Preamble
It's been a tough year. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history. What scientists often omit to tell you, is that although we are getting smarter in wealthy countries (e.g., reduction of carbon emission from cars) the Earth's population is spiralling out of control and it's the population numbers that is the main driving force behind global warming. People need food, clothing, shelter and transport and so their global footprint is causing deforrestation (i.e., destruction of native flora and fauna), thereby increasing the sources as well as simultaneously decreasing the sinks for global warming. Every religion promotes birth at the core of its belief system. Even China abandoned its one child policy to allow females to now have three. From floods, to droughts, to storms, to cataclysmic events, climate change will dominate our lives for many years to come unless the human population worldwide decreases.
In these distressing times we need comfort. We human beings get comfort, not necessarily from our families who we love and who love us since that is normally a given, but from those who rely on us to share our lives with them - twenty-four-seven. Yep, that's why we get unconditional love from our pets! In this festival season, they are Santa's little helper.
Santa's little helper!
No matter what your belief system, I wish you a happy and joyous festive season.
Marie-Therese.
Note: The next post will appear on the 18th of January 2025.
Introduction
Throughout history, writers have been amused with what is perceived as ‘Art’ and especially the distinction between ‘Art’ and ‘Craft.’ To be sure, the modern notion of ‘Art’ has significantly broadened over time, and it keeps on broadening. For example, it now encompasses such diverse techniques on various media such as pen and charcoal drawings, water and oil paintings on paper and canvas, as well as on other media such as wood and cloth to performance art, to art created by interactive media such as computers and video etc.
Artist and Title: Marie-Therese Wisniowski, Winter Bolt (Four Australian Seasons – Bolt Series).
Technique and Material: Hand painted and heat transferred using disperse dyes on satin.
Size: ca. 1.50 (width) x 2.00 (length) meters.
Held: Artist Collection (not available for purchase.)
Will one day a lost ‘da Vinci,’ secretly created by AI, sell for millions of dollars? Experts have been fooled in past in the analogue world, before the creation of AI.
Mona Lisa painting brought to life with 'deep-fake' AI technology. Can you spot the difference from the original?
Traditional crafts can now morph into works of art. Quilts had a function, namely, they kept you warm in the cold winter months. Slowly this craft netted more interesting designer quilts. Eventually, you guess it, they sprang from the bed onto a wall and then eventually they featured as works of art in museums.
Couched Landscape Art Quilt for Island Batik.
Fiber Artist: Sally Manke.
I have previously penned an essay on "Where and When Does the Act of Engagement Occur?". (click on the previous link). Hence, I won't go over that ground again in this essay.
Christo's Art: The Reichstag wrapped in silver fabric.
Photograph: Encyclopedia Britannica Online (30 May,2011).
There are three basic ingredients that all artworks possess. When 'engaged' they are non-functional and aesthetic. To make the latter statement clear in a concrete operational sense, see DuChamp’s artwork in which he places a functional object (e.g., a urinal) in a non-functional art context (e.g., an Art Gallery). 'Engagement' is therefore a very important ingredient (e.g. an unknown buried artwork is not art). For a futher explanation click on my blogpost - Why ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
DuChamp’s Urinal in an 'Art' setting.
Now let's focus on the substance of this essay.
Craft Versus Art [1]
The first necessary step is to disentangle the notion of craft from art proper. In order to do so we must first enumerate the chief characteristics of 'craft.'
(a) Craft always involves a distinction between 'means' and 'ends', each clearly conceived as something distinct from the other, but also somehow related to it. The term 'means' is loosely applied to objects that are used in order to reach the 'end.' For example, such things as tools or machines etc., are the 'means.' These so called 'means' produce actions that are passed through or traversed to reach the end, and are left behind when the end has been reached.
(b) It involves a distinction between planning and execution. The result obtained is preconceived before the end is arrived at. The craft person knows what they want before they make it. This foreknowledge is absolutely indispensable to craft the item. For example, what material one uses in a craft project must be known, before the project can get underway. Moverover, this foreknowledge cannot be vague, but must be precise.
The dimensions of this crafted table must be known prior to its construction, since the stability of the table is inherent in its design.
(c) Means and ends are related in one way in the process of planning, and in the opposite direction, in the process of execution. In planning, the end is known prior to the means. The end is thought out first, and is followed by the means. In execution, the means comes first, and the end is reached via the means.
(d) There is a distinction between raw material and the finished product or artifact. A craft is always exercised on something, and aims at the transformation of this into something different. It starts with a piece of raw material, which is transformed into a finished product. 'Raw' implies a found ready made material capable of being fashioned into a desired end product.
(e) There is a distinction between form and matter. Matter is what is identical in the raw material, and the finished product, whereas form is what is different, and what the exercise of the craft transforms it into. To describe the raw material as 'raw', does not imply it is formless, rather it implies its form is transformed into the desired finished product.
