What is art for? My response..

[azekeil]

So the answer (mostly verbatim) I gave my minion off the top of my head was that art is something that in my view is one big thing that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Humans are the only species (as far as I am aware) that create art. It's to do with the sheer luxury of creating for creation's sake - something that explores the extravagance we can afford with our lifestyles that are above that of the other animals - it's not all or even mainly about survival for us.

It ties into ancient Greek philosophy. The ancient Greeks mused on the purpose of life, and their answer was that they wanted to leave their mark on the world, through stories of glory, through building monuments, through leaving a legacy in terms of buildings, technology, aesthetics, science, etcetera. Art is human kind's expression that we are unique. Art is one important (in my view possibly the most important) special difference and that through expressing it, we are closer to the core of what it is to be human.

Comments

[gerald_duck]

There's quite a bit of evidence other primates and elephants can create art, too, actually.

What means we, as humans, have time for art is the shift from subsistence farming and hunting-gathering to more sophisticated agriculture that creates a surplus. The day a farmer grows more food than he can eat is the day he can barter some of it for goods and services. Pretty soon, the village has a blacksmith who grows no food but doesn't starve. Not long afterwards, people start thinking about what we'd now call quality of life, and when they go to the carpenter they'll want a table that looks nice as well as being stable and long-lasting. And after that, a few people can start being full-time artists, making things that often have no practical value whatever but that people still want.

What sets us aside from the animals isn't the aesthetic to enjoy art so much as the society which allows us the time and resources to create and appreciate it. A lot of animals will create art if we give them the time to by satisfying their survival needs.

To stretch things a little, is stroking a cat art? Is the cat appreciating a work of art? If a dog does tricks of its own initiative (even if they're tricks it's previously been taught), is that an artistic performance? I say yes.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> Humans are the only species (as far as I am aware) that create art.

> elephants can create art

I recently saw a tv program about elephants who make art. It included a scientific study of them. They found no evidence that the elephants were creating art - but that it was more the elephant handlers who were effectively instructing them.

Primates, I dont know about :-)

[jinx-lbc.livejournal.com]

actually they let the elephants create their own paintings without any input from the handlers at all. what the elephants really responded to was the colour and texture of the paint when shown other paintings, though any deeper meaning in the paintings was probably missed ;D

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I'll have to do some research on that because it's fairly fundamental to what I'm saying. I'll be fascinated to find out!

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

Higher primates (chimps, gorillas, etc.) have been creating art for years. They are given paint and paper, shown how to use them, then left to it. Some of them seem to get great pleasure from it too. :)

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

So why aren't loads of pets creating art? We provide for their survival, after all..

I see what you're saying about cats and dogs, I'm not sure about the cat one but the dog one could be, if you wanted to stretch it. After all, after the dog is gone the owner remembers the dog's personality and the things the dog gave the human in terms of loyalty, companionship, etc. I'm not really sure I'd call that 'art' though.

[eleanorb.livejournal.com]

I can see what you're getting at here but I'm not sure we quite agree. Many animals create - be it Birds of Paradise and their bowers or primates and their paintings. But, we are judging by a purely human definition and choose only to call what we create (and then only a certain subset of it) art. I'm not sure where the difference is between a weaver bird's nest and a willow creation by Laura Bacon which is placed in such a way that birds will change it through their nesting habits. Is the second art only because we label it as such?

Are we unique through art? I don't know. I'd prefer to think that we are unique in giving a special group of skills and products a value purely on their aesthetic appeal. Look how ceramics have changed from being practical, and sometimes beautiful, objects to pieces of art which are no longer used for their primary purpose (vases that never hold flowers, plates never used for cake :-) )

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

But birds nests are functional. Bowers are functional. Primates (and from above, elephants) painting.. now that's an interesting one.

Personally I find the perversion of something functional into an artistic object alone to be generally offensive to me.

[eleanorb.livejournal.com]

Personally I find the perversion of something functional into an artistic object alone to be generally offensive to me.

How about advertising as art?

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

gerald_duck has this on his list to choose between. My guideline has been if it's primary purpose is something other than aesthetic then it isn't art. But Advertising sort of breaks that (I'm thinking perfume adverts and the like here) and I'm not sure how to resolve it right now. Any suggestions?

best.pig.evar

[leopardspice.livejournal.com]

Re: best.pig.evar

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Heh. Holy crap. Where'd you find that? Was the pig trained to do that?

[sayuri-eve.livejournal.com]

Wow, I’m so late on this..^^'' I agree that art is a luxury of sorts and although I wouldn’t entirely agree that animals don’t create art, for the most part wild animals don’t have luxury and so in the same sense, what we would call culture. I’ve always thought as culture as anything that goes beyond the need to eat, sleep, procreate... all the necessities of staying alive, life beyond living.

Art is there to pass on ideas, a way to try to understand oneself, a desire to share and spread thought processes. Of course the same can be said for all forms of expression but art is possibly the biggest grey area. Jackson Pollock famously once said ‘If I felt I could express myself in words, I wouldn’t need to paint’ for me that comment pretty much sums it all up.

Art to me is one of many ways of preserving ideas and moments, and letting them live on. Actually I just read your comment a little more closely(!) as you mentioned - ‘leaving a legacy’. I think the main problem we have with the idea of animals creating genuine art is perhaps simply our sense of superiority – I must admit I struggle with the idea myself ^^’’ Perhaps the more culture we create the more superior we feel and so in turn, a greater mark is left behind (and then we can er declare ourselves the like, most awesomest of all?!). Our desire to spread thoughts and ideas I would say is equally as important as our desire to spread genes.

I would say that the role of art as a form of expression and communication has shifted somewhat throughout history – things that were once only viewed as forms of communication are now viewed for their aesthetic appeal (ancient calligraphy for example and of course yet more grey areas in between as time went on). Of course art was also once used as a key tool for communicating to those who could not read or write, religious art of the Byzantine era is a good example and also marks a key changing point in the way art was viewed – often accredited to Giotto due to his depictions of human emotion within his paintings (and so people started to respond and relate to paintings beyond the religious message). Further east Japan had its ukiyo-e which I often feel is the first real pop art – vibrant depictions of every day life, clelebreties, affordable and to a certain degree, disposable.

I’m rather interested to think about where a conscious creation of art begins and where a pure desire for communication ends..and of course all the bits in between. Er good god I hadn’t anywhere near finished rambling then saw how much I’d waffled .. apologies, time to shut up methinks. Sorry for all the tripe ^^’’’