The term art is a very vague concept to discuss. Sometimes, it is even much harder to provide a definite explanation to what art is than just appreciate whatever object it refers to. Although the artistic value of a medium can be a very relative reflection according to who is actually receiving the stimuli, there is still a variety of ways in which we can identify the term art in almost every thing within the surroundings. As a matter of fact, art is actually a philosophical approach on how one interprets the existence of a “something”.
According to Wikipedia, philosophy has a definite segment called Aesthetics which considers an artistic value for an object or a human activity. In my personal experience, artists who are able to provide a better outlook of things always surprise me. Of course, there is no actual training for artistic creativity, but the mere fact that I can easily encounter a person who justifies art in any forms of elemental object in this world provides a rather clarifying effect for my curiosity.
There are some notions that artists should never be trusted with things that are not under their scope of understanding. Some argue that the confinement of artists in their own opinionated evaluation of things may lead to a biased perception of matters which other people, whom they influence, may take it seriously. “No one is giving me a free ride for my drawing capabilities, and no one is throwing art supplies at me. I’m not allowed to miss classes because I was out late working on a production. ”(Falk 1).
The arguments may be true in a sense but each different individual has his own ways of interpreting any forms of philosophical perspective. Thus, even if an artist deliberately favors the good natured characteristic of an activity or thing, there is no reason to blame him if some other “non-artists” would agree. Therefore I do not accept the notion that artists should only be confined within their own parameters of understanding of things. Like any other people, all individuals have their own right to explore domains in which one is not really familiar with.
This brings a more diversified acceptance of philosophical indulgence of important or non-important things. So what are the possible benefits that the society can get from artists? Obviously, because of the well roundedness of the thinking capability of artists, social awareness will be the most crucial advantage prospect that an artist can contribute. A few years back, I stumble upon a boutique in a department store which sells paintings. There was one craft which grabbed my attention.
It was a painting of a landscape in which weird man-made structures were illustrated with a backdrop of a thick forest. I was very curious about the picture and found out that the scene was actually taken from Cambodia. Back home, I was able to get hold of the actual ancient monument picture and found the same illustration of the Angkor-Wat online. It was the first time that I ever saw anything about that Asian country. Another positive effect that artists can contribute is the creation of a very fluid understanding of things.
In the field of media, some visual artists have become very effective ambassadors in relaying their advocates to introduce solutions for social issues and problems. They have been sponsoring exhibits to raise funds for calamity victims; grabbing the attention of viewers and listeners to campaign for some environmental cause and even sacrifice their privacy just to protest against expected public problems such as pollution, child labor or problematic international treaties. Such capability of the artists to change how the world works is just a single attribute why they are very much needed by the society.
Today, people definitely know how artists can make people lives better (Tusa 1).
Works Cited
Battle of Ideas. August 28 2007. Battle of Ideas. November 11 2007 http://www. battleofideas. org. uk/index. php/site/session_detail/164/. Dailytargum. April 6 2000. The daily Targum. November 11 2007 http://media. www. dailytargum. com/media/storage/paper168/news/2000/04/06/Opinion/Athletes. Not. Comparable. To. Artists-105632. shtml. Wikipedia. November 10 2007. Wikipedia. November 11 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art.