Homework 1

Stephanie Anastasia

Arleti M. Apin

Art Theory

September 3, 2010

Art & Design

• ART

- Art is form and content" means: All art consists of these two things.

• The elements of art,

• the principles of design and
• the actual, physical materials that the artist has used
source : http://arthistory.about.com/cs/reference/f/what_is_art.htm
- Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences

and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect.

Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art

- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/art-definition/ (The Definition of Art - Stanford Encyclopedia

of Philosophy)

1. Constraints on Definitions of Art

Any definition of art has to square with the following uncontroversial facts: (i) entities (artifacts

or performances) intentionally endowed by their makers with a significant degree of aesthetic

interest, often surpassing that of most everyday objects, exist in virtually every known human

culture; (ii) such entities, and traditions devoted to them, might exist in other possible worlds;

(iii) such entities sometimes have non-aesthetic — ceremonial or religious or propagandistic —

functions, and sometimes do not; (iv) traditionally, artworks are intentionally endowed by their

makers with properties, usually perceptual, having a significant degree of aesthetic interest,

often surpassing that of most everyday objects; (v) art, so understood, has a complicated history:

new genres and art-forms develop, standards of taste evolve, understandings of aesthetic

properties and aesthetic experience change; (vi) there are institutions in some but not all
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cultures which involve a focus on artifacts and performances having a high degree of aesthetic

interest and lacking any practical, ceremonial, or religious use; (vii) such institutions sometimes

classify entities apparently lacking aesthetic interest with entities having a high degree of

aesthetic interest.

There are also two more general constraints on definitions of art. First, given that accepting that

something is inexplicable is generally a philosophical last resort, and granting the importance of

extensional adequacy, list-like or enumerative definitions are if possible to be avoided.

Enumerative definitions, lacking principles that explain why what is on the list is on the list,

don't, notoriously, apply to definienda that evolve, and provide no clue to the next or general

case (Tarski's definition of truth, for example, is standardly criticized as unenlightening because

it rests on a list-like definition of primitive denotation). (Devitt, 2001; Davidson, 2005).)

Second, given that most classes outside of mathematics are vague, and that the existence of

borderline cases is characteristic of vague classes, definitions that take the class of artworks to

have borderline cases are preferable to definitions that don't. (Davies 1991 and 2006, Stecker

2005)

Whether any definition of art does account for these facts and satisfy these constraints, or could

account for these facts and satisfy these constraints, are key questions for the philosophy of art.

2. Traditional Definitions

Artworks are ontologically dependent on, and inferior to, ordinary physical objects, which in

turn are ontologically dependent on, and inferior to, what is most real, the non-physical Forms.

Grasped perceptually, artworks present only an appearance of an appearance of what is really

real. Consequently, artistic experience cannot yield knowledge. Nor do the makers of artworks

work from knowledge. Because artworks engage an unstable, lower part of the soul, art should

be subservient to moral realities, which, along with truth, are more metaphysically fundamental

and hence more humanly important than beauty. Beauty is not, for Plato, the distinctive

province of the arts, and in fact his conception of beauty is extremely wide and metaphysical:

there is a Form of Beauty, of which we can have non-perceptual knowledge, but it is more closely

related to the erotic than to the arts. (See Janaway, and the entry on Plato on Rhetoric and
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Poetry.) Second, although Kant has a definition of art, he is for systematic reasons far less

concerned with it than with aesthetic judgment. Kant defines art as “a kind of representation

that is purposive in itself and, though without an end, nevertheless promotes the cultivation of

the mental powers for sociable communication.” (Kant, Critique of Judgment, Guyer

translation, section 44)). The definition, when fully unpacked, has representational, formalist

and expressivist elements. Located conceptually in a much broader discussion of aesthetic

judgment and teleology, the definition is one relatively small piece of a hugely ambitious

philosophical structure that attempts, famously, to account for, and work out the relationships

between, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious faith.

