Arts, general.  ---  .Introduction or summary.  (1) Epistemology and art.  Truth of art.  (2) Ethics and art.  (3) Emotion and art.  (4) Personality and taste.  (5) Art as communication.  (6) Art as information.  ---  9/5/1998

Arts, general.  ---  .This section is about other various topics in the arts.  Topics include: ( ) Art vs. non-art.  ( ) Art vs. reality.  ( ) Art as virtual reality.  ( ) Art as underrated.  ( ) Art, philosophy and science.  ( ) Classification of arts.  ( ) Good art and bad art.  ( ) Intention vs. accident.  ( ) Style and art.  ---  1/24/2006

Arts, general.  ---  "About" the arts.  Reference in the arts.  (1) A painting does not have to be "about" anything; it can just be having fun with paint.  (2) Similarly, a work of literature does not have to be "about" anything; it can just be having fun with words.  That notion seems less convincing somehow.  (3) A work of music does not have to be "about" anything.  Indeed, a work of music cannot be "about" anything, because music is comprised of musical notes which refer to no other thing.  ---  3/5/2007

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Any work of art that attempts to approach life must approach life from every one of the branches of knowledge.  It would be epic.  (2) The artist must break everything down (analyze), and then put it all back together again (synthesize), and still keep the patient alive.  (3) As an artist, deal only with the most basic questions.  (4) All art is basically a philosophical dilemma.  How do you see the world.  ---  12/14/1988

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Art and memory.  (A) Art and long term memory.  Example, Proust.  (B) Art and short term memory.  Example, Kerouac.  (3) Art and imagination.  Example, Science fiction and fantasy.  ---  12/28/1998

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Art as a mode of "experiencing, thinking, or minding" as opposed to the other modes such as religion (myth, magic), philosophy and science.  (2) Art as a mode of communicating.  As opposed to other modes of communicating such as those that are unemotional, exact, literal and formal.  ---  10/5/2000

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Art does not have to be easy to understand.  (2) Art does not have to be pretty.  (3) Art does not have to communicate answers.  It can provoke questions.  (4) Shock value is okay.  ---  10/30/1997

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Art is a way of "minding".  Art is a way of "minding" not only with words but also with images and sounds, that is, "minding" with any sensory input and any sensory output.  Art as a way of "minding" not only with reason but also with emotion.  (2) Art is a way of communicating.  Art is a way of reporting one's thoughts, emotions, and attitudes to others.  Art is a way of trying to persuade others.  Less didactically, art can be a way of sharing one's thoughts and feelings with others, without trying to persuade others.  ---  3/22/2007

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Art is not supposed to make sense.  If it made sense then we could just express it in a mathematical formula.  (2) Art is not supposed to be recognizable.  Especially at first viewing, we are supposed to say, "I do not know what that is.  I do not understand."  If you understood it at first glance then it would not be telling you anything that you do not already know.  ---  7/31/2001

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Art that is avante garde, on the cutting edge, prophetic, visionary, is not going to be popular with the masses.  It will be understood by very few, or the artist alone.  This is because it will be the future, and many people have trouble understanding even the present and past, let alone the future.  Most people like mediocre crap garbage.  90% of everything is garbage.  It is hard to see the future.  It must be intuited or else reasoned from the present and predicted accurately.  (2) It is a mistake to think that just because no one likes your work then it is good.  Few people like really good art.  Few people like really bad art.  If no one likes your work, it could be good or bad.  Most people like mediocre art.  ---  10/17/1988

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Art vs. nature.  I.e., art as artificial.  (2) Art vs. science.  I.e., art as inexact, alluding, figurative, heuristic vs. science as formal, literal and algorithmic.  (3) Art vs. the ugly.  I.e., art as aesthetic beauty.  (4) Art vs. the ordinary.  I.e., art as extraordinary, art as special.  ---  10/5/2000

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Arthur Danto's End of Art thesis strikes me as vain, "We figured it all out.  After us, nothing more."  Or macho, "You started, we finished it."  Maybe Danto was talking only about paint on canvas.  (2) As technology changes, art changes.  As society and the world changes, art changes.  ---  1/25/1998

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Everyone is an artist.  I.e., everyone is an art producer.  (2) Everyone is an audience.  I.e., everyone is an art consumer.  ---  6/3/2004

Arts, general.  ---  (1) For every critically acclaimed Top 100 rock artists, there are at least a thousand earnest, hardworking also-rans who eke out a living, and ten thousand keening wanna-be's.  (2) For every Top 1000 rock artists, there are ten thousand also-rans who eke out a living, and a hundred thousand wanna-be's.  (3) Haven't you seen the American Idol auditions?  (4) And so it is also with writing, visual arts, comedy, movies, and any field of endeavor, really.  ---  6/7/2006

Arts, general.  ---  (1) In the visual arts we do not "write" or "say", rather we "depict".   (2) In literature and the visual arts we do not write or depict emotions, rather we invoke emotions or allude to emotions.  (3) Writing about the emotion anger is not the same as writing something that makes the reader angry.  (4) If a society's writing system is based on pictograms (ex. Chinese) and an individual composes a letter using pictograms, is that individual writing or drawing?  And at that level, what is the difference between literature (writing) and the visual arts (drawing)?  There is no difference.  (5) All words have symbolic and non-symbolic content.  All pictures have symbolic and non-symbolic content.  ---  10/28/2001

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Optimistic vs. pessimistic art does not depend on the subject matter.  You can have pessimistic art about flowers, kids, etc.  You can have optimistic art about crime, drugs, that is, uplifting sentiments about our ability to overcome these problems.  (2) Then there is also the case of real art vs. bullshit art.  Real art is honest and true.  Bullshit art is lies and half truths.  (3) It is tough to tell whether a work of art is optimistic or pessimistic, and real or bullshit.  ---  04/15/1997

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Pro art.  (A) Art taps the unconscious and helps us identify, work out, and resolve issues.  (B) Art relieves stress.  Art as healthy, healing, and expressive catharsis.  (C) Aesthetic dimension as unavoidable.  Everything has an aesthetic side which we can and should appreciate.  Art as natural and unavoidable.  Man makes art naturally.     (2) Contra art.  (A) Art is dead.  In the 20th century, all arts have been worked out.  (B) Art is a joke.  Art is bullshit.  Art is inferior.  (C) Art is just a way for neurotics to think and communicate (send and receive) ideas.  (D) Art is a code for clubs and cliques to separate themselves from others and feel superior.  ---  07/05/1997

Arts, general.  ---  (1) Pure, simple, boring arts: (A) Sight: image, picture.  (B) Hearing: sound, music.  (C) Word: the spoken symbol, the written symbol.  Literature is not a sense oriented art.  The sights and sounds it evokes are more mental, like when you talk about a sunset or birds song.  (D) Touch, smell, and taste are senses lacking in strong arts.  (2) Complex and interesting arts.  (A) Performance art: The artist is the object or actor, and the audience is an active participant.  (B) Installation art: The whole room as artwork.  Creating an artistic environment.  (C) Conceptual art: Just come up with the idea.  You don't have to make it.  (D) Multimedia art: How about a dark, warm, moist, foggy, seaside at night room?  (E) Computer art: fractals, etc.  ---  06/30/1997

Arts, general.  ---  (1) The best effect art can have is that the person who consumes it says, "It had a big impact on me.  It changed the way I saw the world.  It changed the way I thought about life.  It changed the way I saw myself.  It changed me.  Nothing was the same ever again after it."  Great art rearranges your brain.  (2) Art is dangerous.  After great art we are no longer innocent.  That is why people fear and avoid it.  ---  5/20/1998

Arts, general.  ---  (1) The view of art as communication can be challenged by the example of people who create art but who never show it to anyone else.  This is a large group of artists.  One could argue that these people are using art to communicate between their past and future self.     (2) The view of art as communication between past and future self can be challenged by the example of people who create art and then never look at it again.  This is a large group of artists.  One could argue that these people are using art for momentary communication with their present self.     (3) This leaves a view of art as communication with present self.  The creation of the work of art is essentially the creation of another being with whom to converse.  The work of art is a "dummy" that we talk to.  Works of art involve the creation of a second self with whom we can communicate.  ---  2/23/2001

Arts, general.  ---  (1) What action is not artistic?  What product is not art?  (2) Art imbues life just like economics, politics and technology imbue life.  Just like physicality and psychology (mind) imbue life.  (3) Everything is art.  Everyone is an artist.  Art is everywhere.  ---  10/5/2000

Arts, general.  ---  (1) What do all the arts have in common?  (2) What are the similarities and differences among literature, music and visual arts?  ---  2/12/2004

Arts, general.  ---  A new online form of art is evolving: still photos with subtitles.  You set the photos to load in the browser automatically.  You set the time interval for when the photo changes.  The whole idea is to compose the shots like a movie director.  This form of art has similarities to movie storyboards and comic strips.  But it will be photos instead of drawings.  And it will use less bandwidth and load faster than full motion audio/video.  ---  1/5/2001

Arts, general.  ---  A step beyond symbolism:  Everything says something.  Everything has a voice.  Saying different things to different people.  ---  7/16/2000

Arts, general.  ---  A unified art theory describes relationships of artist (producers), work of art, and audience (consumers).  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  A view of art.  Art is primarily about sense, emotion and narrative.  Art is not primarily about reason nor abstraction.  Yet we have thoughtful art and abstract art.  ---  3/29/2002

