I agree with the implied paradox. The artist says what art is; society says what art is. In the end, I think art is a title conferred by society, the institutional theory applied -- with all flaws accepted. Yet someone has to start the process and that's usually, but certainly not always, the artist. Of course, nowadays anyone can be an artist so that makes the whole matter a re herring. As for other instances, how about when one person declares love for another. That doesn't -- ordinarily -- require anyone else's approbation, not even the person to whom the expression is addressed. Or, I suppose, it could be any personal expression. What a mess. Nothing is stable.
----- Original Message ---- From: Michael Brady <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sat, January 7, 2012 10:11:25 AM Subject: Re: "...[He} lamented at how art schools exclusively btry to teach the poetry and not the craft.'" William > I can take a walk today and designate whatever strikes my fancy as > art, whatever it may be, a scrap in the gutter, a new car, a sign in the shop > window, a voice I hear, whatever. Why? Because I'm an artist and whatever I > say is art, is art. Did I just have a road to Damascus moment? An epiphany? Is art (in the broad sense of creative activity) the only realm in which the participants get to declare what belongs under the rubric of that discipline? Science doesn't. Physicists don't say, "Oh, I declare that a physics event." Doctors don't say, "We'll call that medicine" or "anatomy." In what other occupation or endeavor does one hear a conversation like: "That's not X." "Yes it is." "No, it's not. Look at it." "It is because I say it is, and I'm a _________er." The epiphanic moment isn't that "the artist can declare anything art." That's been around for a long time. The "ah-ha" came when I realized that that behavior occurs in no other activity. Unless I'm having a caffeine-free moment and can't think clearly or remember too much, I can't think of any other area of human activity--except perhaps games--in which this is happens. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michael Brady
