What Makes Something Art?

Questions for Week 5

When asked, "how do you best learn?" most people usually respond with either a technique, like, "in a classroom," or by naming their favorite sense, like, "I learn best visually." Unfortunately, this implies most people define "learning" as the ability to parrot the correct answer.

What is wrong with this? We believe that "parroting the correct answer" creates parrots, not students; dullards, not Einsteins. So how can we create more Einsteins? By asking questions which are intended to provoke the student's own questions. More important, we see this as the best way with which to reawaken in students the love of learning.

This week's topic is, "What Defines Something as Being Art?" Would you like to actually awaken your love of learning about this topic? You can, simply by reading the teacher's questions and then, by asking yourself, "what questions did these words just provoke in me?"

"What Defines Something as Being Art?"

Teacher's Questions (asked by Austin)

• What is the definition of art? What makes someone an artist?
• Can art be described as a pattern of threads of similarity?
• Is art alive? Is organicity a truth inherent in all art?

• What is the difference between a functional object and a piece of art?
• What is the difference between art and illustration?

• Is there a relationship between composition and the layers of aloneness?
• What is the sense of age of a person making art?
• What are some of the possibilities created when a person becomes conscious about art?
• What are some of the basic threads of similarity between art and human personality? That is, can a layers of aloneness topographical model be used to describe art?

• Must a school of art have a definition of art?

Possible Student Response Questions (asked by David)

[1] Can there be only one definition for art, or are there many?

[2] Is art in the eye of the beholder or of the artist?

[3] Do different personality types predispose a person to being a better artist?

[4] How does a person's social priorities effect or determine their development as an artist?