Arts, general.  ---  All fiction, that is, all written fiction and all movies, is just an attempt to draw you a picture.  It is the "hand puppet" method of learning about life.  ---  3/18/2000

Arts, general.  ---  All of the arts have been worked out, mined out.  They still are important, we just have figured it all out.  They are not worthless, just no frontier left.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  All the arts are "another way of saying".  All the arts are "in other words".  ---  5/25/2000

Arts, general.  ---  All writing, all art, is a trade off between chaos/freedom and order/control.  ---  9/12/1999

Arts, general.  ---  An art project.  Art about problems.  Using the arts of literature, visual art, music and movies, to create works of art that address various problems in the following areas: political problems, economic problems, environmental problems, psychological problems, health problems, etc.  ---  5/12/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Another problem with the arts is that some people rely too much on artistic modes of thought, and thus fail to develop their philosophical and scientific modes of thinking.  Many artists and art consumers become specialized and unbalanced when they rely too much on senses and emotions, and when they fail to develop reason and logic.  ---  5/29/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Any and every work of art says, "This subject, and this view of this subject, is important, worthwhile and valuable.", by dint of the artist's time and effort, and by dint of the audience's time and effort.  ---  10/19/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Arguments for art.  (1) Arts as unique from philosophy and science.  The arts as a unique way of thinking.  The arts as a unique way of communicating.  (2) Art is ubiquitous.  People never stop making art.  Art is everywhere.  ---  11/24/2003

Arts, general.  ---  Around the artist buzzes the art critic, the art historian and the art theorist.  Are they bees or flies?  Perhaps the answer depends on whether the artist has created a beautiful work of art or a piece of garbage.  ---  2/27/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art about.  (1) Real world.  (2) Ideal world.  (A) Ideal imaginable.  (B) Ideal possible on earth.  (C) Ideal possible in your life.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Art affects the emotions via the senses.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Art and advertising.  When does art end and advertising, packaging and promotion begin?  ---  08/24/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Art as (1) Personal statement: this way for me.  (2) General statement: this way for all of us.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Art as fiction?  Some people try to define art as fiction.  However, there are several problems with the definition of art as fiction.  (1) Literature is often fiction.  That seems unproblematic.  (2) Music, however, is not a matter of fiction.  There is no issue of fiction nor non-fiction involved in music.  (3) Visual arts may or may not be fiction, depending on the style of art.  Abstract art is not an issue of fiction and non-fiction.  Narrative representational art may present issues of fiction and non-fiction.  ---  6/19/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Art as virtual reality.  There is a view that movies killed the theater.  There is a view that movies killed the novel.  However, there is also a view that video games killed the movies, or at least maimed the movies.  Video games are more interactive than movies.  Video games are more compelling than movies.  It is all a movement toward virtual reality.  The arts are a form of virtual reality.  A new form of art more realistic than video games will appear in the future.  ---  1/1/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Art begets art.  Inspiration and spur.  ---  7/31/1999

Arts, general.  ---  Art can be defined as a combination of entertainment and information.  Art is seen as rising above mere entertainment.  Art is also seen as doing more than merely informing.  (2)(A) Can anything be mere entertainment alone?  Does not all entertainment inform in some way?  (B) Can anything be mere information alone?  Most people read the newspaper as a form of entertainment, enjoyment and leisure.  ---  1/18/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Art inspires by reminding us of our highest most noble ideals, dreams and hopes.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Art is a realm where unintended results, vagueness and ambiguity are perfectly fine.  ---  12/20/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Art is better than life.  ---  6/23/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Art is close to Zen in that it deals with: (1) The invisible.  (2) The unsayable.  (3) The ineffable.  ---  8/26/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art is more comedy than tragedy.  People like to see happy endings.  Life is more tragedy than comedy.  Things don't always end up like they do in the movies.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Art is not just a means of communicating, it is also a way of thinking.  Some people are more sensually oriented (visually, aurally, tactilely, orally, odorously), and less oriented to abstract ideas.  Some people are more associative in their thinking, and less linear or logical in their thinking.  Is this due to the left/right brain split?  Are women more artistic than men?  Is one way of thinking better than another?  Does one way of thinking predispose artists to mental illness?  Is one way of thinking more mature than another?  Is artistic thinking a phase we go through in our teens on our way to abstract thinking?  Are artists people who get stuck in an adolescent mode of thinking?  Are artists more emotional as well as sensual?  Is artistic thinking a phase mankind went through, and now is beyond or above?  Or is art a subject matter, rather than a way of thinking or a way of communicating, that deals with the phenomenological beauty of things like landscapes, portraits, or that deals with emotional topics, like love etc., that we can not get a full understanding of from science or even philosophy?  ---  08/24/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Art is pulling something out of your hat.  There is something magical about art.  ---  2/18/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art is tapping the unconscious and having it somehow make sense.  Just like dreams.  Art as dream.  Artist as dreamer.  ---  6/29/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Art is unavoidably related to ethics.  Art is unavoidably political.  Art is unavoidably technological, or related to technology, even if only the technology of language.  There is no such thing as art removed from ethics, politics and technology.  There is no "art for arts sake".  ---  10/15/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Art is under-rated today.  We study math, computers and science in school because they are easily quantified and that makes grading papers easy.  Art is more subjective, and less easy to grade, and less easy to build an educational system around.  As a result, less attention is paid to art in school.  However, that does not mean art is less important than math and science in life.  Math and science are ideal ways of thinking to which we aspire, but people spend much more time in artistic states of mind, using sense data, metaphorical thinking, dreams states, etc.  Our everyday thinking is more artistic than scientific.  ---  10/15/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art is under-rated.  (1) Art is a way of thinking, or understanding, or "minding".  It is concrete, not abstract.  It is narrative (linear).  It is emotional.  It is sensorial (pictorial, even if creating pictures with words or music).  (2) You cannot understand the human mind without understanding art.  Logic is an ideal to which we aspire.  Most of us spend most of our time in art states (ex. using analogy, emotions, etc.).  ---  3/3/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art metaphors.  All good art transports the viewer.  All good art is a trip.  All good art takes you someplace.  ---  8/6/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art presents a big picture.  Art is a synthesis.  A systematic overview.  ---  8/20/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Art rating system.  The food metaphor.  (1) Great art is nutritious and delicious.  It tastes good and is good for you.  (2) Workmanlike art is nutritious.  (3) Worthless art has no nutritional value.  It is empty calories, it is junk food.  (4) Bad art, crap, is poisonous.  Bad art has negative value.  ---  08/14/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Art to (1) Enlighten vs. entertain.  (2) Enlighten vs. delude.  (3) Call to action vs. mollify.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. entertainment.  Art vs. the purely practical, useful, and functional.  ---  08/04/1993

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. non-art.     PART ONE. The distinction between art-objects and non-art-objects is not clear and distinct.  Art-objects and non-art-objects can both be beautiful.  Art-objects and non-art-objects can both be symbolic and have meaning.  Examples of non-art-objects: (A) Expensive.  (B) Finely crafted.  Skillfully constructed.  (C) Expensive and finely crafted and useful.  Example, a car or a yacht.  (D) Finely designed for beauty.  Example, Shaker furniture.  (E) Finely designed for functionality.     PART TWO. The distinction of custom-made objects vs. mass-produced objects is a fuzzy line.  (A) We usually consider the art-object to be custom-made.  However, some mass-produced objects are considered to be works of art, for example, limited edition art prints created by the means of mass production are often sold as art.  Warhol is an example of an artist who used techniques of mass production to create art (an art that commented on consumer society).  (B) Mass-produced objects are often customized by their owners and then considered to be art by some.  An example of this is hot-rod cars.  (C) Some custom-made objects are not considered to be art.  Example, low quality home-made kitsch.  Some mass-produced objects are considered to be art.  For example, Wedgewood ceramics.  (D) Today, computers allow a phenomenon known as mass-customization which allows the mass production of customized objects, and this further blurs the line between custom-made objects and mass-produced objects.     PART THREE. Definitions of mass production.  (A) Mass production can mean totally machine-made as opposed to totally man-made or hand-made.  Or.  (B) Mass production can mean each item is the same as the next, even if it is man-made or hand-made.  Or.  (C) Mass production can mean produced in high quantity, which can affect rarity, which can affect value.     PART FOUR.  Rarity is another factor.  A beautiful machine-produced item of which there were once millions and which there are now only a few, acquires an aura of art.  Not only has the object's monetary value increased but the artistic value somehow increases as well.  ---  5/29/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. non-art.  The line between art and non-art has vanished.  Thus, there is no art today, just good and bad quality stuff.  ---  1/6/1997

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear division between the arts and science, business, politics, philosophy, etc.  (1) There is an art (skill) to everything.  Intuitive and heuristic, not exact or algorithmic.  (2) There is an aesthetic aspect to everything.  For example, even math proofs are sometimes called beautiful.  (3) There is an emotional aspect to everything.  (4) Therefore, either the arts don't exist, or else everything is art.  ---  4/22/1999

