The Meaning of Art
I’m currently in work, and am waiting for a phone call before I can proceed to do any work, so while waiting I have been musing on what constitutes art. By that, I mean what separates something which is art, from something which is not art.
So far my musings have lead me to a working definition of – “Art is any form of self expression which can be appreciated by others”. This encompases the selfishness of art. Art is definately all about the artist and very little about the audience, but without the audience it would be nothing. Or would it? I am beginining to doubt this. A quick google search (horay for google) has lead me to another, slightly better definition – “art is anything which people add to their “output” which is not functionally necessary and is other than the default properties of that output”.
This is an excellent definition, because using my initial definition, a wank could be art. I don’t believe that a wank is art, therefore my definition doesn’t fit with my understanding of art. The revised “google” definition, however, discounts a wank for the most part.
I am pleased that a wank isn’t art.