(f) There is a hierarchical relationship between various crafts - one supplying what another needs; one using what another provides. For example, a silviculturist propagates trees and looks after them as they grow in order to provide raw material for loggers, which then provide raw material to saw-mills, which in turn transform them into planks, which end up as raw materials for a joiner etc. Hence, with every craft one can map out a hierarchical pathway.
Now let us explore the technical theory of Art. The question of how we go about identifying artworks has long occupied the minds of philosophers of art. For without someway to identify artworks, we do not know how to respond to them appropriately. There have been many attempts to answer this question, such as: the representational theory of art, neorepresententationalism, the expression theory, formalism, neoformalism, and aethetic theories of art.
For example, the latter define artworks as artifacts intentionally designed to trigger aesthetic experiences in the consumers. Aesthetic experiences are experiences of the aesthetic qualities of artworks. For example, aesthetic theories encompass the following:
(i) Formalism. The artist does not believe the artwork needs a subject. The focus of the artwork is the formal qualities such as the elements and principles used to create the composition. Emphasis is on the use of colors, lines, shapes, patterns, movement, etc.
(ii) Emotionalism. The artist wants to create artwork that will cause you to have a strong emotional reaction when looking at it. This theory focuses on the expressive qualities of the artwork, and how it made you feel. Emotions do not always have to be positive (e.g., happy, exciting). Artwork can also make you feel scared, confused, sad, etc.
(iii) Instrumentalism. The artist creates artwork that causes you to think and then to react. The artwork inspires people to act for the betterment of society. People are motivated to change a behavior, or join a cause to help others.
(iv) Institutionalism: The artist uses ordinary objects that wouldn’t normally be considered art, but the artwork is displayed in a museum or art gallery. The artist is making you think about why it was worthy to be on display.
Creator and Title: Wim Delvoye, Untitled.
Comment: Wim Delvoye at the Louvre (2012).
Each of these approaches attempts to explain how we identify artworks by producing a comprehensive definition of all art in terms of neccessary and sufficient conditions. These theories presume that we identify artworks on the basis of the sort of theory or essential definition that they reconstruct explicitly.
However, all these definitions of art appear seriously flawed in one way or another. The repeated failure of the definitional approach in the 1950s is to contemplate the possibility that art cannot be defined and that we identify artworks without recourse to definitions. These art philosophers (called Neo-Wittgensteinians) argued that art cannot be essentially defined, because it is an open concept and that we identify artworks on the basis of categorial resemblances. For example, enter Mark Rothko artworks, that created a complete new category of art named color fields.
Artist: Mark Rothko.
Title: Color Field (Red and Yellow), 1968.
Technique and Materials: Painting. Oil on canvas.
Size: 27.5 x 19.5 inches.
The Neo-Wittgensteinian approach was extremely influential for nearly two decades. Nevertheless, gradually philsophers came to believe that the open-concept they suggested would be incompatible with artistic innovation. However, philosophers, like George Dickie, were able to produce definitions of art, such as the 'Institutional Theory of Art' that showed that one could propose necessary and sufficient conditions for art that were perfectly consistent with the widest conceivable lattitude for artistic experimentation. Moreover, critics also demonstrated that the family resemblance method for identifying artworks were too facile - that in short order, it would produce the unsatisfying result that everything is art.
Is this performance art really art? Tilda Swinton's performance art at MoMA.
At present, there are an ample varieties of such theories on offer. Two of the better known theories of this sort is the 'Institutional Theory of Art and the Historical Definition of Art.' These are sophisticated viewpoints that call attention to important features of our commerce with artworks. However, both theories are highly controversial, and have been subjected to strong criticisms. Thus we still appear to be in a position where no existing definition of art have been decisively proven to be adequate.
Perhaps the way forward, is to do away with a search for a definition and instead focus on identifying narratives. Hence, we focus on past and present narratives of what constitutes art, and be flexible in accepting future narratives, as they arrive and then evolve (e.g., ArtCloth). Or perhaps you are dissatisfied with all categorization of what constitutes art, and so you have concluded, that art is what you have defined, and as for the rest, who cares, it just isn't your view of art. The 'What I define as art' theory has its personal merits, which might leave your opinions of art on the periphery of acceptance, but then again, in the future, it may thrust you in the limelight as a influencer of future artistic trends! Personally, as a ArtCloth artist/printmaker, I prefer the concept of evolving narratives. For example, my prints on paper have always been categorized as art.
Title: Veiled Curtains: Benazir.
Click on the following link for more information about the above image - Veiled Curtains.
However, its my unique ArtCloth work that grabs a lot of people's attention.
Title: Flames Unfurling.
Click on the following link for more information about the above image - When Rainforests Ruled.
The definition of what constiitutes 'Art' is always evolving. For example, with its traditional and potentially spiritual nature, tattooing easily qualifies as 'folk art.' However, given the skill and artistry of certain tattooists, tattooing is now considered a fine-art medium.
Reference:
[1] N. Carroll, Philosophy of Art.
It's been a tough year. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history. What scientists often omit to tell you, is that although we are getting smarter in wealthy countries (e.g., reduction of carbon emission from cars) the Earth's population is spiralling out of control and it's the population numbers that is the main driving force behind global warming. People need food, clothing, shelter and transport and so their global footprint is causing deforrestation (i.e., destruction of native flora and fauna), thereby increasing the sources as well as simultaneously decreasing the sinks for global warming. Every religion promotes birth at the core of its belief system. Even China abandoned its one child policy to allow females to now have three. From floods, to droughts, to storms, to cataclysmic events, climate change will dominate our lives for many years to come unless the human population worldwide decreases.
In these distressing times we need comfort. We human beings get comfort, not necessarily from our families who we love and who love us since that is normally a given, but from those who rely on us to share our lives with them - twenty-four-seven. Yep, that's why we get unconditional love from our pets! In this festival season, they are Santa's little helper.
No matter what your belief system, I wish you a happy and joyous festive season.
Marie-Therese.
Note: The next post will appear on the 18th of January 2025.
Introduction
Throughout history, writers have been amused with what is perceived as ‘Art’ and especially the distinction between ‘Art’ and ‘Craft.’ To be sure, the modern notion of ‘Art’ has significantly broadened over time, and it keeps on broadening. For example, it now encompasses such diverse techniques on various media such as pen and charcoal drawings, water and oil paintings on paper and canvas, as well as on other media such as wood and cloth to performance art, to art created by interactive media such as computers and video etc.
Technique and Material: Hand painted and heat transferred using disperse dyes on satin.
Size: ca. 1.50 (width) x 2.00 (length) meters.
Held: Artist Collection (not available for purchase.)
Will one day a lost ‘da Vinci,’ secretly created by AI, sell for millions of dollars? Experts have been fooled in past in the analogue world, before the creation of AI.
Traditional crafts can now morph into works of art. Quilts had a function, namely, they kept you warm in the cold winter months. Slowly this craft netted more interesting designer quilts. Eventually, you guess it, they sprang from the bed onto a wall and then eventually they featured as works of art in museums.
Fiber Artist: Sally Manke.
I have previously penned an essay on "Where and When Does the Act of Engagement Occur?". (click on the previous link). Hence, I won't go over that ground again in this essay.
Photograph: Encyclopedia Britannica Online (30 May,2011).
There are three basic ingredients that all artworks possess. When 'engaged' they are non-functional and aesthetic. To make the latter statement clear in a concrete operational sense, see DuChamp’s artwork in which he places a functional object (e.g., a urinal) in a non-functional art context (e.g., an Art Gallery). 'Engagement' is therefore a very important ingredient (e.g. an unknown buried artwork is not art). For a futher explanation click on my blogpost - Why ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
Now let's focus on the substance of this essay.
Craft Versus Art [1]
The first necessary step is to disentangle the notion of craft from art proper. In order to do so we must first enumerate the chief characteristics of 'craft.'
(a) Craft always involves a distinction between 'means' and 'ends', each clearly conceived as something distinct from the other, but also somehow related to it. The term 'means' is loosely applied to objects that are used in order to reach the 'end.' For example, such things as tools or machines etc., are the 'means.' These so called 'means' produce actions that are passed through or traversed to reach the end, and are left behind when the end has been reached.
(b) It involves a distinction between planning and execution. The result obtained is preconceived before the end is arrived at. The craft person knows what they want before they make it. This foreknowledge is absolutely indispensable to craft the item. For example, what material one uses in a craft project must be known, before the project can get underway. Moverover, this foreknowledge cannot be vague, but must be precise.
(c) Means and ends are related in one way in the process of planning, and in the opposite direction, in the process of execution. In planning, the end is known prior to the means. The end is thought out first, and is followed by the means. In execution, the means comes first, and the end is reached via the means.
(d) There is a distinction between raw material and the finished product or artifact. A craft is always exercised on something, and aims at the transformation of this into something different. It starts with a piece of raw material, which is transformed into a finished product. 'Raw' implies a found ready made material capable of being fashioned into a desired end product.
(e) There is a distinction between form and matter. Matter is what is identical in the raw material, and the finished product, whereas form is what is different, and what the exercise of the craft transforms it into. To describe the raw material as 'raw', does not imply it is formless, rather it implies its form is transformed into the desired finished product.