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear line between art and non-art.  (1) Creativity.  There is a creative aspect to everything, not just art.  It is a mistake to say that science, business and politics are not creative.  (2) Unconscious.  There is an unconscious aspect to everything.  It is a mistake to say that only artists work from the unconscious.  (3) Emotions.  There is an emotional component to everything.  It is a mistake, for example, to say that science is unemotional.  (4) Aesthetics.  There is an aesthetic component to everything.  It is a mistake to call science, business and politics unaesthetic.  (5) Fuzziness.  There is a fuzzy aspect to everything.  It is a mistake, for example, to say that art is fuzzy and that science is exact.  ---  1/7/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear line between art and non-art.  (1) Objects.  There is no clear line between art-objects and non-art-objects such as kitsch or trash.  (2) Activities.  There is no clear line between art-activities and other activities such as science, business and politics.  (3) Attitudes.  There is no firm line between art-attitudes and other attitudes.  (4) People.  There is no clear line between artists and other people.  ---  1/7/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear-cut distinction between art and non-art.  And there is no clear-cut distinction between the various arts.  We create these artificial categories for our own simplifications.  There is just people doing stuff.  ---  2/28/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  (1) Criticisms of movies, and by extension all arts.  (A) The movies (and all the arts) are fake, phony, artificial, and often used instead of the real experiences of real life in the real world.  (2) Counter-arguments to criticisms of movies: (A) Some thing's you don't want to experience because they stink, but you need to know about them, so thus movies.  (B) Some thing's you will never experience because only a lucky few do, but you can vicariously through movies.  Most people's lives are boring.  (C) The movies (and all arts) encourage and inspire people to live authentically just as much as movies pacify people into vegetative states.  (D) To the extent that the arts fail, the problem is not so much with art, but with poorly made, low quality art.  ---  3/20/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  How close do movies come to actually experiencing something for yourself?  How would a life spent watching movies, with little personal experience, compare to a life full of personal experience with little movie watching?  Can you live a real life just by watching movies (or consuming any type of art)?  Can you live a real life just by making movies (or producing any type of art)?  Is art a poor substitute for real life, or is real life a poor substitute for art?  I guess the best would be to live a life full of personal experiences and then create art and consume art.  That is, have both.  One cannot substitute, replace, or make up for the other.  You need both.  However, there are extremists, both pro-art and anti-art, who would deny the need for one or the other.  Pro-art extremists who say personal experience is not important.  Anti-art extremists who say art is not important.  ---  8/26/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  I prefer experiences in the real world to art.  Art I view as a type of virtual reality or modeling whose main benefit is being quick and easy and helps you avoid dangerous situations and learning the hard way.  ---  4/13/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  Not only are we all artists, we are all constantly making art whenever we think (or "mind" or "mentalize").  (1) Even when we decide to tell a story that is "all true" we must make a decision about what facts to include and exclude.  (2) Even a work of art can purport to be a depiction of "only the facts".  An example of this is a battlefield painting in the realist style.  (3) Our minds are constantly engaged in flights of fancy and fiction which stem from our desires for wish fulfillment and our fears and trepidations.  ---  7/14/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  PART ONE.  Its not a case of art vs. real life.  Its a case of art and real life.  Art and real life inform each other.  Each one helps the other.  We need both art and real life.  Our firsthand experiences of real life inform our understanding of art.  Our exposure to art informs our firsthand experiences of real life.  They build each other.     PART TWO.  As an example of the above view, consider three cases:  (1) Reading about love between characters in any work of art (ex. literature, visual arts, movies, etc.).  (2) Falling in love with a character from a work of art.  (3) Falling in love in real life.  (4) Each one helps the other.  ---  7/25/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  The arts are artificial, fake, lies, not real.  The argument is that the arts give a distorted view of reality.  Take, for example, the movies.  Many people who grow up on movies mistakenly think that the movies portray reality.  The question is whether any art, or even any man-made thing, can accurately portray reality.  Some say no, some say yes.  Then again, who really knows what reality is.  Some would argue that no human being can accurately perceive reality, let alone communicate reality in a work of art.  ---  9/28/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  Two cases that blur the distinction between art and reality.  (1) Someone tells a story (their version) of something they saw, and claims that is what actually happened.  That's art.  (2) Someone makes up a fictitious story by welding together actual episodes from their own life.  That's art.  (3) Thus, art and reality are intertwined and it is very difficult to separate them.  You cannot talk about art and reality as two different things.  ---  7/14/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  Virtual reality and art.  Art is a what-if scenario.  Art is practice, play, a test situation.  ---  7/25/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  Virtual reality and art.  Movies are a type of virtual reality.  In fact, the development of the arts like literature, music and the visual arts, and their subsequent combination in recent art forms like the movies, are really just a phase in the development of virtual reality, to be followed in the near future by computer simulation suits.  The arts are a type of virtual reality.  Virtual reality is a type of role playing, a type of case study, a type of hypothetical, a type of possible world, a type of game playing.  ---  7/3/1999

Arts, general.  ---  Art vs. reality.  Virtual reality and art.  Progression of art and entertainment based on technology.  Each out-placing the next.  (1) Tell.  Oral tradition.  Uses language.  (2) Act.  Theater.  Uses stages and costumes.  (3) Novel.  1800s.  Due to affordable printing.  (4) Movies and television.  1900s.  Uses cameras.  (5) Interactive virtual reality.  2000.  Combines movie and video game technology.  Uses computers and Internet.  ---  4/28/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Art, a broad definition.  (1) Everyone is an artist.  (A) Everyone senses, feels and thinks.  (B) Everyone communicates, mostly using non-formal languages.  (C) Everyone is neurotic and bisexual.  (2) Everything is art.  (A) All man made objects have an aesthetic quality.  (B) All natural objects have an aesthetic quality.  (3) Nothing is art only.  Things are only art in part.  Everything is art among other things.  (4) No one is an artist only.  Everyone is only an artist in part.  Everyone is an artist among other things.  ---  10/19/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Art, philosophy and science.  Ideas and attitudes often come out first in art, and then are refined into philosophy, science, etc.  From dream to reality.  From fuzzy to sharp.  Both on a personal level and on a societal level.  ---  02/28/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Art, philosophy and science.  In what cases is it quicker to learn about something through art vs. through philosophy and science?  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Art, philosophy and science.  Most ideas and attitudes (emotions plus ideas) develop first as hazy, fragile notions in the minds of artists.  Later, philosophers and scientists firm them up.  ---  2/23/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art, philosophy and science.  Philosophers and psychologists are beginning to acknowledge that the emotions are an important mental component.  The arts are a primary way that humans process emotion.  Thus, the arts are as important as philosophy and science.  ---  10/28/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art, philosophy and science.  Team science is common these days.  Team art should be also.  Many feel the age of the individual scientist is past.  So too perhaps is the age of the individual artist.  ---  8/6/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Art, philosophy and science.  The philosophy of science uses the phrase "Context of discovery" to describe the creation of an idea.  The phrase "Context of justification" is used to describe whether to accept an idea.  In the arts, there is also a "Context of discovery" that occurs when an artist creates a work of art.  The arts also has a "Context of justification" that occurs when the artist decides not to rip up and throw out a work of art.  What are the types of criteria that artists and audiences use in the "Context of justification"?  ---  7/5/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Art: from those who need to produce it, to those who need to consume it.  ---  10/25/1997

Arts, general.  ---  Artist as rock and roller.  (1) In the world of art it benefits the artist to have no respect and no mercy.  (Talking about aesthetics here, not ethics).  The artist gives the finger to a world that tries to tell him who he is.  The artist flips the bird to a system that tries to tell him what is real.  People love that.  (2) The system tries to tell the artist what he can and can't do.  What he should and shouldn't be.  They would destroy him.  They would destroy all artists and all art.  They would have silence and conformity.  They would destroy the opposition.  The artist is a one man revolution.  Teen rock freedom.  ---  7/6/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Artist as shaman.  The link between art and religion.  Both are often pre-rational.  ---  12/20/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Artist, maker, creator, producer.  Audience, viewer, consumer.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Artistic freedom in the 20th century.  Three examples: (1) When a person is able to paint anything they want to paint, anything they can paint (example, abstract expressionism).  (2) When a poet is able to write anything he wants to write, anything he can write (examples, poems that do not rhyme, free verse).  (3) When a musician is able to play anything she wants to play, anything she can play (examples, rock-and-roll, free jazz).  (4) There was an occurrence that took place in the arts at around the middle of the 20th century.  It took place in all the arts.  And, I say, because the arts are so closely tied with the rest of culture, it took place in the entire culture.  This occurrence involved freedom of expression.  It also involved freedom of listening.  It also involved:  Diversity.  Openness.  Honesty.  Sharing.  Democracy.  Death of class.  Death of religion.  Psychoanalysis.  Beatniks and hippies.  ---  1/1/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Artists are phenomenologists.  They are concerned with communicating the plethora of experiential diversity.  They are not concerned with abstracting general principles.  ---  02/01/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Artists call it creativity.  The rest of us call it growing up.  ---  7/25/1999

Arts, general.  ---  Artists goal is, through a wide variety of personal experience and also through imagination, to try to experience the world in all its diversity.  To not be limited by the circumstances he/she is accidentally born into.  To be a chameleon, to go undercover or incognito, to infiltrate the subject of the artwork, to try to become the subject, to listen closely, empathize, and let the subject speak for itself.  ---  04/01/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Attacks on art.  (1) Censorship attacks.  (2) Budget attacks.  Attacks on the NEA.  Attacks on public art works.  Attacks on public art museums.  (3) Attacks on free speech.  (4) Attacks on art as decadent or controversial.  For example, by the Nazis just prior to WWII.  ---  11/24/2003

