Class on 02/19

In this class the focus of the discussion was on the question "What is art?. Since it eventually came down to art being anything that is called art, a definition I still don't like, the conversation moved more to the realm of what is good art. This also lead to an interesting answer less discussion, because the given answer that fine art should elicit a long term reaction in a lot of people, leads to questions about whether an angry racially motivated billboard that is seen by thousands of motorist would be considered better art then a beautiful picture seen only be a few individuals. Personally I think that the latter would be preferable, so in my opinion some criteria beyond the simple ability to affect the most people must be required.

The lecture focused largely on whether a game based on lagoon could be considered art, and was also indecisive. Although the AI may be elegant, is it art? One definition of art said that as an object becomes less functional, ie a classic car, it becomes more a piece of art, so would the AI only become art when far better forms of AI supersede it, and it is only implemented as a tribute to past technology?

In the end I guess that I learned that the artist and CS majors had very different views of what substantiates art, and that like beauty, art may eternally be in the eye of the beholder.