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Serious question: What do you define art to be? I've taken some introductory Art class, but really never got a clear answer of what art is. How does art differ

• abathur 10y ago
  Both art and kitsch are emergent judgements that result from how people practice aesthetics and creativity at scale. It's a fair question to ask individuals as long as you're more interested in what they think about art than hoping for a definitive answer that will somehow resolve millennia of contentious debate, but individual definitions are beside the point. That said, I've been toying with a definition recently, that "art is something that should be considered more deeply." I like this definition because it foregrounds (instead of trying to dodge) the various agencies and tensions involved.
• SuperPaintMan 10y ago
  That's a tricky question because of subjectivity and the shift towards a postmodern lens. The question what is Art becomes entirely dependant on the viewer/creator. For me Art is the act of expression. To poets, the reading. To painters, painting. To hackers, hacking. The object is simply a object left over documenting the process (although utmost attention is provided to the object during the act). Kitsch I would define as engaging that creation mechanism with substandard intent. Maybe to copy a photograph with paint, or just muck about on a canvas because there is an hour to kill. When the focus is the documentation, it becomes programming for programmings sake, and loses the artistic merit. At least, through my eyes.