Is It Art?

            On my way to class on Friday, September 16^th, since my grant had come through, I stopped at the Bank of Montreal in Little Italy to take out $120. I figured that amount would be enough to buy the iclicker and all the books I need for the term.

            Leaving the bank, while I was walking my bike back out to the sidewalk, I passed a group of senior high school boys that were discussing eyebrow plucking.

            “I cried when I plucked my eyebrows!”

            “You cried when you plucked your eyebrows?”

            “That’s because you haven’t done it enough!”

            That’s a conversation the like of which I never heard from other boys when I went to high school.

            Our instructor is quite an early bird. He gets to class more than fifteen minutes early; This time he was wearing white jeans, sneakers, an olive green shirt and a black tie. He played his dance muzac again.

            The lecture was on the subject of Definitions of Art.

            What is art? Why ask? Are paintings made by elephants art? Is the Mona Lisa art? Is a painting of Vin Diesel as the Mona Lisa art? Is the design of the iphone art? Is Marcel Duchamp’s urinal with the inscription “R Mutt”, placed on a plinth and called “Fountain” art?

            There was an iclicker question as to whether “Fountain” is art. I still didn’t have mine, but I would have voted yes, because the very idea of presenting a urinal as a work of art is creative. 76% of the class agreed with me.

            There are three theories of art:

            The functional theory – According to Nick Zangwill, a work of art functions to generate aesthetic properties, such as “smoothness”. But this does not work for conceptual or avant-garde artforms. For example, Marcel Duchamp is not trying to generate aesthetic properties, but rather express himself.

            The procedural theory – This is all about the way that art is produced. All that matters here is the artist’s intention. George Dickie says that art is produced by the artist for the public art world.  What is an artist? Dickie says that an artist is anyone who intends to produce art for the art world. What is the art world? An art world is determined by those who consume art relative to a practice, as long as someone is making art for that world. A group of people that take themselves as art consumers is an art world. Professor Devlin said that artist and art world are kind of a chicken and egg relationship.

            Someone asked about John Malkovich’s statement that he will make a film that will be buried for a hundred years before it will be uncovered and shown at Cannes. The student wanted to know if it was still art before it would be shown.  Said that his very statement is a work of art.

            What if a film is made and then deliberately destroyed? Was it art?

            The historical theory – According to James Carny, art references or repudiates the style of past artworks. All artworks are a reaction to work that has been done before.

            But what about non-western art?

But the theories are too broad. 

Arthur Danto combined them all to produce a hybrid theory, which states that a work of art is a reaction to a method of past function that is open to interpretation, but interpretation relates to past interpretation. So procedure and function have historical connections. Would Danto agree that Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” is a work of art? Yes, because in buying the urinal, Duchamp is producing art that has a function, which is interpretation, which is an artistic activity. But in being open to interpretation, “Fountain” could be interpreted as not being a work of art.

            After class I headed straight to the U of T Book Store to buy an iclicker. The whole purchase seems useless to me. Didn’t teachers used to ask for a show of hands? I guess it’s a way of taking attendance though. I asked the cashier if there was any warranty but she said there wasn’t. I suggested then that I was screwed if it doesn’t work after a few months. She said that maybe the company that makes the device has a warranty. It’s white, with five black buttons marked A, B, C, D, and E and almost looks like a tiny keyboard. It cost me $50.85.

            The next thing I did was headed out to look for books. I needed “Aesthetics: A Reader In Philosophy of the Arts” and “70 Canadian Poets”. I also needed several individual poetry books for January, one of which was by a writer that I already reviewed in June when she read at Shab-e She’r.

            I rode to Eliot’s and spent at least half an hour looking, but found nothing I needed, though I quite often do. I went to ABC, but didn’t spend as much time there because they clearly didn’t have the books I was looking for. I ventured up to Bloor, west of Spadina and checked out BMV. They have a wide selection, but I hardly ever find anything there. I went down Spadina and stopped at Ten Editions, where I defied death on their rolling ladder, but they didn’t have my courses books either. I decided I’d try She Said Boom on College but came up with zilch and so I had no choice but to go back to the U of T Bookstore to buy the books new. When I got there though, I remembered that there’s a discount textbook store across the street, so I checked it out and found the philosophy book that I needed. When I took it to the cashier though, I almost went into shock when I heard that the price was $154 and change. I have never paid that much money for a book in my life. The last time I said that was when I paid $70 for a textbook about five years ago. I didn’t have the money on me so I went over to the U of T Bookstore to buy 70 Canadian Poets. Since I also found the philosophy textbook, and even though it would cost me ten dollars more, I was too frustrated and tired to walk back over to the other store, so I just bought both books through debit and they cost 235.73. I found it very depressing to spend so much money on books. But, for the last couple of years at university I have spent comparatively close to nothing on books, but I guess I was bound to eventually have to pay a lot. I’ve downloaded the other philosophy book for my course but it might be the wrong edition, so I might actually have to buy that one too.

            When I went to unlock my bike, a perky young woman was unlocking hers from the same stand and exclaimed, “We’re bike buddies!”

            On the way home I stopped at Freshco. I spoke to a worker to ask if I could speak to a manager. He went to look and there wasn’t even an assistant manager available. I asked him to tell someone about the problem with 90% of the bicycles on the stands outside being occupied by bikes that have been there for several months and that now there’s hardly ever room for customers to lock their bikes. He said he’d pass it on.

            Grapes were on sale, so I bought some, but they’re the kind that it’s impossible to wash the insecticide off of no matter how hard you try. I bought a bag of apples, though I think they are last year’s. I suspect that this year’s apples are going to be very expensive because of the drought. I bought raisin bread, milk, an outside round roast, some bacon, and I did a price match on some Astro yogourt. Again, the price match took forever because the checkout person had to go and get her manager’s card. I asked her why they don’t just give everyone a card. She said, “They don’t wanna!” I asked, “Wouldn’t that make things faster though?” and she nodded.