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The term Art has different meanings for different people, but ironically one of the core characteristics of a work of art is that it itself has different meanings for different people. Art is the social objects that people like to own, produce, view, reproduce, etc., in order to advertise certain aspects of themselves: their taste, their wealth, their vow of poverty, their snobbery, their connection with "the real", their flights of fantasy, etc. Art is like rational argument, but with metaphor in the place of logic. Art is that which is perceived while in a self-consciously art-consuming mode of thought. Art is symbols in a web of epistemology, postmodern constructs the mastering of which generates academic status. None of these is truly correct, and there may be many more. It's up to you which judgements to use. But don't expect other people to agree with you if you put all your eggs in just one of these baskets. Myself, I hew most closely to the metaphor as logic approach. Art, for me, has to be visceral, it has to engage the senses; as well as being interesting, engaging the intellect; as well as being emotive. It should engage at all these levels, and resonate with me, things in my experience of life, and make it richer. |