some thoughts on art

there is good art and bad art
art is about manipulation and control

art is stimulus and response and the aim of art is about creating a near uniform set of responses across the broadest range of people and in a consequently large number of people across a long range of time

a joke a laugh
trying to evoke a response
good art exists in the same way some jokes do make you laugh
the joke is designed and timed to elicit a particular response and sometimes it succeeds in eliciting a particular response - the response varies in magnitude

some jokes are better than others in making more people -- simple quantity -- a more diverse range -- black/white male/female straight/gay able/disabled cultural backgrounds intellectual backgrounds etc etc laugh
then as an artist create in the audience
awe
wonder
horror
fear
tears
laughter
contemplation

intentional fallacy you can't know what the artist intended to evoke (you can often in practice have a fair idea but it's not provable)
can you measure whether a particular work consistently elicits the same response or series of responses

an emotional/intellectual journey varying balances of the two between artists -- popular art - cerebral art - pop idol and TS Eliot (i like neither of my two examples of the extremities)

shakespeare survives accusations that the emperor wears no clothes -- people say it and i look and i see substance
his art survives the sniping - i think justly
little nell

breaking the spell
changing the dynamic by saying actually that joke isn't funny because of a b and c this can change the dynamic and we see the joke or the piece of art in a new perspective --- will it survive the scutiny --- is it sexist or is it funny ? is the piece of art deep and meaningful or pretensious -- sweet or saccarine -- moving or risable -- do i feel manipulated (little nell) i'm not watching the puppet show i'm watching the strings -- the spell is broken and i've lost that suspension of disbelief!!

bonding experience of being taken on the same emotional journey
i believe sometimes my taste is wrong yet inevitably i believe i have good taste yet i know that good taste, almost certainly, isn't quantifiable

i believe few people have really good taste

and nobody has perfect taste

nobody can consistantly be right in their judgement of what is good and bad art

do i believe that my taste is an accurate measure of good art? no

do i believe good art and bad art exists? yes - some jokes make no one laugh similarly some art fails

is good taste the same as my taste? no -- i have no way of measuring the accuracy of my taste -- good taste is the ability to recognise good art from bad
i don't believe that i always do that

do i believe that my taste is better than others? better than some and worse than others and again no way of measuring -- no independent yardsticks -- i have no way of knowing if my taste is ever better than another person's either in general and certainly never on a case by case basis but as a response to stimuli my responses are as valid as anyone's but what weight they might be given by any objective criteria is quite beyond me to tell

why do i esteem the taste of certain people? breadth of knowledge breadth of feeling breadth of backgrounds (oh dangerous yet...): and the depth of these same

fashion and taste interact but eventually great art transcends fashion

taste is partly a bonding process -- we share -- we compare -- and often we may reevalute certain works of art based on interactions -- someone whose opinion i value values a particular work of art which causes me to reassess my opinion -- i go back -- i look harder -- what am i missing??
sometimes i look again and change my mind -- sometimes if enough people whose opinion i esteem tell me something is good and after looking at it again repeatedly i still don't feel/see it then i conclude the abberation is in me

great art transcends manipulation because of truth
it creates a handshake protocol between artist and audience -- a moment of zen -- an epiphany -- catharsis

creating great art is not about seeking to control and manipulate
great art is about truth not ego

the suspension of disbelief is a bond of trust

the artist speaks to your soul and through honesty you learn to trust them -- show me beauty -- show me how this feels or that feels -- weave a web -- create a dance -- take me on a journey through our souls -- lies shout in art like a racist joke -- sometimes we see them straight away and sometimes we need them revealed to us by the child saying the emperor is wearing no clothes but once we see -- the joke isn't funny -- the belief is gone -- the magic vanishes -- the dream is interrupted -- the veil falls from our eyes -- the bond of trust vanishes