WHAT IS ART?
Vocabulary words:
Contemporary Art
Modern art (modernism)
Behavioral theory of art
Instrumental theory of art
Institutional definition of art (George Dickie)
Aesthetics
Description
Interpretation
Medium
Form / Formal elements / Elements of composition
Context
Content
Concept
Subject
Subject matter
WHAT IS ART?
What is art?
In economy:
Production of unique objects and/or experiences.
Terminology:
Arts:
Performing arts: music, dance, theater
Visual arts: fine arts (pictorial arts, plastic arts, etc),
applied arts
Literature,
Film
- what about new forms? (e.g.: animation, web-art,
intermedia?)
What does the term FINE ARTS refers to?
-  goal is aesthetic and not utilitarian?
-  skill is being employed?
-  high level of taste?
-  purity of discipline?
-  validation by an expert or institution?
art
1 : skill acquired by experience, study, or observation <the art of making friends>
3 : an occupation requiring knowledge or skill <the art of organ building>
4 a : the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the
production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced b (1) : FINE ARTS (2) :
one of the fine arts (3) : a graphic art
5 a archaic : a skillful plan b : the quality or state of being artful
6 : decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter
synonyms ART, SKILL, CUNNING, ARTIFICE, CRAFT mean the faculty of executing
well what one has devised.
ART implies a personal, unanalyzable creative power <the art of choosing the right
word>.
SKILL stresses technical knowledge and proficiency <the skill of a glassblower>.
CUNNING suggests ingenuity and subtlety in devising, inventing, or executing <a
mystery plotted with great cunning>.
ARTIFICE suggests technical skill especially in imitating things in nature <believed
realism in film could be achieved only by artifice>.
CRAFT may imply expertness in workmanship <the craft of a master goldsmith>.!
From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
!
Art from behavioral / anthropological perspective:
-  What kind of behavior is art making?
-  Is art necessary?
Suggested reading: Ellen Dissanayake
Art from a socio-cultural / instrumental perspective:
-  What is art for?
-  Does contemporary art have a purpose, a role, a
responsibility?
Suggested reading: Arthur Danto
Art from the philosophical perspective:
-  Why is something considered as art while other things
may not?
- What is the basis of value judgment? (E.g. beauty or
goodness ) Who can make it?
-  What role does beauty play in contemporary art? Does a work
of art need to be beautiful?
What kind of a behavior is art making?
•  Non-utilitarian purpose
•  Exploration, innovation (curiosity, creativity)
•  Play?
•  Problem solving?
•  Transcending normal modes of operation, seeking novelty and
chaos
•  Special kind of experience, heightened experience of being
(achievement, catharsis, revelation)
•  Creating an alternative reality
•  “Flow” experience: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
FLOW (Csikszentmihalyi’s talk on TED)
Consider relationship between
- skill (experience and ability to solve the problem / accomplish the
task)
and
- challenge (novelty, innovation, investment)
Why do we do it?
Instinctual
Basic human instinct for seeking balance, harmony, rhythm
Experience of mystery
Expression of imagination
Need for communicating with others
Ritualistic and symbolic functions
Experience of FLOW
Motivated (conscious, intentional)
Communication of an idea, emotion
Seeking pleasure, entertainment
Political and social functions:
-  Agent of confrontation: change, transgression, subversion, anarchy
e.g. JR on Use Art to turn the World inside out (TED talk, 2011)
-  Agent of confirmation: propaganda, commercialism – consumer
culture (advertisements)
What is it being used for? Why do we look at it?
•  Visual pleasure, beauty?
  Expectations toward art?
-  Being
-  a mirror - reflection/representation of reality ?
- a window ?
- an alternative to our reality?
•  Art s role for:
-  Individual (Art as an agent of consciousness, morality, empathy,
enlightenment, transformation, pleasure, …)
-  Community, society ( art that does something other than sits on
its … in a museum Claes Oldenburg)
- Culture/cultural history (artifact)
AESTHETICS (esthetics or æsthetics) value theory
Greek for sensation, perception – aisthesis
Questions:
WHY is something Pleasing to the eye,
has visual appeal,
beautiful?
Is it determined by:
- Intrinsic / INHERENT properties (objectivity)?
- Extrinsic properties (perception = subjectivity)?
SUBJECTIVITY -> TASTE
Judgments of aesthetic value:
Discriminating at a sensory level.
Philosophers:
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Judgment, 1790
Ludwig Wittgenstein 1950s
Arthur Danto 1990s-now (suggested reading: on Andy Warhol’s Brillo Box)
AESTHETICS in PHILOSOPHY
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Judgment, 1790
- Aesthetics is not a property of the object (not intrinsic) but a
result of the consciousness of the pleasure one gets from it.
- This is not a logical (cognitive) act, but an immediate emotional
response.
-  Aesthetic response is “disinterested” (not because it has value
to me)
Ludwig Wittgenstein 1950s
Wrong question: What is in the essence of beauty?
Right question: What makes something function aesthetically?
Aesthetic experience exist within the culture.
Wittgenstein on looking at art:
“Well there you are. It’s all in the attitude.”
Contemporary Aesthetics:
PHILOSOPHY OF ART (e.g.: Arthur Danto)
- Value cannot be inherent in the object (not intrinsic).
- Aesthetics is not a useful tool for explaining why something is
a work of art or not.
e.g.: Brillo box by Andy Warhol and Brillo box in the store
looks identical. One is considered to be a work of art the other is not.
What makes some objects art while not others?
Who gets to call something art?
How do we know if it is GOOD Art / BAD art?
Who gets to be an artist?
Contemporary Art Theory:
IS NOT concerned with questions of value judgment.
IT DOES look at the activity and the product of ART for
their instrumental value.
What is to be considered as ART:
by George Dickie, Philosophy of Art, Aesthetics
1.  An artist is a person who participates with understanding in the
making of a work of art.
2.  A work of art is an artifact of a kind created to be presented to
an artworld public.
3.  A public is a set of persons the members of which are prepared
in some degree to understand an object which is presented to
them.
4.  The artworld is the totality of all artworld systems.
5.  The artworld system is a framework for the presentation of a
work of art by an artist to an artworld public.
This is known as the INSTITUTIONAL definition/theory of art.
Who talks about ART?
Academia
art historian (Jean Robertson)
art theorist / art critic
(George Dickie)
philosopher (aesthetic)
(Dave Hickey)
Artworld
curator (Stefano Catalani, BAM; Robin Held, The Frye)
newspaper art critic
(The Stranger's Jen Graves; Seattle Time s Regina Hackett; Village Voice s Jerry Saltz)
gallerist / collector
artist
(Greg Kucera)
Public !