Entertaining the concept of ART

Is Nature Art. Is life and death Art?

Simple answer…no.

Medium answer…It can be pretty but art is typically designed or assigned. As such…

the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

"the art of the Renaissance"

(Copied from the “Define Art” result on google.)

LONG ANSWER…

Art is a social construct. As such anything can be ASSIGNED as art by anyone.

This is not to say Nature, Life or death cannot be aesthetically pleasing, but this is not the same as “ART”. What becomes art is completely up to the people around it who call it art.

And this is simply fine art instead of applied arts.

Fine art is a strange field. Obsessed with message or meaning until it is buried under so much symbolism that it is lost, or even worse the artist stops trying to improve and nothing original comes from it anymore. Right now it is a running joke that Banksy, the graffiti artist is saying the same thing forever in less and less interesting ways. The more focused fine artists don’t bury their message and can actually get things across, however the time of the “Fine artist” is a bit gone and past. It also feels like fine art praises “Classical” works.

Applied arts, is far more interested in how to create impact desired. What does each color incite? How do shapes and composition change things? Jagged vs smooth, and so on. Tone and tempo effects everything. Within the strange duality of Fine arts and Applied arts, applied arts…applies way more to fine art than the other way around, especially if trying to make a living off it is important.

Thus presentations of life, death and nature when presented as art is art, but not automatically.

Not 100% sure I stayed on topic.

Freewrite on Koyaanisqatsi

The Film Koyaanisqatsi is…

I also totally guessed 80s from music type and video quality. Take THAT films from before my birth!

                Having heard that the film makers wanted the viewers to “Come to their own conclusion” is disgustingly disingenuous of where ever it originated from. Creation of a voice of opinion within an art piece is constructed of the elements presented of theme and story. Especially with the ending quote which is very clearly designed to shape what the viewer feels. Something what Koyaanisqatsi actually directly means about crying out for change…after showing all of humanity as the subject matter to that.

                I am personally interested in applied arts, art to an intended effect. To intentionally invoke the result from the elements of the medium in use. As a film without named characters the subjects BECOME the characters, this being “EARTH” and “HUMANITY”. Pretty much all shots related to humanity in the first 3/4ths of the movie leave very little in personal space to “Decide myself” instead showing humanity and uncaring and very “Flash in the pan” in presentation. While the EARTH is presented as strong and immortal.

                I am 100% up for showing the earth is relatively ageless but the presentation used felt incredibly one sided against humanity. Leaving it very Ludite in tone.

Other observations…

The could only get one factory to let them in to film, a meat packing place which was stupid distracting to me because I kept seeing it and going “And we are back!” when there was about 5 scenes with the factory?

Granted to call them scenes would be disingenuous as if I am implying that the film as anywhere near a typical story structure. Which is both to it’s “Artsy Fartsy” benefit and detriment.

I guess what I am trying to say, Art films without clear direction or pacing just make me get disinterested.

Starred Freewrite 1

(Unfortunately I do not have any other "Starred" freewrites that I remember.)

Being sent out while exhausted both physically and mentally leads to dark roads while writing. The duck pond became not a place of rest but a place of rot and decay, a grim reminder of mortality.

I would rather not tackle such topics, of blood to soft loam to stone. I would rather not speak of creation brought to ruin. I would rather not entertain death.

Yet the particles underneath my feet, the damp smell in the air from the rain left that in my mind. Shreds of plant and refuse giving way to my weight, powerless under entropy yet fundamental in the foundation of new growth.

Wow I am tired right now.

I am clear in growth surrounded by the dead, far from the waxing crescent of my life far in the future, the short duration of life present in co-existing body and soul. But I seek out to continue in soul in the works I create and the impact I have.

I will be more than debris.

Small Things O' NATURE

Observations of small moments are a skill that I have gradually developed. As my hobby is the creation of mostly applied art but sometimes vaguely “Fine” art.

The rustle of tides of leaves and the loss of friction on leaf covered paths. The biting cold where even the snow seeks shelter from the wind. The curl of smoke as it rises and dissipates. The flames licking wood from quivering embers.

The smallest details create grounding in every scene, created or reality.

Transcription #3

Sept 8th

The process of life as art? I guess it would qualify as all else as art, a function of the mind to create meaning from chaos. However I am hesitent to call life and death art, these are subjects you make art of, they do not gain meaning in their lonesome. Now beauty can be seen in it and that can inspire people to act and then create art.

Art is very much a social structure yet we assign it to things that were not built or shaped by our own hands, though I don't have much more to add at this point.

Capital "A", Art is already one of the worse rabbit hole subjects that goes beyond philosophical base musing.

Transcription #2

August 27th - Koyaanisqatsi

What did the film makers intend.

They intend to invoke change.

First they show the permanence of earth and how slow and grand it is.

The film contrasts this with the accelerated film speed while showing people. Though this seems to be limited to cities.

Also it was pretty clear very few factories let them inside to film, having by majority meat packaging lines.

The film wants to invoke change but the slow editing is by majority painfully slow. The old 80s film making felt clearly old. It also came off as condescending to me, but I don't live in the city which seems to be the topic focused on.

Also Ludism themes but...yeah.

Freewrite transcription #1

Transcription of Aug 20, 2015

Appears to be on the first chapter of desert solitaire.

   The persona preseted in the material read so far is of a person who cares about nature over anything else. Which unfortunately I don't think is that virtuous. Respect of the indifferent provider that is the earth is important for the long game of human survival.

The impression provided by the book feels of something I adamantly hate. The concept of humans being unnatural on earth. This is extremely destructive for all people involved and creates a stark "This vs them" situation. This is frustrating to me because human adaption to the earth is the ability to work the land beyond a burrow in the dirt.