Arts, general.  ---  Audience.  There is an audience for every work of art.  There is the actual audience and the potential audience.  Identifying the audience is one challenge.  Reaching the audience is another challenge.  ---  10/19/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Authenticity.  Who cares who said it, as long as it has been said.  Who can tell where an idea came from, whether it be out of the clear blue or from something someone else said.  In 10,000 years knowledge will be so great that we will de-emphasize the historical view (who thought of what, when)  and emphasize the logical view (how do the ideas fit together logically).  ---  08/24/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Battle of the arts.  (1) Visual art graffiti is painted.  Literary graffiti is written.  To say that visual art graffiti is only about style and that written graffiti is about substance is an example of how writing tries to maintain a hegemony over the visual arts and music.  (2) Writing wrongly tries to say to the visual arts and music "I am better than you.  I am more important than you.  You don't count for much."  Writing tries to devalue and disempower other forms of expression.  This leads to a dictatorship or monopoly of one mode of expression over another.  That kind of specialization can not be good.  It is bad when one mode of expression tries to overpower another mode of expression in a culture or in an individual.  It is a result of there being no checks and balances in an a culture or in an individual.  ---  7/16/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Beginners mind vs. sophisticates mind.  If you go to the art museum and look at the paintings with absolutely no knowledge of art history then how does that differ from going to the art museum and taking the walking tour where you are told what to think about every painting?  What are the pros and cons of each experience?  This notion is not just about art museums, its about one's entire life and one's entire education.  The best minds always look at things fresh and are always critical of received knowledge.  ---  9/24/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Best worlds: what should be.  Worst worlds: what should never be.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Blah, blah, blah.  95% of music lyrics are trite.  95% of movies are banal.  95% of visual arts is bland.  Is literature any different?  No.  ---  5/23/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Can literature, or any art, change your life?  Can literature, or any art, change your mind, your outlook, your attitude toward life, your philosophy of life?  The answer is that anything can change your mind.  Thus, anything can change your life.  Enlightenment can occur to anyone at anytime caused by any idea or event.  Epiphany.  Light bulb.  Realization.  If anything can do it then art can do it.  ---  10/13/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Cannon.  (1) In one sense, the cannon is the group of works we consider to be classics.  There is a group of works we call "classics".  There is also a group of works we call "modern classics".  (2) Yet the cannon is always changing.  The cannon is under contention.  There are always defenders of the existing cannon.  There are always various factions calling for new cannons.  ---  7/15/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Cannon.  Criticism is a value judgment.  We criticize things in terms of what we value.  What we value depends on our situation, and the problems that we face, and the needs that we have.  A new situation yields a new cannon.  ---  2/22/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Cannons.  (1) Academic cannon: their criticism, my criticism of their criticism.  (2) Paul cannon: my criticism, others criticism of my cannon.  (3) Paul artworks: my criticism, others criticism of my artwork.  (4) Any other cannon: my criticism, others criticism.  (5) Paul aesthetic system.  (6) Paul libraries of art: Paul works, found works of art.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Causes of art production and consumption.  Effects of art production and consumption.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Classical music, ballet and opera; I imagine that at one time in the past these arts attracted avante garde rebels (ex. Beethoven), but today they mainly attract conservatives and traditionalists.  ---  8/5/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Classics.  In 100 years of movies we have made a list of 100 classic great films.  In 10,000 years will the list of classic films be 10,000 films long?  No one would have time to see them all.  Or will the list of classic films 10,000 years from now be still only 100 films long?  That would mean only one film on the current list of 100 will be a classic and the other 99 will not.  So it is with all works of art.  Thus, will sheer volume make art less useful?  Also, as population increases in size, and becomes better educated, and has access to cheap digital cameras, even more classics will be made.  ---  11/29/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Classification of arts.  (1) Classification by audience: high art, pop art, folk art.  (2) Classification by media: visual arts, aural arts, written arts.  (3) Classification by dimension.  Two dimensional: painting.  Three dimensional: sculpture.  Four dimensional (space and time): movies, plays.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Classification of arts.  (1) Fine arts, high arts, pure art: art literature, visual arts, music.  (2) Low arts, functional arts: arts and crafts, decorative and ornamental arts, gastronomy, fashion, architecture, dance.  (3) Mixed media arts: music video.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Classification of arts.  Lowbrow art vs. highbrow art.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Classification of arts.  Prophetic art, profound art.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Classification of arts.  Pros and cons of each medium.  What good is it?  What does it do that other arts can't?  What does it do better and worse than other arts, and communication modes?  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Classification of the arts.  (1) Pure arts.  Words alone, without music.  Music alone, without words.  Visual arts alone, without words or music.  (2) Combinatory arts.  Words and visual art: for example, comics with words, posters with words.  Words and music: for example, songs.  Music and visual art: for example, music videos.  Words and music and visual art: for example, movies.  Dance and music: another popular combinatory art.  ---  12/8/2003

Arts, general.  ---  Cleverness.  Sometimes art is merely clever.  For example, cute t-shirt logos.  What does the merely clever prove?  The merely clever shows what people can accomplish through effort.  ---  08/24/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Computer generated art (without human intervention).  (1) If the computer makes something that is completely random then how can it be art?  For example, randomly colored pixels on a computer screen is not really art.  (2) On the other hand, if the computer makes something that is completely non-random, predictable or algorithmic then how can that be art?  For example, if a 200 page novel was 100% algorithmic then you could deduce the last 199 pages from the first page.  ---  1/1/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Computers and art.  (1) Computer generated art.  Art that the computer makes entirely.  For example, fractal programs.  (2) Computer assisted art.  Art that humans make by using the computer as a medium.  ---  5/14/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Conscious product vs. unconscious result.  ---  01/01/1993

Arts, general.  ---  Contra professional art.  (1) Professional artists of all types (writers, visual artists, musicians, movie makers, etc.) can easily become caught in a style trap.  The public expects them to produce art in a certain style.  This situation limits the variety of the output of the artist.  (2) Professional artists get caught in situations where they must produce to make a living.  This leads to (A) Producing what the public will buy, which is often low grade slop.  (B) Producing anything just to keep one's job, which often leads to low grade schlock.  This can occur to writers who are under contract to produce a given number of words every week.  (3) What kind of artist will produce his own work regardless of commercial tastes?  The amateur.  What kind of artist will put forth only his best work?  The amateur.  ---  2/19/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Create a state of mind.  Create an artifact that lets others experience that state of mind.  With art you can capture a vibe and give it to others.  The vibe helps create a state of mind.  ---  2/8/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Definitions of art based on the various psychological abilities.  (1) Art as the senses and the accumulation of sensual experiences.  (2) Art as emotions expressed.  (3) Art as memory transmogrified.  (ex. Proust).  (4) Art as imagination (ex. science-fiction.)  (5) Art as idea.  (ex. philosophical artists).  ---  10/5/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Development of the arts in humans.  (1) In the evolution of the arts in humans, I say sculpture came before drawing, and drawing came before literature, because the arts evolved from the less abstract to the more abstract.  Sculpture is less abstract that drawing, and drawing is less abstract than literature.  (2) Another question is whether the visual arts came before, during or after oral storytelling (language) and gestural storytelling (proto-mime-theater before language).  (3) It seems clear that the arts developed before philosophy, logic, science and math.  (4) Did the arts develop before, during or after the development of magic, myth and religion?  ---  7/14/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Dogmatism destroys both creativity and the evolutionary development of artistic styles, where every style has a life, value and worth, just like a every human being does.  Every style exists to serve every single person.  Dogmatism destroys variety.  ---  03/13/1989

Arts, general.  ---  Doodling.  (1) What is the verbal equivalent of doodling?  Prattling?  (2) What is the musical equivalent of doodling?  The Jazz Messengers played a tune called Doodling.  (3) What is the movie equivalent of doodling?  Shorts?  ---  9/7/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Environment influences society, which influences psychology, which influences art.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Escapism and the arts.  (1) Too often the arts are used as a form of escapism.  By escapism, I mean avoidance, repression, and denial.  Escapism from what?  Escapism from thinking hard, making an effort to solve problems and right the wrongs in life.  Escapism, whether through the arts or any other form, is a bad thing.  (2) One counter-argument to the view that the arts are used too often as a form of escapism is the view that the arts are used to confront reality more often than to escape from reality, but that point is debateable.  Another counter-argument is that many things besides the arts are used as a means of escape, for example, sex, drugs, money, power, etcetera, but that is more of an attempted excuse than a counter-argument.  A third counter-argument is that some small amount of escapism can be healthy stress reliever, but when escapism is abused then that is a problem.   ---  5/27/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Everyone is an artist and an audience to varying degrees.  Everyone is an art producer and an art consumer to varying degrees.  Perhaps it is not accurate to use the terms "producer" and "consumer" of art.  Art is not merely economics.  Everyone is an art creator and an art critic.  ---  6/10/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Everyone is an artist.  Everyone is an art critic.  Everyone is a comedian.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Evolution and the arts.  Before abstraction there was narrative.  Before science and philosophy there was art.  If a sentient being has concrete thinking, plus imagination, but not abstraction, then the result is artistic ability.  Humans evolved their artistic abilities before their philosophical and scientific abilities.  ---  1/4/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Examples of word and image combined in art.  Billboards.  Posters.  Handbills.  Postcards.  Webpages.  Magazine ads.  ---  9/16/1999

