What constitutes art?

[Dakotah]

Recently a news article was written about an student who announced that he would lose his virginity in front of a crowd of 100 people in the name of art, in a project called: "Art School Stole My Virginity."

The article can be read here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ndon-gallery-venue-controversial-exhibit.html

This brings to question. What is art? Can something like this be really considered art?

 

[Sir Codin]

Sounds more to me like a backlash against...something or another. What, like, is it a statement against how much we value our virginity or how much we value losing our virginity or...both? I don't know, his reasoning is lost on me.

Then again, I suppose art doesn't necessarily have to make sense for it to be art. But it reads more like a publicity stunt than a piece of art.

 

[£]

Art is an expression of our imagination. Sculptings, paintings, structures, music, dance, performances of even this bizarre calibre is an expression of imagination.

Perhaps we personally don't connect with this concept, but that's the beauty of art, I guess. Different people are going to feel different things, and there isn't a right or wrong answer when it comes to art. I can appreciate that and respect that. I don't think much of having sex in public, but I suppose he can, and I suppose it's going to connect to some people, right?

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

It's the attempt at pure expression from one individual into another. Materializing a thought, idea, or feeling.

 

[Shhmew]

I'm... not quite sure. I've always viewed art as expressing yourself in any visible form that gives others feelings. This does fit into that. He is apparently expressing his frustration about the stigma around virginity to spark interest, debate, questions... feelings.

But he is just making a public scene out of an intimate moment, and calling it art. Sounds more like a psychological experiment to me. But if the performer believes it to be art then I don't really want to challenge that since art is a very personal thing in the first place.

 

[Luck]

Art is a dead term with no meaning. It essentially boils down to what you like vs what you don't like, and that's why ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and Mondrian and Picasso (among others) aren't considered artists by some.

If I could give it a definition, it'd be simply as any form of expression. Even then that's extremely vague and gives no indication of anything. The Creation of Adam was made because Michelangelo had bills to pay, not because he felt like he had to express himself on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

 

[an illegible mess.]

art is what you make of it, really. there isn't so much as a definite term for it, it's simply what it is. art.

on the subject of this topic, the guy was expressing himself in an imaginative, artistic way, so it is perhaps art. public speech is referred as an art to some. me being in an art school, i took a speech class for a semester.

a lot of people consider what i do (gore/guro art) not art because it "condones violence" or whatever. i honestly think it's kind of dumb to think that way, because it's a form of me expressing myself, whether because i want to or if i'm trying to prove a point using my art. art takes on many ways, whether using blood as a common medium or words.

 

[Konishi]

I am uncertain what counts as art, but I am certain that dictating to others what and what doesn't count as art, counts as authoritarianism.

 

[Livewire]

Art kind of carries a broad connotation - anything that elicits an emotional reaction on some level is art or a form of it. But that definition itself is wildly subjective and open to crazy interpretations, so yeah, according to some people, this could very well pass for "art".

 

[maccrash]

when I saw the name of this topic I was expecting to get heated but I agree with the majority of these responses. the definition of art is super tricky, because there is some art out there that is cold and clinical and you're not supposed to feel when you look it at / listen to it, but that's what makes it art. (i.e. the music genre of IDM) and then there are impressionist paintings that are literally blotches of point splattered about a canvas; this is still absolutely art.

I get really really angry when people start to dethrone a certain song or painting, just because it's weird, and saying that it's not art. listen, feel free to dislike something, but if you're going to go that far and say that it just isn't art then you're a butthead. if anything, your hatred of this piece of art is just reinforcing the fact that it is art, considering it's evoked such a strong reaction in you.

 

[Kanzler]

art is supposed to be meaningful. when "everything" can be considered art, then what does it matter that something is art or not? does subjectivity lead to a democratization of art - anybody can be justified in believing whatever they think is art is art? why should i care at that point?