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Zoë Blade's notebook

Art

𐑸𐑑

Art is something people talk about a lot, without consistently defining it. Perhaps a good aim is to both be technically proficient at a craft, and also have something meaningful to express through that craft.

Personally, I have no idea what art is. Due to likely affective alexithymia, it may possibly be beyond my comprehension. I just try to express myself creatively. I don't see much distinction between making music, computer programs, prose fiction, screenplays, or articles. I'm compelled to make all of these, for reasons unknown to me.

Quotes

Man puts something of his own nature into everything he does. However much he may try to render no more than the visible appearance of things, as it is seen by all the world, he always adds something which is not actually before his eyes, which comes from within himself, from his own personal emotions and impressions. This intervention is first manifested in his choice of subject; next in the arrangement and proportion of parts, by the importance given to some and withheld from others, unconsciously as it may be, and though the latter are no less real than the former.

Now, it is precisely by this latter characteristic, with its instinctive preferences and the peculiarities of impression which they convey to the auditor or spectator, that a work becomes a work of art. Any man can count the branches of a tree or the features of a landscape; but an artist alone can render their effects and general expression. This is so because it is his peculiar nature to be more sensitive than other men to such effects and expressions; he interprets them naturally when he gives them the particular colours that appeal to his own nature, temperament, and personality.

— Eugène Véron, Æsthetics, 1879[1]

Of these three forms of art — conventional, realistic, and personal — the latter alone really deserves the name. The first is the negation and absolute contradiction of art; the second generally shows some artistic qualities, because it is almost impossible for the artist to disappear entirely behind reality. But the determinant and essential constituent of art, is the personality of the artist; and this is as much as to say, that the first duty of the artist is to seek to interpret only those things which excite his own emotions.

— Eugène Véron, Æsthetics, 1879[1]

There obviously is a considerable controversy, just as there always has been, about what is a work of art, and I should be the last to try to define that. I was amused by Cocteau's Orphée when the poet is given the advice: "Astonish me." The Johnsonian definition of a work of art is also meaningful to me, and that is that a work of art must either make life more enjoyable or more endurable. Another quality, which I think forms part of the definition, is that a work of art is always exhilirating and never depressing, whatever its subject matter may be.

— Stanley Kubrick, 1972[2]

In large measure, becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive. Clearly, these qualities can be nurtured by others. Even talent is rarely distinguishable, over the long run, from perseverence and lots of hard work.

— David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear, 1993[3]

Aesthetically pleasing images are not art. Art is the ability to respond to the human condition through process and expression.

— Andreea Ion Cojocaru, 2022[4]

The point of art is to let other people know that the thing wrong with them is also wrong with you.

— HylianEngineer, 2024[5]

I leaned heavily on this ability, this disassociation. It became a tool for survival... And I found new ways to express myself and my place in a world that can be downright hostile to trans folks.

And this is the true beauty of art-making. It is a way to fill up and counteract the vacuum of unmaking. It gives us access to dreaming and imagined space where anything is possible. If The Matrix is a story about liberation, it is manifesting itself in our imaginations as a template to liberate ourselves.

And in that liberation, is the ability to change everything.

— Lilly Wachowski, 2024[6]

References

  1. Æsthetics Eugène Véron, 1879, p. v-xxv
  2. Modern Times: An Interview With Stanley Kubrick Philip Strick & Penelope Houston, Stanley Kubrick Interviews, 1972, ISBN 1-57806-297-7, pp. 126—139
  3. Art & Fear David Bayles & Ted Orland, 1993, ISBN 0-9614547-3-3, p. 3
  4. "Tech world gives away the 'art' label too easily. This makes it hard to recognize when it actually does generate valid artistic output. Aesthetically pleasing images are not art. Art is the ability to respond to the human condition through process + expression." @andreeavr, Twitter, Oct 2022
  5. "The point of art is to let other people know that the thing wrong with them is also wrong with you." HylianEngineer, Tumblr, Mar 2024
  6. "Lilly Wachowski's Manifesto on New Mythologies" Lilly Wachowski, Document Journal, Jun 2024

Art: Music