Welcome to the 199th insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode, we strive to define ‘art’, exploring what it is, what it isn’t, and why we’re so attracted to it.
Art, as a product, activity and trait, is a powerful and entirely unique expression of the human condition. With a value measured individually, it lacks any physical merit in scarcity or mechanical purpose, yet retains utmost prominence among the heights of wealth. Embodying the unexplainable flaws and kinks we’re universally plagued with, art works as a muse for our otherwise unspoken thoughts and feelings, but what is it?
Found in sound, sight, touch and scent, art lurks in the back alleys of cityscapes, in the pillars of grand halls and in the high notes of melodies. From the chair you sit in, to the table you eat on, anything that’s been built, thought of, or created seems to fall under art’s vague definition. So long as one can find beauty in something, through design or emotional impact, it seems as if we can classify it under a similar umbrella.
With that being said, we’re left to question what isn’t art, as opposed to what is. For if everything has the potential to be creatively influenced, then one can assume that everything would, in turn, be regarded as ‘art’. This philosophical beast leaves one to debate the parameters for art itself, and, doubling down on that, who’s able to dictate what is and isn’t art at all. Is it of the creative’s domain to decide what their work is defined as, or is the audience’s job to analyze and subject certain works to specialized categories?
No matter the argument, on the subject of defining art, there will forever be an opposing one. Creativity is subjective, and perhaps that’s the beauty of it all anyways. At its core, art intends to broaden our ways of thinking, for better or worse, big or small, and that is simply undefinable. Put best in the words of Reddit user @/gmcemu 8 years ago, “Art must be subjective because if art is objective, then, art is dead.”
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