Conscription. Evaluation.

Ok that was my tyraid below (the earlier post). It deserves Pride of place because it may be the most original thought I have ever posted.

But Also today... maybe as karmatic compensation for my pain. I realized the value of art and what art is.

let us begin by the catalyst a quote from none other than Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche in his essay Schopenhauer as educator that all around the world the only thing people have in common is "laziness" and "fear"
But He says
"Artists alone despise this lethargic promenading draped in borrowed manners and appropriated opinion, and they expose the hidden secret everyone's bad conscience, the principle that every human being, down to each movement of his muscles, is himself and himself alone; moreover , they show us that in the strict consistency of his uniqueness he is beautiful and worthy of contemplation, as novel and incredible as every work of nature and anything but boring. "

Veritas
Veritas

Applause
This i hold with great truth. This is the principle upon which Holden Caufield and Franny and Zoey realize that life has so many lazy fearful conformist. Upon this principle we can all contempt against the hipsters who appropiate pseudo artistic modernist culture in order to create a lethagric fearful existence with the frame of a pseudo artist. And we can worship those of the individual values

This is why i heroicize Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Bramate, Fra Angelico, Carvaggio, Bernini, The Carracci Brothers, Everyone of those great artists... Are still great because they pioneered something... Fuck New Art history that wants to tear down the canon. The canon is right. Do not destroy it build on it. Those fucking 17-18th century French Ecole Du Beaux Arts Bigots, morons who just copied the nature of Leonardo and Raphael and created the Canon... Did so merely to formularize and Conform things they call Art..... Fuck that. Real rock and Roll. Real Art is the spirit of the individual. It conquers territory but is cognisant of the territory it has. It fights. and is Brave in the face of danger. The Lion within. The lion is appropriate because we bestow loyalty, integrity, individual Masculine spirit, but also beastly strength who endeavors to create... procreate.. and protect. The Female lion is also appropriate because it is the hunter, the pride, the group that isn't conformist but works together for a goal. And does actions out necessity and spirit. The Lionness is strong. Though the female and male artist do not fit their roles as respective genders of lion. These are the qualities exhibited by good artist a synthesis of Male and female lions and their better qualities. The qualities I skew to value.

I am not saying to be with influence but be with influence but do not let influence override the presence of yourself... self aware unique. An individual formation of the universe that happens once or maybe infinitely but no where around exists as you exist.

Art is anything that promotes one's sentience.

That is it. Art is what gives and is given by the individual. Art is a construct of society. Art is both fiction and reality simultaneously. It is the moment of self awareness and self consciousness that endows us with being human. By being human we are neither precisely nature nor machination but we remain the product and creator of both. The sentience we get allows us to pass judgment, give life, have reason, but also see lack of reason and see the beautiful and terrible character of our nature. Art is self defeating if it becomes idolatrous. Instead it should be worshipped as mover as things no....(ok this point is diffcult and needs to be elaborated... totally incomplete thought)

And by art is not music, poetry, ceramics, painting, sculpture.... Art is not concept alone. Art is maybe a little too metaphysical but is the promotion of sentience and it is best or often found in what we identify as the fine arts but no limited to it.
A human life can be work of art... Socrates as human being and his words is himself a work of art and human being all at once.
Ceramics (formerly craft) can be art so long as the presence felt by the ceramic cup, and bowl affirms and contemplates our existence.

Artwork is on some level subjective in the sense that a narrative like a family history can be art for a person by reaffirming his or her sentience but mean nothing in terms of promoting self awareness. But great art... work deserving to be canonized is that which makes one exceptionally more self aware and in sense holds some dimension of universiality and can ennervate anyone.

The most beautiful example of that is Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony #9. It is the pinnacle of returning human sentience to them. You don't need to know german, you don't need to understand minor and major chords and their linguistic labelling by musical conventions. It simply sweeps one up. And though one may not be able to verbalize what is felt by this piece. its sway is amazing and ingenious.

Now Society with all of conformity is not the enemy of art necessarily instead it plays a dualistic opposite to art. Society is constructed by individuals and often times eats them alive within it draining individualism and sentience for machination. But society also is the creator of art and art the molder of society. Society is made of us , human beings, who benefit from it in terms of health, lifestyle, food, etc. But society also strips the humanness and creates different ones. Art is not really a rebellion against society because neither will win they are too tied together but instead a counterpoint. The object and creation within society that helps us derive meaning from life in society. But its not an opiate to keep us sane. Sometimes it challenges us to change out society. Maybe all art challenges us to change it. Sometimes not so overtly. But art overcomes some of societies fears and creates new ones as well as new hope.

Art is not a religion though. It will not give you answers in the dark. it is not the shephard leading the lambs though the valley of darkness. It is in some ways a tool for the awakening of the mind and what we see may not be pleasent or even completely true but it keeps us awake and gives us something. Not necessarily an ascent to nirvana. In fact it more a je ne se qua

What you see mostly belongs to you but like a camera it has been focused on some specific points to reflect on. It creates a digestable method of seeing one's sentience that is hidden in plain sight in society.

This is my answer to what art is. this is it. Well it is going to change. It has to change and i have to accept that as inevitable.

Remember there is no art without society.
There is no society without art. A 'society" without art is a group of animals, unaware of themselves.

the Art object alone as the pinnacle thing of value is also stupid and moronic because it isn't. It is our reaction to the object and what we give and take to object that is of value. We do not worship art as something above us. We must see it for what it makes us feel and think. This is why art shall never and should never be a religion because we will not worship the object and to worship our feelings is preposterous because these feelings are so individually intrinsically defined that what really and distinctly with all its subtleties is felt is too different from individual to individual. Instead the fact that it makes us feel and think should be its unifying factor. And its promotion of the communication of the thoughts and feelings is what in a sense can be 'worshipped' but really there isn't anything to worship in it. It is all metaphysical presuppositions imposed onto a real world.
Art is not a replacement for religion. Art is something different. It is Plato and Aristotle in Blender. Both what is felt by the senses and what is meta. Religion is only meta.

Maybe art can give us a reflection of individuals and societies in such away that we can reconstruct society, both looking for ideals but also being realistic, so to fit the changing relationship between nature and machination. To find the right balance during the zeitgeist but allowing for it to change with the spirit of the times such that the balance of the past does not create needless or meaningless customs upon society.

I think i used alot of fucking clichés.

p.s. Professor Wood's lecture on Raphael and Michelangelo was amazing today. Raphael and Michelangelo as human beings and true spirit. As real people who feel art and love it. Hold beautiful concepts and see with innovation and pioneering the new methods and old methods of exposing the beauty of mankind's individuality.