What is art and its function?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

Stiganator

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2001
2,492
3
81
So I'm in a digital art class. My prof is a bit of a fruitloop. Very stereotypical art prof, flighty and way out there. Well I was trying to get her to clarify the project and she said just to make great art. Well I respond that the Jan Swonkmayer crap that we've been viewing moves me as much as paint drying. She says to think about what I think of as art. I think 99% of modern art is crapola. I can dig Monet, Van Gogh etc, but even that doesn't do too much for me. I dig the Incredible's with the great physics and neat soft render filters.

Then I started thinking about art. What does it do for man kind? Jan Swonkmayer doesn't do sh!t! I would literally get more out of staring at a wall. I can see literature bringing you to a different place or describing something. I love reading so I get it, but art not so much. What is the purpose of it? Has it helped advance our society in any way I consider important. Not so much.

Help me understand my style of art to I can pass this class.

CLIFFS:
What is the function of art?
 
T

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
0
"We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth."

It's the same for all art, regardless of medium. Be it literature, musical or paint.

Seriously man, if you don't get chills looking at a great "El Greco" sky or some other great work I feel very bad for you.

If that wasn't specific enough for you art's purpose is to convey emotion.
 
S

Stiganator

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2001
2,492
3
81
Honest question, it is a digital art class this first project will include stills, video, stop animation, and sound. We can do any style, but I don't know what my style is. I don't understand it and have never been really interested except for 3d animation. It seems like it doesn't advance society in any way and the modern crap doesn't have any emotion at all. The older stuff is pretty, but still it isn't helping me invent better rockets or what have you.
 
J

JSFLY

Golden Member
Mar 24, 2006
1,068
0
0
Art begins when one person, with the object of joining another or others to himself in one and the same feeling, expresses that feeling by certain external indications. To take the simplest example: a boy, having experienced, let us say, fear on encountering a wolf, relates that encounter; and, in order to evoke in others the feeling he has experienced, describes himself, his condition before the encounter, the surroundings, the woods, his own lightheartedness, and then the wolf's appearance, its movements, the distance between himself and the wolf, etc. All this, if only the boy, when telling the story, again experiences the feelings he had lived through and infects the hearers and compels them to feel what the narrator had experienced is art. If even the boy had not seen a wolf but had frequently been afraid of one, and if, wishing to evoke in others the fear he had felt, he invented an encounter with a wolf and recounted it so as to make his hearers share the feelings he experienced when he feared the world, that also would be art. And just in the same way it is art if a man, having experienced either the fear of suffering or the attraction of enjoyment (whether in reality or in imagination) expresses these feelings on canvas or in marble so that others are infected by them. And it is also art if a man feels or imagines to himself feelings of delight, gladness, sorrow, despair, courage, or despondency and the transition from one to another of these feelings, and expresses these feelings by sounds so that the hearers are infected by them and experience them as they were experienced by the composer.
 
MagnusTheBrewer

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
126
Originally posted by: Stiganator
Honest question, it is a digital art class this first project will include stills, video, stop animation, and sound. We can do any style, but I don't know what my style is. I don't understand it and have never been really interested except for 3d animation. It seems like it doesn't advance society in any way and the modern crap doesn't have any emotion at all. The older stuff is pretty, but still it isn't helping me invent better rockets or what have you.
Click to expand...

If none of the art you have seen particularly moves you, I would question your desire to work in the field. Art defines what it is to be human. All of man's greatest achievements, horrifying debasement and, philosophical questions have been condensed, intensified, distilled by his art. I would reccomend you visit a large art museum and focus on your emotions rather than the techniques employed by the artists.
 
J

jjones

Lifer
Oct 9, 2001
15,424
2
0
Art is expression in both being and function. The trick is figuring out wtf the artist is expressing; not always an easy, or even pleasant, task.
 
S

Stiganator

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2001
2,492
3
81
I have no desire to work in the art field, at least not the crazy stuff she's been showing us. That's why I'm an engineer. The college seems to believe art classes are necessary for some odd reason.
 
AreaCode707

AreaCode707

Lifer
Sep 21, 2001
18,447
133
106
Art, in my view, is a communication between the artist and the viewer. Communication never means quite the same thing to the person saying it and the person hearing it, no matter what the subject matter or medium, and art is no different.
 
T

Tom

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
13,293
1
76
visual art ?

it's putting the pictures in your head into some form other people can see.

then it will be in their head, but it won't be exactly the same.

 
m1ldslide1

m1ldslide1

Platinum Member
Feb 20, 2006
2,321
0
0
Many would say it isn't about deciphering what the artist was all about, it's about deciphering what the piece means to YOU. Art is very personal. A common misconception is that you should be able to walk up to a painting as a layperson and get as much out of it as you're ever going to. Which is total crap, but unfortunately widely held. The amount of education you have invested (not meaning formal necessarily) in art is how much you're going to get back out of it.

I could make a hundred analogies to technical sciences. Just think about what impression your mom would have of debugged code. Probably not much. Then tell her that she's not intelligent because she doesn't think much of it. She's probably going to start talking smack about debugged code and the "intelligencia" types who promulgate it. Art shouldn't be quite the enigma that it is in this country. Just like coding or anything else it requires some education if you care enough to understand it.
 
fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
Jan 2, 2006
10,455
35
91
Photographic art for me is really just about eye candy and the emotions that are invoked from staring at said eye candy.
 
L

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,938
6
81
Originally posted by: Stiganator
I have no desire to work in the art field, at least not the crazy stuff she's been showing us. That's why I'm an engineer. The college seems to believe art classes are necessary for some odd reason.
Click to expand...

Well, take the classical approach.
Use art for propaganda and the spread of knowledge. Don't try and invoke feelings, make a record of an event in some way, or make a political point.
 
MagnusTheBrewer

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
126
Art broadens your perspective. "Specialization is for insects."-Heinlein

The idea that the field of engineering exists by itself for its own purpose is narrow, self-limiting and, demonstrably false. Art students rant against math for the same reason. "Why do I have to take college algebra?" While it is a natural tendency to shy away from subjects that the individual feels ill prepared for, the process of learning about such subjects raises our awareness of how engineering and art interact. In the end, having a wider more appreciative viewpoint can only enhance our art and engineering.
 
Praxis1452

Praxis1452

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2006
2,197
0
0
Actually the philosophy of art is one of the most interesting aspects of life and all philosophy.

Art expresses philosophy. Through it's use of shock, entertainment(this can be exapnded), irony, sarcasm it can express things that at face value may not be obvious to us.

Herbert Marcuse argued that philosophy was destructive and violent yet that is why art is so neccessary.

Anyway I had a great philosophy professor who's favorite area was this one.

Google philosophy of art of aesthetics. It's a fun area to explore. I love philosophy heh.
 
E

EGGO

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,504
1
0
To add color in an otherwise utilitarian lifestyle. Same with music, which is a form of art.

I could make a whole paragraph but essentially that's it in a nutshell.
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
The only art I really appreciate would be paintings of things in the real world - I appreciate them for their accuracy.
I never much did care for other "expressive" art, whether it be paintings or poetry.

This is why I tend to stay far away from arts and humanities courses. :)

"What was the artist feeling?"
"Um, probably, 'Damn, I really want to paint something.'"


Originally posted by: EGGO
To add color in an otherwise utilitarian lifestyle. Same with music, which is a form of art.

I could make a whole paragraph but essentially that's it in a nutshell.
Click to expand...
My walls are all painted white, with nothing hanging on them. The closest I get to art is to put some jade plants on a windowsill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom