Does Art Serve Any Purpose?

[prickly_pete]

It seems like art arose out of a need to communicate ideas to non-literate societies. Sort of the way a totem poel told the history of a tribe to its memebers.

Now that everyone can read, what's the point really? Is there anything that art can express that can't just as easily be communicated through speach? Forgive me if I sound a little crude, but I've been reading about the ongoing debate about the role of the arts in public schools and I'm just kind of curious how you all feel about this. Does art really have anything to offer students? Should it be taught at the expense of mathematics and science?

For instance, why go to an art exhibit? What could that offer me?

[G L Wilson]

Why poetry? Why philosophy? Why anything? If you need a reason for a thing, then you need not that thing. Art is an interest, nothing more, or nothing.

[J.D.]

Part of me wants to be the hip alternative kid in high school who isn't going to explain, for instance, Neutral Milk Hotel, figuring that if you don't get it, that's your problem--and better for me, since I'm part of an exclusive club who does get it.

The other part of me, the teacher, the one that worries people like you read this stuff and then vote the arts out of public school, that part of me feels it necessary to make a statement. So here it goes. Art is important because it helps us experience life more fully by paying attention and appreciating what's around us.

Art is necessary because it is the only "true" account of what it was like to be a human here on this spinning rock. Everything else is just a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, a bunch of tallies and numbers. Now I'm including music and literature in "Art" when I say this. But look at a Romantic lanscape by Cole or Inness. That's not what the scene looked like, but it's what it looked like, you know what I mean? When we're all dead and gone, don't you want people to know what things looked like?

[The Atheist]

It seems like art arose out of a need to communicate ideas to non-literate societies. Sort of the way a totem poel told the history of a tribe to its memebers.

No, it's a lot older than that; art forms are known to go back for over 40,000 years.

There's no doubt it's driven by evolution, as it definitely contributes to group behaviour/society.

Now that everyone can read, what's the point really? Is there anything that art can express that can't just as easily be communicated through speach? Forgive me if I sound a little crude, but I've been reading about the ongoing debate about the role of the arts in public schools and I'm just kind of curious how you all feel about this. Does art really have anything to offer students? Should it be taught at the expense of mathematics and science?

For instance, why go to an art exhibit? What could that offer me?

This is where it gets really easy, because we've built a culture around the evolutionary development, just as we have with love and nationalism.

As the saying goes, beauty is in the ear or eye of the beholder, so all art has some value intrinsically as entertainment.

I don't believe there is a need for art any more, but it's not about to go anywhere. It should be taught as well as maths & economics, but never instead of.

[prickly_pete]

The only way you're going to really know anything about art though is to study it relentlessly for many years of your life. So what's the point in forcing students into taking an art class or two - is this really accomplishing anything is all I'm asking. Like, I could read the Bible on my own or have someone well-versed in theology explain it to me. I don't need paintings or sculptures in order to interpret the message the way someone in the Middle Ages would.

Don't get me wrong, I'm saying we should burn books or anything. I'm just asking something that I think is important even though its difficult to answer.

[G L Wilson]

Art or poetry or philosophy is orgasm.

[Ecurb]

Art or poetry or philosophy is orgasm.

From sex or masturbation?

[G L Wilson]

From sex or masturbation?

From desire.

[prickly_pete]

When we're all dead and gone, don't you want people to know what things looked like?

I get that it's a cultural handprint, but why should I care about it if the only purpose to it is to leave something for posterity to debate about and speculate on? Why would I care what someone 100 years from now thinks about my own epoch? How could I possibly know how they're going to interpret my epoch? We don't have any control over that.

How does art make life now any better?

[prickly_pete]

Art or poetry or philosophy is orgasm.

*Vinnie from Good Will Hunting*

"Trust is, trust is...life!"

[G L Wilson]

I get that it's a cultural handprint, but why should I care about it if the only purpose to it is to leave something for posterity to debate about and speculate on? Why would I care what someone 100 years from now thinks about my own epoch? How could I possibly know how they're going to interpret my epoch? We don't have any control over that.

How does art make life now any better?

Art is life most plainly.

[G L Wilson]

*Vinnie from Good Will Hunting*

"Trust is, trust is...life!"

Plato never trusted his own desire or anybody else's, he is now the favourite of tyrants.

[Ecurb]

From desire.

Desire suggests an object of desire.

[blithe spirit]

Art is a pleasurable and effective form of visual communication using a vast selection of medium (paint, pastel, collage, sculpture, etc) that further enhances personal expression and reaches a vast visual audience. It's also very cathartic for the artist in this way.

In the school system, if an art teacher can help a student get in touch with his creative side then that student is just that much farther ahead in every facet of his life. He can use it to reduce his own stress, to communicate to those who are more visual learners, as well as enhance a myriad of career paths. Ever heard of web designers? They make top $$$ if they're good.

[G L Wilson]

Desire suggests an object of desire.

Desire suggests knowledge in the Biblical sense. Bertrand Russell was about as sexy as his mathematics (no wonder he never got Aristotle).