Arts, general.  ---  Fatigue and the arts.  When too tired to read, watch a movie.  When to tired to watch a movie, listen to music.  ---  11/25/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Food is about sensation.  Music is about sensation and emotion.  Literature is about sensation, emotion and ideas.  Its true that sensation, emotion and thought are closely related in that, for example, a sensation can trigger an emotion or thought.  Still, I personally do not look to food for enlightenment.  ---  7/31/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Four types of art.  (1) Art to escape reality vs. art that engages reality.  (2) Art that conforms to unjust norms of society vs. art that dissents against unjust norms of society.  (3) Art that supports the unjust power holders of an unjust establishment vs. art that dissents against unjust power holders of an unjust establishment.  (4) Art that communicates either unethical views or no views at all vs. art that communicates truth and justice.  ---  8/25/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Future art.  New problems of life, and new answers to old problems.  New subjects, new views, new feelings, new attitudes, new questions, new truths.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Good and bad art.  (1) Good art or high quality.  (A) True.  (B) Psychological.  (C) Philosophical.  (2) Bad art or low quality: opposite of ideal principles.  (A) Unimportant subjects.  (B) Unimportant truths.  (C) Bad ideas: false, unethical.  (D) Poorly communicated.  (E) Emotions don't fit.  (F) Emotions poorly communicated.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Good art "haunts" you.  Good art keeps returning to your mind.  ---  11/20/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Good art and bad art.  Good art deals forthrightly with important issues, problems, truths.  Bad art is vague communications about trivialities and fluff.  ---  11/15/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Good art and bad art.  Ordinary life, ordinary people, and bad art are crap, empty, boring.  Great art is life.  Great artists live.  Great art makes sense, it sheds light.  It makes us see.  It is concentrated, potent, strong, powerful, exciting, and rich.  I feel alive.  I feel intensely.  I feel young.  Great art is great conflict that causes great thought-testing and thought re-evaluation.  Great art shoves problems in our faces and asks, no, forces, us to look and think about these problems.  ---  07/27/1993

Arts, general.  ---  Good art is relevant to its time and place.  Classic art is relevant through time and place.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Good art vs. bad art distinction.  Is bad art still art?  Or is it junk?  Two cases: (1) "Bad" meaning low quality or poor technique.  (2) "Bad" meaning communicating a epistemologically false message (lies) or an unethical message (evil).  (ex. hate group art).  ---  5/29/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Good art.  Is good art a matter of quantity multiplied by quality?  Or is good art a matter of choice of subject matter and accuracy of statement?  ---  7/15/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Great art achieves the previously unimaginable.  ---  9/7/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Great art inspires great art.  ---  7/7/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Great art is not necessarily beautiful art.  Great art is art that makes an advancement (improvement, progress).  Something new and better.  Example, Roman sculpture, renaissance perspective, impression, Cubism.  Usually the advancement is a new and good technique.  Or to a lesser extent, a new and good statement.  ---  4/7/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Great art sends shivers from your head to your toes.  A shiver of recognition (of truth).  ---  7/7/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Great artists get there first and does best job.  Great artists find very important, very inobvious truths and says them in very powerful, very new ways.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  History of individual's production: what's made.  History of society's consumption: what's popular.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  History.  (1) History of the practice of art.  (2) History of philosophy of art.  (3) History of the scientific study of art.  (4) History of art history.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  How does one talk or write about music?  How does one talk or write about visual art?  That is, how does one verbalize the non-verbal?  ---  10/5/2003

Arts, general.  ---  How important are the arts?  What can the arts do that nothing else can do?  What can the arts do better than anything else?  How powerful are the arts?  ---  2/12/2004

Arts, general.  ---  How many musicians have something interesting to say when they improvise musically?  How many speakers have something interesting to say when they speak extemporaneously?  ---  4/20/2003

Arts, general.  ---  How much power do the arts have?  How much power do ideas have?  Vis a vis the power of politics, money, entertainment, etc.  Power defined as the ability to do work and to effect change.  ---  5/12/2005

Arts, general.  ---  How, methods (see composition).  How study art?  How make art?  How consume art?  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  I'm convinced that many artists are popular not for what they say but for what they don't say.  Many artists have a wide audience base because they never said anything to alienate their audience base.  These artists never said anything to piss off their audience.  They never said anything that challenged their audience.  They never said anything that made their audience feel uncomfortable.  Often people will unconsciously like an artist because the artist simply does not address certain important yet unpleasant subjects.  Many artists are popular for their refusal to discuss unpopular topics and for their avoidance of the important issues.  Many people treat art like a vacation from reality.  But the best art confronts reality and talks about it.  ---  8/14/2004

Arts, general.  ---  If an artwork can "say" something to an individual.  And if everything has an aesthetic (art-like) component.  Then everything says something to everyone.  And a thing says different things to different people.  (Or people interpret things differently).  ---  11/30/2003

Arts, general.  ---  If it doesn't add up the mathematicians don't want to touch it.  If it doesn't have irrefutable logic the philosophers don't want to touch it.  If its not empirically verifiable the scientists don't want to touch it.  Thus, the area of territory seceded to the artists is vast, and in this land there still exists the opportunity to go wild.  ---  3/25/2002

Arts, general.  ---  If the commonplace assumption that the blind make good musicians is true, then the deaf should make good visual artists.  Do they?  ---  6/7/2004

Arts, general.  ---  If you can create something perfect, you will have an audience for it.  ---  08/06/1988

Arts, general.  ---  If you want random, unrelated characters and events, which occur for no reason, and with no meaning, look to life outside your door.  Art should be there for a reason.  The elements of art (setting, characters, action, etc.) should be there for a reason, and have a purpose, and contribute to a cohesive, unified plot and theme.  ---  12/30/1996

Arts, general.  ---  Imagination.  Artistic expression can be either memory and catharsis or imagination.  ---  01/01/1993

Arts, general.  ---  Imagination.  For some artists art is emotionally cathartic.  Other artists imagine and express things they have never experienced, and so for them art is less a matter of expressing pent up pain, problems, or conflicts.  ---  12/01/1994

Arts, general.  ---  In your art, you have to make a decision on where to draw the line (pun) between Dionysianism and Apollonianim.  In terms of chaos and order.  In terms of emotion and reason.  In terms of energy and restraint.  All art producers and art consumers (i.e., all artists and audiences) can be placed on a spectrum between Dionysianism and Apollonianism regarding how they usually like their art.  What kind of art they go for.  This is spontaneity vs. planning.  This is freedom vs. control.  This question is not an arbitrary question of style.  You have to say to yourself, "What I mean, and what I want to say, is best served by what mix or blend of Dionysianism and Apollonianism.  The bigger question is where to draw the line in your life, not just in your art.  ---  9/21/1999

Arts, general.  ---  Indoor, domestic, small minutiae art vs. Outdoor, big, brawling, sprawling art.  ---  5/22/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Information and art.  Art as information.  How much information is in a work of art?  How many questions does the work of art raise, and how many answers does the work of art give?  ---  6/8/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Intention and intended effect vs. accident and actual effects of artwork.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Intention vs. accident.  (1) The emotional, intuitive, unconscious artist.  (2) The rational, conscious artist.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Intention vs. accident.  (1) Unconscious, instinctive, accidental geniuses and masterpieces.  (2) Intentional and deliberate geniuses.  (3) Second is better than first.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Intention vs. accident.  Preconceived, planned, intentional vs. emergent, improvisational or accidental, greater than anything anyone could have imagined at the start.  ---  02/01/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Intention vs. accident.  Unconscious, natural, spontaneous style vs. consciously, deliberately planned, and thoughtfully created.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Intention vs. accident.  What percentage of an artist's painting is conscious vs. unconscious; intentional vs. unintentional.  Same for his greatest ideas.  ---  03/26/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Intention vs. accident.  What percentage of an artists work is intentional vs. accidental?  How in control vs. how instinctual is the artist?  Are the great artists typically more one way or another?  ---  01/01/1993

Arts, general.  ---  Is all great art beautiful?  For example, the paintings of Leon Golub.  Sometimes we used the word "beauty" to mean high aesthetic value.  Sometimes we use the word "beauty" to mean sensually attractive and appealing.  ---  12/15/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Is watching a movie the same as reading a novel?  What are the similarities and differences?  ---  1/17/2004