3. Institutional Definitions

a. Arthur Danto (The groundwork for institutional definitions was laid by him, better known to

non-philosophers as the long-time influential art critic for the Nation) : something is a work of

art if and only if (i) it has a subject (ii) about which it projects some attitude or point of view (has

a style) (iii) by means of rhetorical ellipsis (usually metaphorical) which ellipsis engages

audience participation in filling in what is missing, and (v) where the work in question and the

interpretations thereof require an art historical context. (Danto, Carroll) Clause (v) is what

makes the definition institutionalist -- has been criticized for entailing that art criticism written

in a highly rhetorical style is art, lacking but requiring an independent account of what makes a

context art historical, and for not applying to music.

b. George Dickie (The most prominent and influential institutionalism) : early version=a work of

art is an artifact upon which some person(s) acting on behalf of the artworld has conferred the

status of candidate for appreciation. (Dickie, 1971)

The most recent version=consists of an interlocking set of five definitions: (1) An artist is a

person who participates with understanding in the making of a work of art. (2) A work of art is

an artifact of a kind created to be presented to an artworld public. (3) A public is a set of persons

the members of which are prepared in some degree to understand an object which is presented

to them. (4) The artworld is the totality of all artworld systems. (5) An artworld system is a

framework for the presentation of a work of art by an artist to an artworld public. (Dickie, 1984)
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*Both versions have been widely criticized.

4. Historical Definitions

Levinson : an artwork is a thing that has been seriously intended for regard in any way

preexisting or prior artworks are or were correctly regarded. (Levinson 1990)

Historical functionalism : an item is an artwork at time “t”, where “t” is not earlier than the time

at which the item is made, if and only if it is in one of the central art forms at “t” and is made

with the intention of fulfilling a function art has at “t” or it is an artifact that achieves excellence

in achieving such a function. (Stecker 2005)

Historical narrativism : the view that a sufficient but not necessary condition for the

identification of a candidate as a work of art is the construction of a true historical narrative

according to which the candidate was created by an artist in an artistic context with a recognized

and live artistic motivation, and as a result of being so created, it resembles at least one

acknowledged artwork. (Carroll, 1993)

*The similarity of these views to institutionalism is obvious, and the criticisms offered parallel

those urged against institutionalism. First, historical definitions appear to require, but lack, any

informative characterization of art traditions (art functions, artistic contexts, etc.) and hence

any way of informatively distinguishing them (and likewise art functions, or artistic

predecessors) from non-art traditions (non-art functions, non-artistic predecessors).

Correlatively, as Stephen Davies has noted, non-Western art, or alien, autonomous art of any

kind appears to pose a problem for historical views: any autonomous art tradition or artworks —

terrestrial, extra-terrestrial, or merely possible — causally isolated from our art tradition, is

either ruled out by the definition, which seems to be a reductio, or included, which concedes the

existence of a supra-historical concept of art. Historical definitions also require, but do not

provide a satisfactory, informative account of the basis case – the first artworks, or ur-artworks,

in the case of the intentional-historical definitions, or the first or central art-forms, in the case of

historical functionalism.

5. Functional (mainly aesthetic) definitions

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Monroe Beardsley : an artwork is either an arrangement of conditions intended to be capable of

affording an experience with marked aesthetic character or (incidentally) an arrangement

belonging to a class or type of arrangements that is typically intended to have this capacity.”

