007 8:34 AM and is filed under Philosophy.
By Mark Miner
What is art? This question flickers at the edge of our vision when we see, perhaps, an American flag in a toilet, an airbrushed Virgin of Guadalupe on a lowrider, or perhaps just graffiti on an underpass. My fiancée (a harpist) and I were discussing this question over lunch on Monday, and it truly is a thorny issue. Can standards be applied to art? Can principles which transcend media be derived? Where would they come from?
We sat down, the poet/writer/engineer/guitar-picker and the harpist/dancer/sketch-artist/audiophile, and we talked long about this. From Pollack to Rembrandt to Picasso to Audubon, from Strauss to Frost, mime, ballet, architecture, indie rock, Dostoyevsky, and on and on. At last we discussed performance, and the role of a performer in interpreting and exploring the art of others. Here, then, are presented the Principles of Art which we believe transcend media and may be thoughtfully applied to anything created to be art by anyone.
The Goal of Art
The goal of any artistic piece is to express something with respect to the created world. This may be a contrast, perhaps a compliment, maybe mimicry, and certainly an exploration of some aspect of man and/or his world.
The Principles or Art
Art may be judged according to its level of achievement in the following areas. The word "system" is used generically to denote some type of structure within a medium. It could be a chord, it could be a shape or color, it could be a dance step, a particular curve, or what-have-you. Art is therefore judged according to the
-Number of systems employed
-Complexity of these systems
-Spectrum of accessibility to these systems (breadth of appreciative audience)
-Originality of these systems and their arrangement
These are adjudged by Virginia and me to be accurate, thorough, and transcendental standards.
Lest we be accused of sounding lofty, I submit these to you, the reader, to meditate upon and respond to. As they are general principles, each application will take thought, so do not be hasty in judgment, good or bad. Weigh each piece of "art" you may encounter, think about what you believe to be principles of art, and consider the assumptions and validity of your metric and ours.