Arts, general.  ---  It was once the case that a work of literature would offer a detailed physical description of the characters involved.  However, today, physical descriptions such as "She was an old, black woman" or "He was a short, fat man" are often seen as not politically correct and perhaps even verging on racism, sexism, ageism, etc.  (2) The argument against physical descriptions runs along the line of "So what if their skin was that color?  Who cares how old they were?  It was just luck that they were thrust into this or that circumstance".  (3) Take it a step further.  Many psychologists today think that a person's personality is to some degree genetically determined and remains consistent through life.  So now it seems that, like skin color, a person's personality is to some degree a matter of luck, and so perhaps we should not dwell on personality descriptions in literature (both non-fiction and fiction).  (4) So the question becomes, if we are not to dwell on physicality nor personality then what should we use to describe a person?  Their thoughts?  Their words?  Their actions?  How is literature to proceed?  How can literature be fair or just?  Truths vary in their importance, and the most important truths about a person is not their physicality nor personality.  (5) Different people are thrust into different situations (social, technological, natural) and have to deal using the tools (psychological, physical, material) that they have.  (6) There is a similar issue in the visual arts.  If I want to draw a picture about the most important thing about person "x" then should I draw a picture of the person's body or even their face?  Are not there more important issues about a person?  How should I draw them?  It seems like face/body paintings and statues are woefully inadequate in some respects.  ---  7/19/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Just as important as what you communicate to others is what you communicate to yourself.  Dance, music, visual arts and words are all means to communicate with self as well as communicate with others.  Communication with self is another way of saying "thinking" or "minding".     PART TWO.  There are many ways that the mind communicates with itself.  (1) One part of the mind communicates with other parts of the mind.  For example, unconscious mind communicates with conscious mind.  For example, each one of Gardener's eight types of intelligence communicates with the others.  (2) We communicate with ourselves through time via memories from the past and goals for the future.  (3) Emotion and reason communicate with each other.  ---  4/1/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Levels of critical discourse.  On one level, a person can talk about specific books, songs, paintings and movies.  On another level, a person can talk generally about books, songs, paintings and movies.  ---  1/15/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Life is too complex and rushed today for art.  Ethics and technology rule.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Literature viewed as a slow movie.  Movies viewed as a fast book.  ---  11/15/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Liveliness.  The notion of "liveliness" is an important concept in the arts.  The work of art is essentially supposed to be alive.  The livelier, the better.  We consider great works of art to be livelier than life itself.  (2) The concept of "liveliness" is distinct from the concept of "life-like" or "realistic".  Lively works of art need not be in the style of realism.  ---  1/15/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Make a database of works of art in all media, organized by subject matter and emotional tone.  ---  2/4/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Materials.  What are your materials?  The wider the variety of materials, the wider the expressiveness of the art.  ---  5/14/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Me.  Arts place in my life.  (1) Now, and in past, and hopes and ideas for future.  (2) Importance I place on art.  (3) My views on art.  (4) How much I think about art.  (5) How much I do art.  (6) Art I have produced.  (7) Art I have thought of producing.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Me.  How creative am I artistically?  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Me.  My art interests: primitive, primordial, base.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Me.  My typical styles, subjects, views, and compositional techniques.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Meaning and art.  (1) If a work of art says nothing then what does it accomplish?  Nothing.  Meaning is required in art.  (2) If a work of art means whatever you want it to mean then what does that accomplish.  Nothing.  (3) If a work of art says something completely different to every single person then what does that accomplish?  Nothing.  (4) Thus, meaning relativism and meaning nihilism are bogus.  ---  10/20/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Meaning and art.  Music, visual arts and dance transcend language differences.  ---  6/16/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Meaning and symbolism.  A musical note means less than a color.  A color means less than a word.  ---  11/6/1998

Arts, general.  ---  Most important idea.  (1) Art is useful for getting psyched up, and for getting inspired.  (2) Art is an unavoidable byproduct of life.  Example, margin doodles.  Art is a byproduct of creative thinking, and of free associating, which is what the mind does naturally when healthy.  Art is a form of mental play; play defined as spontaneous effort without purpose.  (3) However, art should not be the primary focus of our lives.  ---  10/30/1997

Arts, general.  ---  Most important idea.  Art is good for eeking out thoughts and feelings that are not fully formed yet.  ---  12/26/1997

Arts, general.  ---  Most important idea.  They history of all the arts was about two main things, freedom of expression and development of critical faculties.  Once we got to the point where you could say anything, anyway you wanted, and others could seriously consider and criticize it, the arts had matured fully.  ---  07/18/1997

Arts, general.  ---  Movies are good at narrative stories, poor at abstract ideas.  Books are good at abstract ideas.  ---  10/8/2003

Arts, general.  ---  Much like language is as much an aid to thinking as it is an aid to communication, so too is art as much an aid to thinking as it is an aid to communication.  Thus, when you ask someone why they are looking at a painting or composing a piece of music, do not be surprised if they reply, "I am trying to think."  ---  5/28/2005

Arts, general.  ---  My new definition of high art is art that is of high quality.  My new definition of low art is art that is of low quality.  High art and low art no longer refer to the media and style of art involved.  High art no longer refers to orchestral music and oil painting.  Low art no longer refers to rock music and movies.  ---  11/6/1999

Arts, general.  ---  Nature as the subject of art vs. the man-made world as subject of art.  Show the pollution and the garbage.  ---  5/22/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Nature of Art.  (1) Art as symbolic communication.  Where one thing represents or stands for another.  (Not talking here about symbolism at the level of letters, where the word "cat" stands for the animal cat.  Talking here about the level where, for example, things allude to other things.)  (2) Art as metaphorical or figurative, not literal.  (3) Art as deliberately vague, ambiguous or accidental.  Multiple meanings okay.  Unclear meanings okay.  (4) Art as realism.  A photographic picture.  Literal, not symbolic.  For example, photographers, realist novelists, realist painters, etc.  Vs.  Art as distortion, impression, hyper-real, concentrated, distilled.  (5) One hundred percent realism equals a mirror image.  One hundred percent symbolism equals no resemblance to the original (for example, the letters "cat" stand for the cat animal).  In between 100% realism and 100% symbolism lies the large area of metaphor and various degrees of abstraction.  ---  11/27/2003

Arts, general.  ---  New art.  (1) New art from new science.  (2) New techs (tools and techniques) yield new art.  (3) New messages (content (thought and emotion) and form) yield new art.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  New types of art.  (1) Interactive art.  Art where the audience can effect the work of art.  For example, in the visual arts, a lava lamp computer display where the movement of the viewer affects the movement of the display.  Another example, in the musical arts, a sequence of notes where the movement of the viewer effects the pitch, volume, and timbre of the notes.  A third example, in the literary arts, stories with pathway choices.  (2) Group art.  Art that is created by a group of individuals rather than one individual.  One example, in the musical arts, is the orchestra or band.  A second example, in the visual arts.  A third example, in the literary arts.  (3) Computers and art.  Firstly, art created by computer artificial intelligence.  Secondly, art created by humans with the help of artificial intelligence.  (4) Holographic art.  Three dimensional movies.  (5) Immersive art.  Virtual reality goggles.  Virtual reality head phones.  Virtual reality simulators for all the senses.  (6) Develop new senses.  Then develop art for the new senses.  (7) Develop new emotions.  Then develop new art for the new emotions.  Also, new attitudes.  (8) Develop a new set of important problems and solutions.  Then develop new art to communicate those problems and solutions  ---  4/30/2006

Arts, general.  ---  One argument for the arts is that people want magical experiences.  People do not want to merely discuss the phenomenon of magical experiences.  What is a magical experience?  (1) Something new and not fully understood.  (2) Something emotional and not merely rational.  (3)  Something idealistic that speaks to the highest values of humans and to what is best in humans.  (4) In this sense of the term, any book, painting, music, movie, etc. can be "magical" if it fills the above criteria.  Another example of a magical experience is the first love of teens.  ---  1/22/2002

Arts, general.  ---  One view.  If you don't have anything to say then don't say it.  If you do have something to say then say it clearly and concisely.  Don't waste our time.  Don't jerk us around.  ---  2/22/2000

Arts, general.  ---  PART ONE.  Attack on the arts.  School budget cutbacks in the arts, such as music and visual arts classes.  Art is attacked for not being a money maker.  Its tough to earn a living as an artist.  Art is sometimes attacked as decadent.     PART TWO.  In favor of the arts.  The importance of the emotions and emotional intelligence.  Importance of Howard Gardener's eight types of intelligence, including musical and visual intelligences.  ---  11/21/2003

Arts, general.  ---  Pattern (repetition) and variation can be used effectively in other arts beside music.  Poetry, visual arts, etc.  ---  12/30/1996

Arts, general.  ---  People's obsession with food, clothing, and shelter leads to the pursuits of gastronomy, fashion, and architecture.  ---  7/31/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Perfection and imperfection in art.  (1) Perfection:  There is an element in art that involves entrancing, hypnotizing, almost casting a spell on, the audience, through the creation of a seemingly flawless, perfect work.  A very common aesthetic attitude is obsession with perfect beauty.  (2) Imperfection:  There is a less common aesthetic attitude that holds that perfection is not interesting, rather, imperfection is interesting.  There are several senses of this idea.  (A) In the realm of physical beauty of persons, flawed beauty can be much more interesting than perfect beauty.  (B) In other areas of aesthetics, imperfection can imply a problem for which one can look for a solution.  Imperfection promises the chance to make something perfect.  For example, people are fascinated by movies that are filled with conflict and drama.  People don't pay to see movies in which everything is perfect.  ---  1/6/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Philosophy and art.  There is philosophy in every work of art.  Every work of art implicitly and explicitly makes statements regarding what is the world (i.e., metaphysical statements), and how one knows (i.e., epistemological statements), and whether the situation is good or bad (i.e., ethics statements), and what one should do about the situation (i.e., ethics statements).  ---  7/23/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Philosophy in art.  An artwork says, "Consider X.  Think about X.  Mind about X, by using your senses, emotions, memories and thoughts."  That is to say, art is an epistemological venture.  ---  7/23/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Pop art.  (1) Sometimes a work achieves both popular and critical acclaim.  Sometimes a work achieves only popular acclaim.  Sometimes a work achieves only critical acclaim.  (2) Sometimes a work is rejected at first, by the critics or populace, and then accepted later.  Sometimes a work is accepted at first, by the critics or populace, and then rejected later.  ---  7/15/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Positive art shows what is.  Normative art judges the situation as good or bad, and says what we should do about it.  Normative art is art that has a lesson, or moral, or that depicts a utopia.  ---  08/14/1994

