Dodgeful arter

[egadfly]

I have a confession to make. I don't like art galleries. I don't like putting a box around some things and calling them art. "Art" (or indeed "stuff") is more delightful when it's encountered by surprise. Provided, of course, that you notice it. Maybe galleries are so that people don't have to pay attention all the time in case they encounter

Comments

[jester_nine]

It is also the ability to hold multiple versions of reality in your head simultaneously. A stack of variants that each return true for a given level of knowledge and perceptual penetration. As an observer of such forms we are always offered the easy out of taking the most obvious version (whatever that may be for us) and accepting that as the one we use. Or we can rummage around a little more deeply and see what there is to find. This is true for many things. The limitation of the viewer is often not in their ability to see the connections but in their lack of interest that they might exist at all.

However dig deep enough and you end up passing through the realm of intersection between artist's intent and your ability to make the same connections. Then we may find ourselves falling back on our own perceptions, infusing the artist's construct with our own patterns and meanings. It is always possible to make connections that may seem obvious to you are impossibly abstract for someone not equipped with your precise knowledge and mindstate and the time of creation. Perhaps this then is the point where 'real' art is reached. Where the work is of sufficient richness to engage you to the point where you look for meaning but the creator's intention is sufficiently absent that you find out something for yourself rather than worrying if you have understood the art properly - always a rather unsatisfying outcome.

The vote/anarchy thing was awesome by the way.

V for Venn d'etre

[egadfly]

I like that. If art is real when the creator's intention is absent, then the intention to create art will obscure other intentions, perhaps even from oneself. And since the artist does not have sole control over the perception of his intention, the status of "real" art is partially determined by the nature of the one who experiences it.

And, thank you :)