To me, art is a mediated (video, audio, photo, painting, etc.) unforgettable, life changing message.
In person, it’s easier for an event to have a life changing impact on you. For something to still impact you through a medium (play, book, film, recording, photo), that’s art.
Art defies the you-had-to-be-there feeling. Even though you weren’t there, you felt it, you’ll always remember it—whatever ‘it’ is.
Frost vs. Nixon helped me feel like I was right there in the 70’s. I could see how hippies were repudiated by the respectable middle-class same as tea party protesters are repudiated today. Don’t Stop Believing by Journey can make almost anyone feel like they’re young and making a name for themselves again. When I watch Lord of the Rings, I understand Hope.
A great speech is in another class entirely. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream packs a punch in print, in audio, in a YouTube clip, or in person.A great speech defies the need for artistic production. It works in any form.
If you want to do something artistic, do 2 things. Know your audience’s worldview and mediate an abstract idea or event which will address their worldview and turn it on its head through whatever medium you prefer.
Any production (photography, movies, painting) which doesn’t change someone’s worldview but makes people feel good is beauty not art—which I’ll address in a later post.
Cheers and luck,
Eric
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