Arts, general.  ---  Progressivism and the arts.  Build a collection of examples of Progressivism in the arts.  Take that collection on tour.  Give that collection a museum to return to, "The Museum of Political Progressivism in the Arts".  Include all the arts, visual arts, music, literature, movies.  At the very least, make a list of Progressive art works.  Progressivism meaning ecological sustainability, social justice, education, health care, universal human rights, etc.  ---  5/5/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Propaganda, advertising and art.  (1) Propaganda and art.  Propagandists know that art is a fine way to spread their message.  Art has strong emotional impact.  Art seems to not require high standards of reason.  (2) Advertising and art.  Advertisers often use art to sell a product.  Advertisers will often combine music, visual images and poetry to woo customers.  Advertisers are not far from propagandists.  One view is that art is always "selling" something.  (3) To the degree that it appeals to emotion over reason, art can be criticized as being propaganda and advertising.  (See also: Sociology, communication, propaganda.  See also: Business, marketing.)  ---  7/14/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology and art.  Art is a coping mechanism.  Art is how some people cope with the stresses of life.  ---  3/14/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology and art.  Art is therapy.  Art is a subconscious form of self-therapy.  Visual artists are engaged in visual art therapy.  Writers are engaged in writing therapy.  Musicians are engaged in music therapy.  Artists, as art producers, are engaged in art therapy  art.  Audiences, as art consumers, are also engaged in art therapy when they consume art.   ---  5/1/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology and art.  Rejection of art and artist by the audience.  Just as the patient rejects the therapist, so to does the audience reject the artist.  The reader rejects the text and the author.  The viewer rejects the painting and the painter.  The listener rejects the music and the composer.  The audience has psychological defense mechanisms in place, ready to reject any new idea and its proponents.  Everyone has ego defense mechanisms in place to bolster one's sense of self and one's views of the world.  Some people are more closed-minded, narrow minded, guarded, than others.  Good art disables the audience's ego defense mechanisms.  Good art slips past the audience's ego defense mechanisms.  Good art is disarming.  ---  7/2/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology and the arts, or epistemology and the arts.  The arts, including literature, are a way of knowing.  The arts, including literature, are a type of knowledge.  The arts are knowledge by vicarious experience.  The arts are knowledge gained through a type of virtual reality experience.  ---  4/22/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology and the arts.  Freudianism and the arts.  The arts reflect the human subconscious.  The arts reveal basic, subconscious human fears and desires.  ---  1/4/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology and the arts.  The arts, including the art of literature, help build emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence helps prevent people from going crazy and killing themselves or others.  Emotional intelligence is a knowledge of emotions in self and others.  Knowledge of what emotions one is feeling.  Knowledge of how to best handle, or deal with, one's emotions.  ---  4/22/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology of art.  All paintings are Rorschach tests.  All literature is a word association test.  ---  8/15/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology of art.  Art is a form of information management.  Producing a work of art is an attempt at information management.  Consuming a work of art is an attempt at information management.  Art is about the organization of information.  ---  3/19/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Psychology of art.  Art is a form of psychotherapy.  Producing a work of art is a form of psychotherapy.  Consuming a work of art is a form of psychotherapy.  ---  3/19/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Randomness vs. pattern in art and nature.  (1)(A)Randomness in art:  If you drop confetti randomly onto paper, is that art?  If a computer fills a grid with randomly generated colors, is that art?  (B) Pattern in art:  Is mere pattern art?  Is mere mathematical repetition art?  (2)(A)Randomness in nature:  On the one hand, there is the randomness of, for example, the position of air molecules in a container.  (B) Pattern in nature:  On the other hand, there is the pattern of, for example, leaves.  (3) Is there more beauty in one or the other?  ---  12/30/2000

Arts, general.  ---  Simplicity and complexity in the arts.  All complex art is not necessarily good art.  All simple art is not necessarily bad art.  ---  10/13/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Society does not necessarily recognize and reward "good art" because "good art" is everywhere.  Society recognizes and rewards the art it needs at the moment, the art it resonates with at the moment, and the art that expresses the "next step" society needs to take.  ---  4/15/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Sociology of art.  Art is a form of communication.  Producing a work of art is an attempt at communication with other people.  Consuming a work of art is an attempt at communication with other people.  ---  3/19/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Style and art.  Declarative art vs. questioning art.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Style and art.  Good style: true, cool, neat, complete.  Bad style: stupid, fake/phony, narrow, stilted, affected.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Style and art.  Rates of change of styles: for better or worse.  ---  01/01/1993

Arts, general.  ---  Style and art.  The theories behind the styles.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Style and art.  Types of styles.  Factors in development of individual style or society style.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Style implies attitude (thought and emotion).  Style implies philosophy.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Style of a work.  Style of an artist.  Style of a school of artists.  Style of an society.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Style.  (1) People group artworks and artists by similar traits.  They say that artworks or artists with similar traits are of the same style.  This is the use of the word "style" as a term of classification.  (2) People say that artists they like "have a sense of style", while other artists they don't like "have no sense of style".  This is the use of the word "style" to mean some degree of ability or value.  ---  7/15/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Style.  PART ONE.  The artist having a specific style can imply:  (1) The artist has run dry, is repeating himself, and is stuck in a rut.  (2) The artist is shallow or unidimensional.  (3) The artist has gone commercial and is branding himself.     PART TWO.  If you do something new every time you create a work of art, you are unidentifiable and have no style, which is good.  "Style" is a pejorative term meaning "lacks imagination", "takes no risks" and "sold out".     PART THREE.  In a culture, an unchanging style, or a lack of diversity of styles, can be a sign of a rigid, dogmatic, oppressive, exclusionary, static culture.  So to in individuals.   PART FOUR.  Definitions of "style".  (1) Style means to group similar works of art together.  To categorize and classify.  (2) Style vs. substance.  Style as front, appearance or decoration.  (3) Style as unique personality.  ---  4/8/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Style.  The acceleration in the rate of change of styles in the arts, and the increase in the diversity of styles at any one time, is due to the increasing freedom of the individual to express themselves.  For example, the increase in rate of change of styles from Middle Age music to Classical Age music to Romantic Age music to Modern Age music.   Another example, the increase of rate of change of styles in Jazz in the 20th century from Traditional jazz to Swing jazz to Bebop jazz to Modal jazz to Free jazz.  The increase in rate of change of style is due to: (1) Degree an artist feels free and creative; (2) Degree groups of musicians promote freedom and creativity; (3) Degree audiences (society) wants new and different stuff.  The point is that increasing political/social freedom has led to increasing artistic freedom and the development of diverse artistic styles.  A counter-argument is that this may be an illusion of historical perspective which tends to see the present in detail and the past in generalities.  There may have been many styles in the past which we now overlook.  Another counter-argument is that it may have been factors like better technology or increased leisure time that allows the birth and spread of styles, and not political/social factors.  As leisure increases and technology improves, styles are born and spread faster.  ---  2/1/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Style.  The problem with associating artistic styles with historical eras is that two mistakes can occur.  Firstly, the mistake of thinking that everyone during that era was using that style.  Secondly, the mistake of thinking that no one outside that era was using that style.  ---  1/25/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Styles I like and why.  (1) Artist as acid photographer.  (2) Objective realism.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Styles: Narrative, expressionism, impressionism, abstract.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Styles.  Two causes of change in styles.  The change of styles can be driven by artists looking to not imitate existing works of art.  The change of styles can be driven by audiences looking for new forms of expression.  Artist-driven change and audience-driven change are both important.  Progressive artists and progressive audiences both search for the new and improved.  Reactionary artists and reactionary audiences cling to the old.  ---  1/15/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Taste.  (1) Some people use the term "taste" to mean either refined, cultured or educated.  (2) Some people use the term "taste" to mean arbitrary (ex. simply a matter of taste).  ---  11/15/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Taste.  People say they know what they like.  That is because each person has their own special cathartic requirements.  ---  03/11/1989

Arts, general.  ---  Technologists are accustomed to thinking of food, clothing and shelter as a group of related concepts.  Perhaps artists should also think of food, clothing and shelter as a group of related concepts, because when you do you see that these three areas try to be high art but do not quite make it to that level.  (2)  The three pairs of people associated with these areas, that is, fashion designers and clothes horses, chefs and foodies, and architects and house-ies, give a good try with their glossy magazines to make a big deal out of their respective areas, however, they are not entirely convincing.  ---  9/12/2000

Arts, general.  ---  The artist says, "Lets talk about this, because this is important."  ---  7/24/2006

Arts, general.  ---  The computer is the most important medium today for the creation, dissemination, and consumption of art.  ---  1/6/1997