(f) There is a hierarchical relationship between various crafts - one supplying what another needs; one using what another provides. For example, a silviculturist propagates trees and looks after them as they grow in order to provide raw material for loggers, which then provide raw material to saw-mills, which in turn transform them into planks, which end up as raw materials for a joiner etc. Hence, with every craft one can map out a hierarchical pathway.
Now let us explore the technical theory of Art. The question of how we go about identifying artworks has long occupied the minds of philosophers of art. For without someway to identify artworks, we do not know how to respond to them appropriately. There have been many attempts to answer this question, such as: the representational theory of art, neorepresententationalism, the expression theory, formalism, neoformalism, and aethetic theories of art.
For example, the latter define artworks as artifacts intentionally designed to trigger aesthetic experiences in the consumers. Aesthetic experiences are experiences of the aesthetic qualities of artworks. For example, aesthetic theories encompass the following:
(i) Formalism. The artist does not believe the artwork needs a subject. The focus of the artwork is the formal qualities such as the elements and principles used to create the composition. Emphasis is on the use of colors, lines, shapes, patterns, movement, etc.
(ii) Emotionalism. The artist wants to create artwork that will cause you to have a strong emotional reaction when looking at it. This theory focuses on the expressive qualities of the artwork, and how it made you feel. Emotions do not always have to be positive (e.g., happy, exciting). Artwork can also make you feel scared, confused, sad, etc.
(iii) Instrumentalism. The artist creates artwork that causes you to think and then to react. The artwork inspires people to act for the betterment of society. People are motivated to change a behavior, or join a cause to help others.
(iv) Institutionalism: The artist uses ordinary objects that wouldn’t normally be considered art, but the artwork is displayed in a museum or art gallery. The artist is making you think about why it was worthy to be on display.
Comment: Wim Delvoye at the Louvre (2012).
Each of these approaches attempts to explain how we identify artworks by producing a comprehensive definition of all art in terms of neccessary and sufficient conditions. These theories presume that we identify artworks on the basis of the sort of theory or essential definition that they reconstruct explicitly.
However, all these definitions of art appear seriously flawed in one way or another. The repeated failure of the definitional approach in the 1950s is to contemplate the possibility that art cannot be defined and that we identify artworks without recourse to definitions. These art philosophers (called Neo-Wittgensteinians) argued that art cannot be essentially defined, because it is an open concept and that we identify artworks on the basis of categorial resemblances. For example, enter Mark Rothko artworks, that created a complete new category of art named color fields.
Title: Color Field (Red and Yellow), 1968.
Technique and Materials: Painting. Oil on canvas.
Size: 27.5 x 19.5 inches.
The Neo-Wittgensteinian approach was extremely influential for nearly two decades. Nevertheless, gradually philsophers came to believe that the open-concept they suggested would be incompatible with artistic innovation. However, philosophers, like George Dickie, were able to produce definitions of art, such as the 'Institutional Theory of Art' that showed that one could propose necessary and sufficient conditions for art that were perfectly consistent with the widest conceivable lattitude for artistic experimentation. Moreover, critics also demonstrated that the family resemblance method for identifying artworks were too facile - that in short order, it would produce the unsatisfying result that everything is art.
At present, there are an ample varieties of such theories on offer. Two of the better known theories of this sort is the 'Institutional Theory of Art and the Historical Definition of Art.' These are sophisticated viewpoints that call attention to important features of our commerce with artworks. However, both theories are highly controversial, and have been subjected to strong criticisms. Thus we still appear to be in a position where no existing definition of art have been decisively proven to be adequate.
Perhaps the way forward, is to do away with a search for a definition and instead focus on identifying narratives. Hence, we focus on past and present narratives of what constitutes art, and be flexible in accepting future narratives, as they arrive and then evolve (e.g., ArtCloth). Or perhaps you are dissatisfied with all categorization of what constitutes art, and so you have concluded, that art is what you have defined, and as for the rest, who cares, it just isn't your view of art. The 'What I define as art' theory has its personal merits, which might leave your opinions of art on the periphery of acceptance, but then again, in the future, it may thrust you in the limelight as a influencer of future artistic trends! Personally, as a ArtCloth artist/printmaker, I prefer the concept of evolving narratives. For example, my prints on paper have always been categorized as art.
Click on the following link for more information about the above image - Veiled Curtains.
However, its my unique ArtCloth work that grabs a lot of people's attention.
Click on the following link for more information about the above image - When Rainforests Ruled.
The definition of what constiitutes 'Art' is always evolving. For example, with its traditional and potentially spiritual nature, tattooing easily qualifies as 'folk art.' However, given the skill and artistry of certain tattooists, tattooing is now considered a fine-art medium.
Reference:
[1] N. Carroll, Philosophy of Art.
