The Arts (Art)

by Carl, Friday, August 22, 2008, 18:57 (5935 days ago) @ George Jelliss

In art, I am drawn to realism, which prompted an artist friend to ask "Why don't we just use photographs?" I originally thought that abstract art was like the Emperor's new clothes, and people just pretended to see something there. I have since accepted the fact that other people see things I can't and know things I don't. It seems I'm an agnostic in art, just as I am in religion.
In music, I must hear a complex piece many times before I began to enjoy it. I think I need to learn it well enough to anticipate the music. Simple tunes that are initially pleasant began to wear after a few hearings. Of course, there are exceptions in both categories.
Both art and music are subjective, but that does not mean that they are arbitrary. There is a method to every school that is the cumulative product of talented artists applying the best of their creative abilities.
This touches a point of interest, and that is the effect of cumulative knowledge on humans. We are the first species that we know of that can pass knowledge to future generations in any manner except through direct observation. We can experience the words of Newton or Shakespeare directly. This allows us to leverage the benefits that we already receive from evolution, and explains the exponential curve of human progress.