Blog #1

“I want to thank anyone who spends a part of their day creating. I don’t care if it’s a book, a film, painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us. I think this world would be unfortunate without art.” Pg. 434

Everyone is capable of creating art. Everyone does in their own way. Wether its how you carve through the water on a board, or a more traditional form like painting. Art is really just how you present yourself to the world. So it can come in whatever stylish form you please. It is a way for people to detach from their day to day stress and let loose. This is why I think that Southan said “I think that this world would be unfortunate without art.” If we lost that art then many people would lose their coping mechanism for the unfortunate. Art also brings people together. If people like to do the same activities then they are more likely to hang out and become friends. This is how I know most of my friends. When you are with people who love do the same things that you do then not only do you always have something to talk about but you know that they are really interested in what you have to say. This also will relive more stress. Humans thrive off of social interactions, without these most people have a tendency to become introverted and depressed. Art spreads happiness through enjoyment and bringing people together.

-“Here’s a simple test to determine if you’re creating art for yourself or for the world. If you discovered that someone else had independently come up with a project idea that you’d had. but they produced and distributed their work first, would you be upset? Or would you be thrilled that this vitally important stuff was out there, altering perspective and making everything better in a real, quantifiable way-even though it wouldn’t increase your social status?” Pg. 438

This little excerpt from Southan caught my attention because it really drove home some connections for me between what he was saying on wether art actually helps make the world a better place, or is it just a waste of everyones time. To summarize, Southan’s writing said that art is an attempt to make the world a better place. However those people who are creating art could instead help to make the world a better place through more direct methods. This could be activism, or non profit work. This quote that I picked out stood out to me because I think it is interesting what drives people to do the things that they do. People very rarely make decisions that are for their own pleasure alone. Usually what drives us is the opinions of others, fear, and attention to name a few. This quote is an interesting thought experiment. I like how it resembles the question, what would you do? I agree with him that most people create art for the feedback. Thats because it feels good. I love it when I have been working hard and someone tells me I did a good job. It is that positive reinforcement that I go back on to get through challenges in life. I think that what he is trying to say is that art is not only for the audience. It is also for the artist. Art doesn’t have to be about helping anyone because sometimes it might not have been created for anyone but the artist.

2 Comments

  1. elishaemerson

    Your comment, “Humans thrive off of social interactions, without these most people have a tendency to become introverted and depressed. Art spreads happiness through enjoyment and bringing people together,” is just wonderful. You should definitely consider trying to incorporate this idea into your paper! Do you think you could support this using any of our TED talks? I really enjoyed reading your thought processes! Keep up the good work! 3/3

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