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On Nov 17, 2008, at 1:05 PM, scott hansen wrote: > someone stated that art is not entertainment- > that is false. in the 1800s at the height of the salon era in Paris > (the center for the art world at the time), the state funded salon > which could make or break careers-, the art that was being shown > was one of the forms of entertainment of the time (remember, no > tivo, movies or ipods at time). people would go see the paintings, > etc. and marvel at the good stuff, and LAUGH at the bad stuff. Not false, the functions and uses of art have evolved since the 1800's. For many, the appreciation of art has become linked to thrill- seeking -- good art is art which "knocks your socks off" or "blows your mind" -- but that is a very limited viewpoint and while vaguely valid, it is a rather adolescent approach: a sort of tits / ass/ gunfight / blow up cars method to measure significance. Part of this is the way "art" is marketed these days just to get anyone's jaded attention out of the morass and quagmires of cultural product. So the art you hear about tends to be art that is bold and aggressive, somehow commanding attention. But I don't think art is about rating things. It is not a competition. Intensity does not correlate to importance and neither does scale -- just because something is big does not make it more important than something small (bacteria and virus can kill you). Think of Proust and his little madeleine cookie. Some art needs time to sink into the brain, but as life has sped up so much and information load has expanded exponentially, there is very little time or even ability for most folks to engage subtle levels of sensibility and reflection. Thus, art that does not have an immediate discernible impact is dismissed as irrelevant and insignificant. But most criticism tells you more about the critic than the art. Art is involvement in the evolution of the human mind, the Species Mind. In a Jungian sense, it is "furnishing the house" but also transcending "houseness" and extrapolating other possibilities. The Internet is also part of this process -- the intertubes are not just about shopping and porn. My wish is that, after 50 years of over-militarization, some of our fearless leaders will have the cojones to take the billion dollars that goes into one single war aircraft and apply that money to support the arts and arts education. One damn war plane. regards BobC http://tinyurl.com/yt8f8j Flickr set http://www.youtube.com/tynego