Arts, general.  ---  The history of art or anything else.  (1) We want to see "progress" or "improvement".  Other alternatives: (2) Stasis.  (3) Ceaseless random change without progress.  (4) "Rediscovery" or cyclic.  (5) New, but not improved.  ---  12/20/2002

Arts, general.  ---  The most important thing about art is the message.  What message are you going to send?  What things are you going to talk about, and what will you say about those things?  What is your view?  ---  5/27/2007

Arts, general.  ---  The museum of art should be called the museum of historically significant, officially sanctioned, critically acclaimed, socially accepted, universally approved, high quality, high priced art.  ---  10/5/2000

Arts, general.  ---  The object in art is to move from reality, to the abstract, and then back to a re-created reality, which is the work of art, a new reality.  The work of art is a metamorphized reality, containing the truth in a clearer and more concentrated (pure) way.  ---  11/13/1988

Arts, general.  ---  The power of art.  To communicate, to persuade.  To change people's heads and actions.  Powerful ideas, powerfully communicated.  The power of ideas and emotions.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  The purpose of art is to capture a mood through combinations of senses (sight, sound, smell, taste) and not through ideas or concepts ?  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  The senses of smell and touch are underutilized in the arts.  (1) List things of which I like the feel.  I like the feel of sand and stone.  (2) List the things of which I like the smell.  I like the smell of cut grass, coffee, fresh bread, barbecue, and wood fireplaces.  ---  2/28/1999

Arts, general.  ---  There is more good art than you will ever get the chance to consume, even if it was all free, because there just is not enough time.  What to do?  Expose yourself to as much good art as possible.  ---  1/18/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Three philosophical issues:  Truth in art.  Meaning in art.  Value in art.  See each section.  ---  10/20/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Three types of explaining of art.  (1) Asking the artist to explain the artist's work.  (Artists often cannot explain their own work.  They just do it.)  (2) Asking an art critic to explain an artist's work.  (3) Asking a psychologist to explain an artists work.  ---  5/29/2001

Arts, general.  ---  Three views of what art is:  (1) Problem solving view of art.  Good art says (or shows) "These are the problems, and these are the solutions."  (2) Some people think that the purpose of art is to show us the good and the bad in life and in people.  To celebrate the good and bemoan the bad.  (3)(A)Descriptive art is art that merely shows what is.  Descriptive art is a kind of "real politik" art.  (B) Proscriptive art (normative art) is art that shows what we should do about what is.  ---  7/15/1999

Arts, general.  ---  To produce great art you must have brains and balls.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  Truth in art.  (1) Truth in fiction literature.  The details of a novel are made up, but the work speaks truth about the human condition.  (2) Truth in music.  How can a piece of music be true or false?  (3) Truth in visual arts.  How can a picture be true or false?  One view holds that only an untouched photograph is true.  ---  10/19/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Two arguments in favor of the arts.  (1) In real life we learn more from the arts (ex., music, visual arts, literature, movies, anecdotes, jokes, etc.) than we learn in school.  (2)  Imagine a world without the arts (i.e., without music, painting, literature, movies, etc.).  Very grim.  ---  1/17/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Two definitions of art.  (1) Art as a psychological process to understand the world.  (See: Psychology of art).  (2) Art as communication between people.  (See: Sociology of art).  ---  7/14/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Two types of art.  Art that pleases.  Art that antagonizes.  ---  04/24/1997

Arts, general.  ---  Types of art.  Art that confirms the audience's attitudes versus art that challenges the audience's attitudes.  Its up to audiences to expose themselves to both kinds of art.  ---  10/15/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Types of art.  Solitary arts vs. group arts.  (1) Solitary production of art (ex. author) vs. group production of art (ex. theater company).  (2) Solitary consumption of art (ex. reader) vs. group consumption of art (ex. theater audience).  ---  5/14/2004

Arts, general.  ---  Ubiquitous art.  To say that everyone is an artist is to say that everyone has an artistic side.  Development of a person's artistic side is necessary for a person's psychological health.  Development of artistic modes of thinking is a necessary part of mental development.  The arts are an important part of education.  Arts are an important part of every individual.  And thus, the arts are an important part of society.  (2) To say that art is everywhere is to say that we do not have to go to a museum to see art.  Everthing has an aesthetic dimension.  Art is an everyday thing.  Art is not an isolated, rare thing.  The artist is not an isolated, unique person.  ---  5/14/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Utilitarian theory of art.  The goodness of the work of art is based on how helpful or useful it is.  (1) Aesthetic beauty is helpful in calming, delighting and pleasing.  (2) Art helps us make sense of the world.  Art helps us add meaning to our view of the world.  Art helps us posit new concepts and new relationships between concepts.  (3) Art provides cathartic release, which helps us remain psychologically healthy.  ---  7/14/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Value and art.  All art makes statements about the nature of things, including the value of things.  All art makes implicit or explicit statements like, "This subject is good (or bad).  This subject is important (or unimportant).  This subject is true (or false).  This subject is beautiful (or ugly)."  ---  10/20/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Value and art.  Art works make statements about subjects.  The art work has value.  The statement has value.  The subject has value.  Not only monetary value, but other types of value also.  ---  10/20/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Verbal doodles and visual poems.  ---  4/15/2007

Arts, general.  ---  Visual art and music are two media that cross cultural barriers more easily than language.  So any media that takes advantage of music and visual images is an international media.  However, music and visual art are not entirely free of cultural constraints.  Visual art and music have culture-specific idioms.  ---  2/10/2002

Arts, general.  ---  Visual arts and music succeed to the degree that they render the audience speechless.  If the response is non-verbal then that is success for a work of visual art or music.  If the response is not easily put into words then that is success for a work of visual art or music.  ---  1/26/2004

Arts, general.  ---  What are the results of a society that over emphasizes images (ex. movies) and under emphasizes printed text?  The result is an under emphasis on abstract argument because that is what printed text does well.  The result is also an over emphasis on emotional "visual bites" since that is what images do well.  ---  3/10/2004

Arts, general.  ---  What can one say with music?  What can one say with visual arts?  What can one say with movies?  I fear not much.  I'm not feeling the emotion thing lately.  Music, visual arts and movies are not doing it for me these days.  Music, visual arts and movies seem retarded to me these days.  The word on the street is "verbal".  ---  5/5/2005

Arts, general.  ---  What is art?  (1) Art defined as an exercise of the imagination.  That is, art as fiction.  For example, novels, and paintings of fictional events.  (2)  Art defined as an exercise of the emotions.  Art as emotional communication.  For example, music is an exercise of the emotions.  Music is also a form of emotional communication.  (3) Art defined as narrative or storytelling.  In this sense, art does not have to be fiction.  When a person cobbles together a series of facts, the person is creating a human-made object or artifact.  A narrative or story is a non-abstract form of communication that describes persons, places, things and events.  (4) Art as a type of communication.  (5) Art as a way of thinking.  (6) Art as a nonverbal form of expression.  For example, the arts of music and dance.  (7) Art as any non-scientific and non-philosophical form of expression.  The view that if its not philosophy or science then it must be art.  ---  1/8/2006

Arts, general.  ---  What is art?  The answer to the questions, "What is art?", and "Why do art?", depends on how one defines art.  (1) Art defined as access to the subconscious.  Why do art?  Do art to reduce psychological repression.  Do art to confront the things we don't allow ourselves to think.  (2) Art defined as a form of communication.  Why do art?  Do art to talk about what is not allowed to be said.  Do art to confront social taboos.  Do art to confront political censorship.  ---  1/8/2006

Arts, general.  ---  What is the combined power of all the poetry readings?  What is the combined power of all the comedy shops?  ---  5/15/2005

Arts, general.  ---  What is the status of "art primitivists"?  Defined as people who make art without a formal education in art.  Defined as people who make art without viewing other works of art.  Defined as people who make art without reading about art.  Defined as people who make seemingly simple art.  Some "art primitivists" are nonetheless quite artistically sophisticated.  Some reputed "art sophisticates" and "art authorities" are utterly, hopelessly conventional.  ---  7/15/2004

Arts, general.  ---  When a visual or musical work of art (1) Says what words can't say.  (2) Says more than words, or better than words.  (3) Says less than words, or worse than words.  (4) Can't say what words can say.  ---  12/30/1992

Arts, general.  ---  When is it art?  When is it not art?  (1) If you define art as a method of communication then one can argue that all communication is art.  (2) If you define art as a method of thinking then one can argue that all humans think artistically all the time.  (3) If you define art as a product, an object, an artwork, then one can argue that all man made objects have an artistic component.  (4) If you define art as a topic, a subject, a set of ideas, then art is a subject that borders all other subjects.  ---  8/29/2005

Arts, general.  ---  Why do people produce and consume art?  (1) Psychological reasons.  (A) Art is cathartic.  (You can't spell cathartic without art.)  (B) Art is a form of thought.  People like to think.  (C) Art is psychologically integrative.  People like to integrate their experiences.  (2) Evolutionary reasons.  Art confers an evolutionary advantage.  (3) Social reasons.  Art is a form of communication.  People like to communicate.  ---  1/4/2006

Arts, general.  ---  Why don't artists say what they mean?  Because an artist does not always know exactly what he or she means.  An author may say that the story just came to him or her.  The author pictures a story in their head.  Artists work differently than philosophers and scientists.  ---  3/14/2007