What is art?

Some questions regarding art:
Wy do societies need it? What does it do?
What’s good art?
Does it depend on what we get out of it? What do we get out of it?
Which of these pieces of art do you like better? Why? What does it say about you?


What is the danger of art? Why is handmade art more dangerous than mass-produced art?
What’s the difference between live and recorded? Why is it better to see a live concert? Why is it not?

Functions and definitions of art:
Pepper:
art gives pleasure
art produces emotion
art integrates complicated elements
art shows reality

Suzanne Langer:
“Art is the creation of forms symbolic or expressive of human feeling”

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what
we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all. - John Lennon

Art is ... the becoming and happening of truth. - Heidegger

Goethe:
entertainment
edification
exaltation

What gives you all three of Goethe's demands?
Have you had a transcendent experience?

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