What is art?

Thinking about art as an ‘area of knowledge’ can be both exciting and daunting depending on your comfort level. It might be appropriate to ask, “Is art knowledge?” This question might lead to us to think about the distinction between personal knowledge and shared knowledge.

For this assignment, research various works of art, which might be of use to your Art Presentation.

1. Try flipping through the art articles in my magazine:

Check out Arts by Chris Coey

 

2. Also, look at the links provided on this web page.

3. Post a comment about a work of art you found to be ‘knowledge’ and discuss whether you see this work of art as relating to personal or shared knowledge.

21 thoughts on “What is art?

  1. out of all of the art performances that i have taken a look at today dance is by far reigning supreme. i believe dance to be a performance art giving different vibes such as emotion as well as telling a story as to who you are as a person giving the audience a view as to what you represent. dance creates an escape for whenever youve had enough of the outside world dances helps you take a leave of absence per se in other words dance is awesome.

  2. Photos by Michael Shainblum is a work of art that I found to be knowledge (http://www.faithistorment.com/2013/07/photos-by-michael-shaimblum.html). Looking at his photos, it creates an internal conflict for me, the battle between my artistic side and the logical side (the artistic side is weaker). It makes me wonder if his photos were taken without any enhancement, or were they enhanced with technology. My artistic side wants to believe that those photos were “real,” but it would defy my logical thoughts that those photos are “too beautiful to be real.” Therefore, I came to a conclusion that a combination of an original photo with the enhancement is still keep the photo “real,” since it is still a work of art. This work of art is related to personal knowledge because Mr.Coey has actually seen the Milky Way that looks similar to those in the picture, so he believes that those pictures maybe non-enhanced. I haven’t seen the Milky Way like that yet, so those pictures were enhanced to me.

  3. i looked up on google, illusion art, and found several pieces of art that at first looks as a human face or a piece of nature. then when you look closer, you see a picture of a village or a person from head to toe, or something you wouldn’t have seen if you just took a quick look. i believe these pictures is one way to spread shared knowledge by having people actively spending time on something that might not have before.

  4. The works of art I found to be “knowledge” were huge hyper-realistic human sculptures made by Ron Mueck. I believe these works of art are astonishingly spectacular because they relate to the knowledge that “anything” can be seen as realistic. With materials like fiber glass and resin, this amazing artist is able to recreate ceramic beings that could rise as high as 10 feet tall. To us these sculptures may be lifeless, but to the eyes of an artist they are filled with emotions and characteristics of that of human beings.

  5. I find astrophotography, http://www.faithistorment.com/2013/07/photos-by-michael-shaimblum.html to be knowledgeable. In my view, I see astrophotography to be pictures of what we don’t know, but also what we can learn, and that to me is knowledge. Knowing that there are unknowns. I believe that this work of art is personal knowledge since it is unknown knowledge and all we can do is use our imagination to determine what the picture is really a picture of.

  6. I found a very… interesting instrument at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGY0wl_SGBE. It was a heavily augmented piano that was apparently used to create early Disney music. It brings new “knowledge” by being in itself a new instrument, but also creating sounds impossible on any conventional instrument. This is a shared knowledge that can be heard by all, but these instruments are quite rare, making that difficult.

  7. According to this link (http://www.businessinsider.com/dad-colors-kids-artwork-2013-12), there is an article about a father who takes his children’s drawn pictures and color shades them during his business trips. Interestingly, if you compare the picture from before colored, to after being colored, you’d probably would have a different impression. This is distinguished as art, because the father, or artist had created the shadings with a certain purpose. To support whether he had done it intentionally, the article stated that “his work with tattoos inspired the way he chose to shade the drawings with colored pencils.” Therefore, this shows that the father’s artworks involved both his connection between knowledge and shared knowledge, and how he made certain decisions to make the art work turn out a certain way.

    This reminds me of one of Beethoven’s quote, where he says, “don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets.” The father did not only practice his art, he did not simply color Santa Claus as what we would often see in bold line pictures, with a couple white uncolored spots and dark colored lines. But he applied what he knew, and from experience he incorporated into the drawing his skills and style. He forced his way into its secrets…

    I believe that this work of art is perceived as knowledge because it is through the article– about what the father’s done, that he has helped to educationally encourage us how we should live our lives– to live it our best. And if we want to get better at something, or make something better out of just what we have, we would have to ‘force our way into its secrets.’

  8. So . . . I didn’t really find anything to be knowledge but, there was photographs of showing nature in the most beautiful creative way with lots of colors (http://www.faithistorment.com/2013/07/photos-by-michael-shaimblum.html). I found that “art work” to be knowledge because nature can be viewed in several ways. I don’t really know if it can relate to personal or share knowledge but in my opinion I strongly believe it’s related to both. How?Why? maybe because people might have a personal connection towards those photographs, they can feel something strong when viewing the photos, it can also be shared knowledge because it’s knowledge that everyone can figure out ? p.s, I tired !

