Art
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, short stories, screenplays, or articles. I'm compelled to make all of these, for reasons unknown to me.
Quotes
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[1]
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[2]
Aesthetically pleasing images are not art. Art is the ability to respond to the human condition through process and expression.
— Andreea Ion Cojocaru, 2022[3]
The point of art is to let other people know that the thing wrong with them is also wrong with you.
— HylianEngineer, 2024[4]
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[5]
References
- Modern Times: An Interview With Stanley Kubrick Philip Strick & Penelope Houston, Stanley Kubrick Interviews, 1972, ISBN 1-57806-297-7, pp. 126—139
- Art & Fear David Bayles & Ted Orland, 1993, ISBN 0-9614547-3-3, p. 3
- "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
- "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
- "Lilly Wachowski's Manifesto on New Mythologies" Lilly Wachowski, Document Journal, Jun 2024
Art: Music
