Friday, June 02, 2006

The meaning of "art"

Another nice theory developed while having a nice time.....

I would often think that any field of performance started as nothing in particular, on development became a science because of its technical aspects, and in its stage of highest development became "art". Why art? Because art is art! I couldn't really explain that one. Then, a brainwave....

Why do we call something art? It is because we can feel the sheer excellence of it, but we cannot comprehend it. That is why we call it an art. We call something a science when we feel it's sophistication/ excellence, but can also realize that there is a way to it.

However, the person actually doing something excellently, comprehends it quite well. So, it is never art for him. It remains purely technical work. It is only the others who find it art.

When things become too abstract to comprehend for an observer, they become art for him. When he finds the abstractions difficult or challenging but comprehensible, it is a science. However, for the doer, what he is doing never becomes too abstract to comprehend, or else he wouldn't be doing it!

This is exactly why music and many such things: plays, dancing, etc become art for most of us fairly easily... The incomprehensibility of abstraction begins pretty early. Whereas in many sports such as football, we find only certain things artistic: for example, the beautiful style of the brazilians. This is because the incomprehensibility of abstraction begins fairly late in these fields.

But another question arises: if, for example, a musician is not getting joy out of his music the way we are getting, what is his "spiritual" motivation?

The answer is simple: he is working on improving his technique/skill. Every time this reaches an unprecedentedly high level, the musician enters virgin territory. It is the joy of discovering these virgin territories that is pushing him.