New sophistry…

The latest installment in my ongoing discussion of art and aesthetics with Marvin over at New Sophists’ Almanac is now online. IT touches on jazz, hip-hop, evaluating the validity of an art form, what constitutes a “world art form”, and also a suggested experiment regarding the way we look at and evaluate art. Go have a look.

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What is Art? What is an Artist? Does It Matter?

I posted about this over on New Sophists’ Almanac, but I cannot resist also posting about it here. There’s a woman named Judith Scott who produces all kinds of “fiber art”, which isn’t really remarkable in itself (unless you happen to find that the artworks speak to you in a wway that they simply don’t speak to me…). Nothing remarkable at all, actually, can be said about her, except… she’s got Down’s Syndrome, severe mental handicaps, some physical handicaps too. And she very likely has no concept of art that would be recognizable to us. And yet she works at …

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