Arts, general, what. --- .This section is about what is art. Topics include: ( ) Thoughts contra art. ( ) Thoughts pro art. ( ) Psychology and art. Emotion and art. Drive and art. --- 1/24/2006
Arts, general, what. --- (1) Art as story (narrative) of human experiences. (2) Art as problem and solution. --- 12/01/1994
Arts, general, what. --- (1) Art is how many ways can you say the same thing. (2) Art is life condensed, concentrated, distilled. (3) Art is shorthand or epigram for philosophy. (4) Art organizes not logically but by perspective? (5) Art is candy coated truth for kids. Sugary, sweetened cereal. (6) Art as beauty. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- All art is propaganda for ideas. The function of the artist is to take an idea and concretize it. --- 11/12/1988
Arts, general, what. --- Art addresses a specific time and place, and thus a specific state of mind. --- 4/15/2005
Arts, general, what. --- Art as (1) Way of thinking. (2) Way of communicating. (3) Subject matter: beauty, emotion. --- 01/01/1993
Arts, general, what. --- Art as distilled or condensed life. --- 08/14/1994
Arts, general, what. --- Art as mental idea vs. physical object. --- 02/01/1994
Arts, general, what. --- Art as statement. (semiotics, communication). At what point does communication become art and visa versa? All art is propaganda. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Art distilled like liquor. Art condensed like soup. Art concentrated like orange juice. --- 4/20/2005
Arts, general, what. --- Art is a form of communication. Art communicates through thought and emotion. (1) Thought or ideas. Subject, view, arguments, evidence. Philosophical statements (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics) implicitly or indirectly stated vs. explicit or directly stated. (2) Emotion, feeling. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Art is a rhetorical device. An artwork is comprised of an intellectual argument combined with an emotional appeal. --- 12/28/2006
Arts, general, what. --- Art is an information management system. --- 5/24/2006
Arts, general, what. --- Art is for dealing with the emotions through reason, for catharsis and enjoyment, for self and others. --- 03/13/1989
Arts, general, what. --- Art is for the dim, weak, neurotic. The art neurotic uses art to avoid and escape problems. Uses art to replace sex and like/love. Art is made by neurotics and used by neurotics. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Art is one of the ways of experiencing the world (magic/myth/religion, art, philosophy, science). --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Attitude. Art is attitude. Attitude is reason plus emotion. Academia, philosophy, and science are pure reason. Music is pure emotion. --- 01/01/1993
Arts, general, what. --- Dreams and art. People dream every night, and everyday people think and talk about their dreams from the previous night. Art is similar to dreams in two ways. Firstly, art is a hazy, fuzzy world of symbolism, metaphor, non-sequitor and illogic, much like the dream world. Secondly, many works of art are attempts to describe dreams. --- 10/15/2004
Arts, general, what. --- Drive. Art and sex are similar. Interest leads to tension, leads to climax, leads to resolution. --- 12/30/1996
Arts, general, what. --- Drive. Art deals just as much with urges (drives) as it does with emotion. Art expresses urges. Art does not just talk about urges like scientists do. --- 9/1/2000
Arts, general, what. --- Drive. Art is an outlet for excessive libidinal energies. That is why people are more artistic when they are young, and it fades with age. That is also one reason why repressed and unsatiated homoerotic types tend to become artists. --- 12/27/1988
Arts, general, what. --- Emotion. Art is an emotional reminder. Art is an emotional workout. Art is emotional learning, emotional knowledge, emotional development. Art is emotional catharsis. Art is emotional health. --- 08/17/1997
Arts, general, what. --- Emotions and art. The argument: Emotions are just as important to being human as is reason. Therefore, art, which deals with emotions, is just as important as philosophy and science, which deal with reason. --- 10/15/2004
Arts, general, what. --- Graffiti. All art, in a way, is a type of graffiti. A way to say "I was here". And this is very similar to the ways animals use scent marking. --- 2/26/2000
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts contra art. (1) Art, all forms of art, is played out. (2) Art is a form of escape, avoidance, repression. (3) Art is a slow, unorganized, inefficient, way to learn. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts contra art. (1) Arts as inaccurate false lies. (2) Arts as avoidance or escape from reality. --- 3/20/2001
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts contra art. A very negative view. Anyone who believes in writing or reading novels, or literary NY, or the power of architecture, dance, music (classical or rock), or love, is a fool. I used to call myself an artist. Ha! There is only health, age, growth and decay. Work and money to stay alive. To solve problems. --- 06/30/1996
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts contra art. Art is a kiss-ass, political business. The youngsters first seek the approval of the oldsters, then they seek to oust them. It is surprising how social the artists are. --- 3/14/2000
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts contra art. Art is a sub-optimal method of communication. Why go (1) Philosophy encoded into art (art creation), and then (2) Art decoded into philosophy (art audience)? Decoding may not take place, or it may be decoded wrong. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts contra art. Art relies on analogy, metaphor, symbolism, subjectivism and other sub-optimal and neurotic ways of thinking. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts contra art. Contra art arguments. (1) All art is an illusion, a distortion of reality. (2) Art as deception: a false view of world. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. (1) Art serves as reminder of important ideas. (2) Art helps you learn important ideas. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Art helps improve your mood. Art can let you control your mood. (1) Get motivated, inspired, get hope, direction. (2) Calm down or get psyched up. (3) Rock blues away. (4) Blow off anger, get angry at injustice, rebel. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Art is cathartic, and thus healthy. Art is therapeutic and helps reduce or avoid repression by confronting feelings and problems. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Create an environment. Pleasant and healthy. Soothe senses. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Get, record, and keep attitudes. Develop mind. Character, personality. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Good for people who think mostly intuitively. Provides a model. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Many people learn faster and remember longer when there is an emotional component to the information they are absorbing. Art is information with an emotional component. Thus art is a good way to learn. --- 10/28/2001
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Some people need candy coated learning. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Thoughts pro art. Some people's mind work artistically and they can only learn through art. --- 12/30/1992
Arts, general, what. --- Three views of art. (1) Art as beauty. (2) Art as non-fact (opposite of non-fiction). (3) Art as entertainment and information together. --- 01/06/1997
Arts, general, what. --- Unconscious and art. Much art bubbles up from the unconscious. Artists have more access to their subconscious than the average person. Artists spend much time in a twilight state between consciousness and subconsciousness, call it reverie, call it meditation, call it day dreaming. --- 10/15/2004