Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Xenophon]

The more I think about/talk to people who are "doing art", the more I realize that for most of such people it's just an easy way to discriminate people with no reason.
Let's say there's a guy who let's say draws. He does it for some time and consider himself to be doing "art".
But why? Isn't that person just do what other people do? Every person has been drawing something at some point, some more, some less, but everybody can draw something, just like every person breathes air. There's no criteria to identify if someone "can draw" and someone "can't".
So the person who claims to be "an artist" is different from other people just by his decision to put himself above other people, and find people who would buy into it.

Or here's another more relevant example.
There's a guy named Don Buchla who kinda invented modular synthesizers back in the 60s and was going around playing it on festivals and such.
Nowadays people BUY synthesizers from the company Don Buchla left, turns knobs, push buttons on them and consider it "modern experimental art" or even compare themselves to Don Buchla.
But there's nothing new in it. Like, why would you call it "doing art" if you just copy what other people do and have been doing for 50+ years? After all, to do what Don Buchla did is not to grab a newest instrument from the shop(which was an electroguitar in the 60s I guess) and play with it. It's to make something new.

And the ambiguity of "art" basically allows people to do nothing and claim you do something, even we ignore what exactly that is.

What's wrong with discriminating? My company discriminates in favor of competent people. Basketball discriminates in favor of quick, coordinated ones. This forum (in its subtle way) discriminates in favor of the eloquent. After all, folks tend to agree with (or at least respect) the well-spoken. Women discriminate in favor of...um...well, mostly guys other than myself. So what's wrong with discriminating? Some win, some lose. The losers learn by suffering. (Google "pathei mathei".)

[LovelyLau]

What is doing art?
Well it is a creative means of expression.
So people's art is figurative to them. They can do whatever the hell that they think is art whether other thinks it is not as long as they are expressing themselves in some way in my opinion.
Everything done in some visual art is still art whether it is the worse rubbish ever, that person is still expressing themselves.
Also there are other forms of art such as dance, drama, poetry, novels, stories etc
So those are just art in different mediums.
Art is a very good way to express feelings or get out negative emotions or have downtime.