Sharpness is Overrated!

[rexbobcat]

If I may be so bold, I think I have cracked the art problem. Well. Maybe not. But i like my definition.

Art is any process by which the artist synthesizes a complex idea into a more simple form. The more complex the idea and the more simplified the synthesis the more merited the artwork.You could almost view art's success as a ratio between complexity and simplification; mathematicians call it "elegance" - which is funny, of the most hard and objective sciences - mathematics - they often use such loose and subjective quantification.

This definition does away with the old art/science dichotomy. It transcends the imprecise philosophies of aesthetics and excludes no genere or medium. Snapshots are art, landscapes are art, abstracts are art, portraits are art - they serve to synthesize a memory, a place, an idea or a person.

Yet unlike previous definitions, it clearly determines functional differences in various objects, yet still permits degrees of craft (that which serves only function) and art (that which is a synthesis of concepts) to simultaneously exist within any given object.

Bottled gas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's shape and construction is craft based on objective requirements determined by our knowledge of compressed gas, it's color is art - the synthesis of danger, awareness and caution; flammability and fire.

What purpose does sharpness or lack of sharpness serve in any given image - what element of the experience does it synthesize? If sharpness is required for the sole purpose of seeing the objective subject (the "specimen" in my made up nomenclature), it is craft. If sharpness is there simply because it must be, then it serves no purpose.

You don't need to be able to paint/draw/photograph to be good.
It's all about being over-interpreted and misunderstood.

 

[unpopular]

It's all about being over-interpreted and misunderstood.

Thank you, Mr. Rorty.

 

[Destin]

I'm a grown married women.

pay no attention to him. he gets flustered and turns to insulting people for no other reason than they aren't old.

---

Derrel. Go drink some hydroquinone solution to calm down or something.

I've noticed that this is a problem on these forums. I'm personally sick of having people (no names will be mentioned) pull the "age card" on me whenever I say something they don't like. It's automatically, "you're only 19, what do you know?" I'm honestly sick of it.

There is no correlation between age and photographic ability/knowledge. Sure I'm only 19, but I've been shooting for 5 years now. But God forbid I come on here and give advice to a guy that's 45 and is just getting into photography, because I'm only 19, so I don't know anything, right?

 

[rexbobcat]

It's all about being over-interpreted and misunderstood.

Thank you, Mr. Rorty.

<sarcasm>Well, hey. I'm just saying that good art is only good because it obviously has some sort of socio-economic/racial/political/philosophical/sublime undertone.

Obviously.</sarcasm>

 

[blackrose89]

I'm a grown married women.

pay no attention to him. he gets flustered and turns to insulting people for no other reason than they aren't old.---Derrel. Go drink some hydroquinone solution to calm down or something.

I've noticed that this is a problem on these forums. I'm personally sick of having people (no names will be mentioned) pull the "age card" on me whenever I say something they don't like. It's automatically, "you're only 19, what do you know?" I'm honestly sick of it. There is no correlation between age and photographic ability/knowledge. Sure I'm only 19, but I've been shooting for 5 years now. But God forbid I come on here and give advice to a guy that's 45 and is just getting into photography, because I'm only 19, so I don't know anything, right?

So true! You can critique at any stage of life! I've said it before: I don't have to be a chef to know a bad meal when I taste one. And what is a bad meal to me could be great to someone else.

 

[tirediron]

I think Derrel ate a bowl a douchebag for breakfast this morning before he opened this thread. Normally I think his posts are funny, but he's just being a flat out dick in this thread.

I think he's just a little jealous that the people he is calling uneducated have actually gotten to see the things he has only read about. I actually feel a bit sorry for him.

Perhaps we need to back up the bus and decide what constitutes 'artistic education'. I'm a firm believer that experience is the best teacher of all. My only 'book learnin' ' on the subject was back in Grade 11, which was *cough* *cough* a few years ago. HOWEVER, I've traveled all over the world, and visited (and appreciated) everything from the slums of India to the Uffizi Gallery. Can I spout off the names of ten famous painters... probably, with a little hesitation. Can I give you a dissertation on their technique or evolution of their creative process? Not in a million friggin' years, BUT I can tell you what I like. How much more education does someone really need?

As for the original question, if an image is made soft by the photographer deliberately, then it's art. If it was by accident, whether through ignorance of the process, or any other unintentional process, then I'm not so sure.

 

[tirediron]

pay no attention to him. he gets flustered and turns to insulting people for no other reason than they aren't old.---Derrel. Go drink some hydroquinone solution to calm down or something.

I've noticed that this is a problem on these forums. I'm personally sick of having people (no names will be mentioned) pull the "age card" on me whenever I say something they don't like. It's automatically, "you're only 19, what do you know?" I'm honestly sick of it. There is no correlation between age and photographic ability/knowledge. Sure I'm only 19, but I've been shooting for 5 years now. But God forbid I come on here and give advice to a guy that's 45 and is just getting into photography, because I'm only 19, so I don't know anything, right?

So true! You can critique at any stage of life! I've said it before: I don't have to be a chef to know a bad meal when I taste one. And what is a bad meal to me could be great to someone else.

Very well put.

I will say Destin, that there doesn't have to be a correlation between age and knowledge, but there can be. With experience, comes age.

 

[unpopular]

Reading is for weenies who like quoting Ansel Adams. If you actually think enough, you'll have the satisfaction of 99% of your thoughts being similar to some of the greatest minds. It's not that these people were extraordinarily brilliant, it's that they had the will and freedom to think rather than regurgitate.

 

[bentcountershaft]

Reading is for weenies who like quoting Ansel Adams. If you actually think enough, you'll have the satisfaction of 99% of your thoughts being similar to some of the greatest minds. It's not that these people were extraordinarily brilliant, it's that they had the will and freedom to think rather than regurgitate.

I'm sorry, my sarcasm meter is broken so I'm not sure how to take this.

 

[Destin]

Reading is for weenies who like quoting Ansel Adams. If you actually think enough, you'll have the satisfaction of 99% of your thoughts being similar to some of the greatest minds. It's not that these people were extraordinarily brilliant, it's that they had the will and freedom to think rather than regurgitate.

Aha I'll feed the fire a little: I've only seen 2 of ansel adams photos that I even thought were decent. Most of them are just black and white snapshots with good darkroom work applied. But as the saying goes, you can polish a turd, but it's still a turd.

 

[cbarbero]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Photography is art. Each person see's art differently.

 

[blackrose89]

The thing is these types of threads are ridiculous. There is no definitive right or wrong. There is no "ultimate" source. Everyone here is right and wrong, because this is all opinion/personal belief related based on interpretation of what art should/could/limited to be. All that happens is people going round and round. I don't think I've ever seen one person change their standing because of a response to a thread.

 

[onerugrat]

Blackrose, are you a libra? This is so libraish. (im a libra so allowed to ask)

 

[blackrose89]

Gemini actually

 

[rexbobcat]

You do know that is 180° from what I am after in my definition, right?

Art is any process by which the artist synthesizes a complex idea into a more simple form. The more complex the idea and the more simplified the synthesis the more merited the artwork.

I don't think the minds of the majority of people play well with abstraction. "What does it all mean?" "That line must stand for something other than...well...a line" etc....