Everything Can Be Defined as Art Written by Nadine Staaf
My ontological commitment: Everything can be defined as ‘art’ because not
everyone can agree on one definition of the term ‘art.’ In addition, everyone
perceives art differently, the majority may be incorrect in their agreement,
and the art world is not helpful by their creating definitions of what art is
and what it is not.
Non-agreement
As a class, we can agree that art does not have a
single definition. As a society, our definition of art changes over time. “The definition of art is controversial in
contemporary philosophy…” (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/art-definition/). Neither
artists, nor art appreciators, nor the entirety of the art world can come to a
single definition of what art is or is not. If not everyone can come to full agreement
of what art truly means, would it not be possible for a person to be correct in
saying that art has the potential of encompassing all things?
Perception
There is nothing in its physical form that cannot be seen as
art or appreciated as art by at least one
person on Earth. That statement in itself makes it possible for every physical
thing to be an artwork, depending upon the person witnessing the thing, and depending
upon the person’s perceptions upon witnessing the thing.
One can argue that an idea is not a “thing” because it is
not physical, so an idea cannot be defined as art. But, what is an idea? An
idea is not necessarily a physical thing, but an idea has the potential to be
art because the thinker of the nonphysical thing can perceive the idea to be
artistic, and every idea has a thinker of that idea. An idea, no matter what
its characteristics, can be as much art as a physical “thing” because an idea can
have properties much like many famous physical artworks: beautiful to the eye
of the beholder, vivid, intentional, thought-provoking, to name a few.
The Majority
It is closed-minded to say that not everything can be art when every person on Earth has different
thoughts than the next person, and who is to say that, even though the majority
of people think a similar idea, their perception is completely truthful? For
example, the majority of people may perceive a pile of human feces on the
ground as a non-example of art, and the minority may see that same defecation
as art. This does not mean that the majority is more accurate in their
understanding of art simply because they are the majority. The same is true of
the minority. No one person or group of people is 100% accurate in their
judgement of what art is, and even if all human beings decided to interpret
something as art, all human beings have the potential of being incorrect in
their judgements. For example, it is possible that all humans at one time
agreed that the sky was blue. As so long as no one realized that the sky is not
made up of only blue but rather it is
made up of a variety of colours, (http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html),
everyone was incorrect in their agreed upon judgement of the sky’s colour.
The Art World is Not
Helpful
It is likely that the art world has the potential, as does
every other person, to be completely inaccurate in their judgement of what art
is and what art is not. As emphasised with the blue sky example above, the
majority can be as incorrect as the minority in their judgements. The art world
becomes nevertheless unhelpful when its judgements limit what is considered art
and what is considered non-art.
The definition of art continues to be broadened over time,
as illustrated in paragraph 2, but a broadened definition is not as encompassing
as a definition that states that all things and ideas can be considered to be
art. It is obvious that an all-encompassing definition is the goal of the art
world. A worthy goal would be to create a definition where art is not limited
to a specific set of terms. The definition of art in the future, if there is to
be a single definition, will be ‘anything.’
In conclusion, it is clear that not everyone can agree (yet)
on one definition of the term ‘art,’ perception allows each individual on our
planet to see something different when experiencing the same thing or idea, a
majority or minority agreement does not make a judgement accurate, and the art
world simply establishes a limit on what can be termed ‘art’ even if that limit
is without all-encompassing truth or helpfulness to understanding what art is
or what art is not.
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