Can't remember which Facebook friend posted this pic. I've been thinking about writing a blog post on art for most of the year.The definition of art varies from 'works produced with skill and imagination' through to very subjective statements about recognising it when one sees it.
For a while I've been saying it's an outcome that engages with the expectations of the audience, because I think really good art anticipates your perspective and exceeds it. But then again, this is a subjective statement.
Scott McCloud has an idea that art is any activity that goes beyond what is necessary and provides a kind of additional ornamental 'look at me' sorta outcome. So that flushing the toilet with flourish could be considered art, I guess if I want to really trivialise it.
Anyway, this week I received payment for a video I made to promote my music. There are many music videos that I consider works of art, and they're a genre that fits nicely with McCloud's view of art, but it kinda illustrates for me that one person's marketing is another person's art. Reminding me of the classic debate about the distinction between commercial material and artistic works, which was something I first started thinking seriously about when reading Maxx Barry's book Syrup:
It reminds me of when I was writing about music and realised there is no distinction between mainstream and underground acts. They both produce musical noises, on record and live on stage, promoting the former with the latter and film clips, etc.
So once you deconstruct this distinction between art and commercial activity, all art starts to look like products and artists' expressions are acts of public relations and marketing. Or the artist might be the product, whatever.
Which leads me to conclude that the only art worth investing in are those works which inspire the community to make their own art and find fulfillment through realising an individual perspective on their environment and experiences. The rest of it props up egos and basically says your activities are only valuable if they produce a financial outcome.