(Beardsley, 1982, p. 299)

Zangwill : something is a work of art if and only if someone had an insight that certain aesthetic

properties would be determined by certain nonaesthetic properties, and for this reason the thing

was intentionally endowed with the aesthetic properties in virtue of the nonaesthetic properties

as envisaged in the insight. (Zangwill, 1995)

- The Practice an by Speed Harold

There are several definition in this book :

a. "Art is nature expressed through a personality."
b. "Art is the expression of pleasure in work."
c. "Everything which we distinguish from nature"
d. "An action by means of which one man, having experienced a feeling, intentionally transmits
it to others"
e. a means of giving expression to the emotional side of this mental activity, intimately related
as it often is to the more purely intellectual side.
f. Art is the expression of the invisible by means of the visible

- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/art

noun
1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is
beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
2. the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings,
sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection.
3. a field, genre, or category of art: Dance is an art.
4. the fine arts collectively, often excluding architecture: art and architecture.
5. any field using the skills or techniques of art: advertising art; industrial art.
6. (in printed matter) illustrative or decorative material: Is there any art with the copy for this
story?
7. the principles or methods governing any craft or branch of learning: the art of baking; the art
of selling.
8. the craft or trade using these principles or methods.
9. skill in conducting any human activity: a master at the art of conversation.
10. a branch of learning or university study, esp. one of the fine arts or the humanities, as music,
philosophy, or literature.
11. skilled workmanship, execution, or agency, as distinguished from nature.
12. trickery; cunning: glib and devious art.
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13. studied action; artificiality in behavior.

14. an artifice or artful device: the innumerable arts and wiles of politics.
15. Archaic. science, learning, or scholarship.

• DESIGN

1. Design is not an optional extra. If something has been presented in a visual form, it has been

designed. Thus, everyone who presents information in a chosen form has made design decisions

(The Design Manual by Whitbread David ; p. 2)

2. Design is used as a communication tool to:

- attract attention and arouse interest

- separate the particular message from the many other messages people receive daily

- make your message stronger, more effective and perhaps even memorable

- save money by achieving maximum communication value from whatever resources are available.

(The Design Manual by Whitbread David ; p. 3)

3. http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/trinity/watdes.html

a. Design is that area of human experience, skill and knowledge which is concerned with man’s
ability to mould his environment to suit his material and spiritual needs

b. Design is essentially a rational, logical, sequential process intended to solve problems or, as
Jones put it: “initiate change in man-made things”

4. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/design

–verb (used with object)

1. to prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), esp. to plan the
form and structure of: to design a new bridge.
2. to plan and fashion artistically or skillfully.
3. to intend for a definite purpose: a scholarship designed for foreign students.
4. to form or conceive in the mind; contrive; plan: The prisoner designed an intricate escape.
5. to assign in thought or intention; purpose: He designed to be a doctor.
6. Obsolete . to mark out, as by a sign; indicate.
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–verb (used without object)

7. to make drawings, preliminary sketches, or plans.
8. to plan and fashion the form and structure of an object, work of art, decorative scheme, etc.
–noun
9. an outline, sketch, or plan, as of the form and structure of a work of art, an edifice, or a
machine to be executed or constructed.
10. organization or structure of formal elements in a work of art; composition.
11. the combination of details or features of a picture, building, etc.; the pattern or motif of
artistic work: the design on a bracelet.
12. the art of designing: a school of design.
13. a plan or project: a design for a new process.
14. a plot or intrigue, esp. an underhand, deceitful, or treacherous one: His political rivals
formulated a design to unseat him.
15. designs, a hostile or aggressive project or scheme having evil or selfish motives: He had
designs on his partner's stock.
16. intention; purpose; end.
17. adaptation of means to a preconceived end.

http://www.odannyboy.com/blog/cmu/archives/000766.html (5-6)

5. Design is the human power to conceive, plan, and realize products that serve human beings in

the accomplishment of any individual or collective purpose -- Dick Buchanan

6. Design is making things right. --Ralph Kaplan

• My Version

Design is art, but art isn’t always design.

- Design :

a. a small part of art.

b. an action to make something more suitable for a specifics intention (Problem solving). It can be

at the useful or beautiful parts.

c. an action that is need imagination, creativity, feeling, logic, and action.

- Art :
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a. skills or techniques at any activities of human which are still pure or have not “corrupted” yet.

Most of the time, they have big the artistic (aesthetic) parts.