  9. When I finished reading the article on Marvel creating a new female Muslim super hero, who is going to be named Ms. Marvel, I was left wondering if this would have a lasting impact on the Muslim community and the way people treat people who practice Islam. In the article it states that its going to give us an insight to a Muslim-American family. Meaning we’ll be able to gain an understanding of what it means to a Muslim in the United States. As people who aren’t Muslim-American, don’t really understand how their lives are, their culture, or their way of thinking. It would be shared knowledge, because everyone would be able to to gain an understanding of what it means to be a Muslim-American.

  10. I looked up art on youTUBE and I found street art to be remarkably amazing. The way they put their feeling into the art creates an emotional and dramatic sense to the art. My mind was blown by the art that was created with such techniques and feelings. I was all like “Oh My Gahhhhhhd!!”
    To me, this is shared knowledge because of how many people shared the experience of the creation of the art. People could actually see and feel the same feelings that the artist feels while they create these quick but amazing works of art.

  11. The work of art that I have chose is from this post : http://www.faithistorment.com/2013/07/photos-by-michael-shaimblum.html

    The knowledge you can gain from the photo he ( Michael Shainblum) is emotional knowledge. The sky above and the space that is shown is of mixed emotions. Some nights are of sadness, and some are of a mild guilt. There is complexion in the space we see above. This is personal knowledge. We look at the stars and the space and we all see and fell our own emotions. Feelings that we cannot share with others so easily.

  12. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ruchikatulshyan/2013/10/14/banksy-why-a-million-dollar-artists-work-sold-for-60/

    Who determines the value of somewhat or something? Does the artwork itself make it valuable? In this article, a talented British graffiti street artist sold his artwork, that is worth millions of dollars, for $60. On the street of New York, people pass by the artwork and didn’t even turn their head. They call it “cheap.” This made me realize that sometimes, brands and names is what determine the value of something. This contradicts with my previous knowledge, that an artist artwork is valuable because of his great painting skills. After reading this article, I realize that art is art; and brands only determine the value, it doesn’t determine if something is art or not.

  13. A work of art that I’ve found through my small group’s search was sand art. Tommy had showed it to us, and I was mind blown by it.
    To me this art is both personal and shared knowledge. The personal knowledge that one needs in order to start making these works of art is part of the shared knowledge which is shown through them.
    The knowledge that one gains from the art is the shared knowledge. The personal knowledge is the knowledge that is being shared.
    Therefor, all art is both personal and shared knowledge.

  14. I found various piecees of newcoming paintings that represented a type of shared knowledge.They show certain biological aspects of nature that most people couldnt conclude on their own.

  15. The work of art that I chose was of a Mexican rebozo. A rebozo is a Mexican style scarf that women wear as a fashion statement or to carry their babies. Rebozos are hand made on a wood loom. The art and textiles are very intricate and each individual rebozo is hand-made and original. The art of the rebozos are beautiful while some even have meanings behind them. These works of art relate to my personal knowledge because they are a part of my culture. My earliest memory of a rebozo is of my grandma wearing one around her head. It was a cold and windy day and she let me wear it as a scarf/ shoulder covering. My mom also used rebozos to wrap us around her back when we were babies. Rebozos are a form of knowledge because they can tell us about our ancestors and bring back memories of our childhood.

  16. The hyper-realistic sculptures of Ron Mueck
    I found this art to be extremely knowledgeable because it can be used to give realistic 3d models for a knowledge like health. This can also be knowledgeable because it gain be a better way of gaining knowledge if he was to create a life size model and have tours on the inside of a human body or a brain to give learning a funner side to it.

  17. The work of art that I chose was the pictures of the sky at night and how the galaxy looks at any place you go to. I believe this art is found to be ‘knowledge’ because when you look at the different pictures of the night sky, you can see how the sky has its own meaning. Not all night skies are going to be the same but there’s beauty within each kind. Each scenery has its view and when you look at them it makes you feel amazed because a sky like that exists. Looking at the pictures, I believe that these pictures are personal knowledge because not all night skies look like how the pictures do and its rare to find. Only few people are able to create this image without using photo shop or any editing towards it. When you look at the pictures you can see that the galaxy pictures are rare to find because if you were to look at your communities skies, you realize how polluted our skies are because at night you’re not able to see skies like in the photo.

  18. a work of art that i found to be knowledgeable was the 6th out of the 8th picture at http://www.faithistorment.com/2013/07/photos-by-michael-shaimblum.html , i am able to relate this picture as public knowledge because, it shows that there are an infinite amount of stars that shine upon the earth even though we cannot see them. Also it can be seen as public knowledge picture because they seem so close because we can see them, but in fact they are so far away.

  19. The pho­tog­ra­ph that Ali Ertürk took of the beautiful sunset in San Francisco grabs the audience’s attention because it gives the audience the view of how beautiful a land can be. Sometimes, one can’t see how beautiful a land can be because they don’t see it in the form of art. The photograph gives the audience a dreamy and a relaxed feeling, but that’s only because of the way the photographer captured the photograph. The way he captured the photograph is his art and he wants to share it with others that can’t see what he sees. I can personally connect to this because often when I see sunsets or a beautiful view, I automatically take my phone out to take a picture or take a picture of myself with the view. I take pictures of my perspective of the world and land, so others can see through my eyes and see it in a different perspective.