Friday, 13 November 2009

What is Art?


During todays lecture I was asked whether I am a artist, craftsman or a designer. I consider myself a designer due to the nature of my course. I am given briefs that I need solve, there are restrictions and specifications, and all in all my job is to solve a problem. Also the word design is in the title of my course so that maybe swayed my decision!

We were then shown a serious of photographs showing many works of 'art' from paintings to sculptures and asked what category they fell into. For some of the pieces this was an easy decision but for others there was no right or wrong answer. So what makes one piece of work art and another design?

Is something only art when it has pride of place in a gallery? Is the decision that a piece of work is either art or design made by critics? Does work have to fall into only one category? For example we were shown a photograph of an Egyptian Sphinx, I personally think this falls under all three categories; art, design and craft. What do you think? Is it neither? Is it in fact architecture or some other form of art and design?

Another set of photographs compared sculptures to everyday work and I found this particularly interesting. For instance, we were shown a sculpture made from logs, which was then compared with a pile of firewood. Are they different? Or are they the same? How can one be seen as art but the other not?

It made me question if I am only a designer? Even though my job is to communicate a message or solve a problem does that mean that my solution cannot be art?


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