"The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"
Funny.
I forgot where I got that from. Too bad. Sorry whoever said that. At least I put quotes around your clever statement.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
What is art?
Had a good conversation about this today (though if it had a fault, it may have been a little one-sided).
As I mentioned in my other blog, we've been watching Francis Schaeffer's "How Should We Then Live" video series. Today we went over the ages of Non-Reason (post-Renaissance) and Fragmentation (post-Non-Reason). Included in this were artists like John Cage, whose art was more anti-art, more philosophical statement than art, really (imo).
What is art? Can it be anything we say it is? Are there standards? Is it solely based on subjective opinion?
A friend of mine said this: "I kinda figure that if I could do it, then it's not art."
I know another guy who believes that art is really anything we claim it is.
Dictionary.com says this:
"The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium."
"The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group."
"High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value"
Merriamwebster.com says this:
"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"
It seems, based on these definitions, that art should contain the following:
I've been in some modern art museums where every few exhibits I thought, hmmmmmmm...what the HECK is that? And how the HECK did it make its way into a museum? Maybe I was just missing something...
I understand the need to push limits--it sometimes leads (eventually) to great new ideas, but wow it can result in some crap along the way.
I really think, however, that the next great thing in art will still follow the definitions above. Don't we have to WANT to look at it for it to truly last?
Had a good conversation about this today (though if it had a fault, it may have been a little one-sided).
As I mentioned in my other blog, we've been watching Francis Schaeffer's "How Should We Then Live" video series. Today we went over the ages of Non-Reason (post-Renaissance) and Fragmentation (post-Non-Reason). Included in this were artists like John Cage, whose art was more anti-art, more philosophical statement than art, really (imo).
What is art? Can it be anything we say it is? Are there standards? Is it solely based on subjective opinion?
A friend of mine said this: "I kinda figure that if I could do it, then it's not art."
I know another guy who believes that art is really anything we claim it is.
Dictionary.com says this:
"The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium."
"The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group."
"High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value"
Merriamwebster.com says this:
"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"
It seems, based on these definitions, that art should contain the following:
- a conscious effort
- skill
- creativity
- beauty
- aesthetic value
I've been in some modern art museums where every few exhibits I thought, hmmmmmmm...what the HECK is that? And how the HECK did it make its way into a museum? Maybe I was just missing something...
I understand the need to push limits--it sometimes leads (eventually) to great new ideas, but wow it can result in some crap along the way.
I really think, however, that the next great thing in art will still follow the definitions above. Don't we have to WANT to look at it for it to truly last?
Friday, January 13, 2006
So I live in Montana. You'd think January would = cold in Montana. It's been raining since mid-December, but there's been a little snow mixed in here and there. Just enough to pack down nice and hard on our driveway.
Some people think snow is slippery. Actually, it's really not bad. Know what's slippery? Snow that's been thawed and driven on so much that it forms a hard sheet of ice. Know what's even more slippery? The before-mentioned ice with rainwater on top.
That's our driveway. Yesterday, as I was ascending our steep driveway in our awesome 4wd Toyota pickup that I used to think could go anywhere, I got to the steepest part of the road, which happens to also be a sharp left turn. The wheels started spinning. Uh-oh, but I'm sure I'll get traction in a second...nope. The truck slid SIDEWAYS and BACKWARDS down the hill...and it kept picking up speed...and picking up speed (remember, backwards and sideways), and I thought, I'm gonna roll my truck! Crap. Well, unfortunately I wasn't so mature as to say merely "crap." I wish it were so.
I like to think that I'm a good driver, that I know how to drive on ice and snow in pretty much any kind of weather. But, I had no category in my ice driving experience for sliding backwards and then sideways downhill. What do you do? I instinctively hit the brake and the clutch as soon as I realized that I'd lost traction (thereby breaking ice rule no. 1), but that only made things worse (of course). So, I thought, maybe I should release the clutch and let off the brake...nope, that only killed the engine and made me slide faster.
I came to rest perpendicular to our driveway with the front wheels on a grassy patch and with a low row of rocks and a dropoff to my right. Thankfully I hadn't gained enough speed to roll sideways over the rocks and down the hill - I would have ended up on Wulff Lane (our street) or possibly wrapped around a tree on the way to Wulff Lane. Praise God for grassy patches!
After I'd collected myself, apologized to God for the colorful language and thanked Him that our truck (and my body) was in one piece, I restarted the engine, stuck the truck in 4 low (super 4wd) :-), and crept up the lawn instead of the driveway, a route I'm sure to take until that darn ice melts.
The moral of the story? Wet ice is slippery. Don't even look at it too long or you'll land on your bum wondering what the heck happened.
kev
Some people think snow is slippery. Actually, it's really not bad. Know what's slippery? Snow that's been thawed and driven on so much that it forms a hard sheet of ice. Know what's even more slippery? The before-mentioned ice with rainwater on top.
That's our driveway. Yesterday, as I was ascending our steep driveway in our awesome 4wd Toyota pickup that I used to think could go anywhere, I got to the steepest part of the road, which happens to also be a sharp left turn. The wheels started spinning. Uh-oh, but I'm sure I'll get traction in a second...nope. The truck slid SIDEWAYS and BACKWARDS down the hill...and it kept picking up speed...and picking up speed (remember, backwards and sideways), and I thought, I'm gonna roll my truck! Crap. Well, unfortunately I wasn't so mature as to say merely "crap." I wish it were so.
I like to think that I'm a good driver, that I know how to drive on ice and snow in pretty much any kind of weather. But, I had no category in my ice driving experience for sliding backwards and then sideways downhill. What do you do? I instinctively hit the brake and the clutch as soon as I realized that I'd lost traction (thereby breaking ice rule no. 1), but that only made things worse (of course). So, I thought, maybe I should release the clutch and let off the brake...nope, that only killed the engine and made me slide faster.
I came to rest perpendicular to our driveway with the front wheels on a grassy patch and with a low row of rocks and a dropoff to my right. Thankfully I hadn't gained enough speed to roll sideways over the rocks and down the hill - I would have ended up on Wulff Lane (our street) or possibly wrapped around a tree on the way to Wulff Lane. Praise God for grassy patches!
After I'd collected myself, apologized to God for the colorful language and thanked Him that our truck (and my body) was in one piece, I restarted the engine, stuck the truck in 4 low (super 4wd) :-), and crept up the lawn instead of the driveway, a route I'm sure to take until that darn ice melts.
The moral of the story? Wet ice is slippery. Don't even look at it too long or you'll land on your bum wondering what the heck happened.
kev
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