Jan 04, 2021 update: For an updated version of the TLVIV New Dogma - Please see:
https://tlviv.com/pages/tlviv-new-dogma

 

TLVIV New Dogma
(Sep. 2019)

What is Art?
Art is the process of interpreting an artifact.

 

What is an Artifact?
Any action aimed to affect Human sensation constitutes an artifact, tangible like a painting that proceeds to exist after creation was ended, or intangible as music. 

This definition is wide and includes almost anything from a silly commercial to Humanity's greatest artistic achievements. Hence the real question is what constitute a good art, or good artifacts.

 

What constitute good art?
Good art is measured not by its intensity - almost any low grade Horror movie has stronger effect than Picasso's Guernica - rather by its contribution to the public vocabulary, or to the process of extracting meaning from the private vocabulary of the creator to the public shared language, or to the process of interpreting artifacts.

 

The Viewer is an Artist, the Artist is a Creator.

Art happens in the viewer's mind or heart, thus the Artist is the interpreter of an artifact. According to this Copernican view point the conventional use of the term Artist should be replaced by creator. Anyone who participate in the process of creation is a creator, anyone who interpret an artifact is an artist.

 

 

Art's law of conservation of mass.
Da Da as an artistic representation of meaningless signs is impossible. An artifact by definition triggers the interpretation process, regardless whether there is a meaning to be found.  This is Art's equivalent to the law of conservation of mass.

 

Modern art vs. other categories of art.

Categories of art are made for orientation and classification. Hashtaging an artifact as classical, modern, ethnical, or other is part of the process of interpretation.  Most of the time classification indeed helps – but cannot be taken for granted especially with landmark artifacts.

Modern art is about running the process of interpretation but with less to hold on to. Differing from classical art the context is not as well defined.  Interpretation effort of classical art can hold to circumstances of creation such as, creator, commissioner, sponsor, historical context, realistic figures, and many more relevant details.  

Interpreting modern Art, the interpreters find themselves navigating without a map or compass. This required an intellectual effort that often leads to emotional binary reaction of like or dislike. Seemingly, interpretation of modern art tend to trigger sensation of uncertainty more than classical art;  How to interpret the artifacts? is the interpretation pragmatic or out of the field of overinterpretation? On which data base interpretation effort should run?

However classical art is not that different from modern art. Many of Humanities greatest creators worked in times or places where freedom of speech was limited at best, or even life risking. The strict rules of composition posed an even greater challenge, yet creators had found ways to express their truth which could be very different from the common interpretation of the relevant artifacts.

 

The Commerce effect:

What is commercial Art?
If acquiring or experiencing Art or an artifact involves a transaction – then it is a commercial art or artifact.

What is the relation between high commercial value and good art?
Allegedly there is none, since the commercial value is determined by Market doers, such as critics, curators, Museums, Galleries, and Art buyers, all with commercial interest pretty much like investors who have interest in their portfolios. History provides plenty of examples for great landmark Artifact that had almost zero value, whereas insignificant artifact were sold for millions and now worth nothing. However, outrageous sums of purchase tend to secure an entrance to the public language.

 

Citation Information:
TLVIV Art Blog, What is Art? A new Dogma by TLVIV. https://tlviv.com/blogs, Sep. 2019. 

 

TLVIV Art Blog,  Sep. 22, 2019 
V. 1

V.2 Title and SEO edit. Oct. 13, 2019.

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