In article
<1926c3a0-a90e-4e7a-a6e1-6c46e7d9e7d0@s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
"
[email protected]" <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Dec 31, 10:35 am, Ryan Cousineau <[email protected]> wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > William Asher <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > William Asher <[email protected]> wrote in news:Xns9A1712F644BD5FkldeltaC@
> > > 130.133.1.4:
> >
> > > >http://tinyurl.com/yuxwpe
> >
> > > hi-res version:
> >
> > >http://tinyurl.com/gzual
> >
> > But is it art?
> >
> > My theory is that collectively, the USN's carrier fleets comprise the
> > single grandest sculpture project ever conceived.
> >
> > I'd have to figure out if they actually outweigh the pyramids, but given
> > that they could destroy the pyramids, I say the points go to the USN.
>
> Well, if you think the narrative of art history
> through the ages should be conducted as an episode
> of BattleBots (and there are some good arguments
> for this), then I think you have a winner.
>
> Otherwise, it makes sense to argue that an aircraft
> carrier is not art, but a photograph of an aircraft
> carrier is art. (Or at least it is depending on your
> taste.) One could make the same argument about
> Half Dome versus a photograph of Half Dome, or a sunset,
> or Lange's "Migrant Mother."
> There's also a school of thought that if you see it in a
> museum or buy it at an "art store" (in the manner of TK),
> it's art. Whether an aircraft carrier is art then depends
> on whether you think Northrop Grumman is also an art gallery.
I'm aware of the line of thought that art is essentially useless crafts,
but I feel that limits art too much. Also, I daresay there a few French
philosophers who might argue that carriers are clearly art, since they
are only good for fighting wars which did not take place:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_art_and_craft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard#On_the_Gulf_War
I am clearly, by my arguments, in the Paul Virilio war-as-art school of
thought:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Virilio#The_war_model
Which leads me to believe that it matters not where I bought my aircraft
carrier, or how I admired it. I have not seen the Mona Lisa in person,
and yet I believe it to be art.
Now great bicycles are not art because they aspire to something more
noble: craft. And I would rather have a well-crafted object at hand than
an artful object, because I feel utility imbues it with the sort of
potency art-fans ridiculously claim for their preferred objects (don't
get me started on "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction") and
because I am an unfeeling robot monster.
--
Ryan Cousineau
[email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"My scenarios may give the impression I could be an excellent crook.
Not true - I am a talented lawyer." - Sandy in rec.bicycles.racing