Nov 12, 2007 4:03:01 AM cite

What’s the most important subject in the arts that needs to be talked about and why? Love your question. I suspect that no one ever thinks of the connection between mythology and Art. The purpose of real mythology is to connect someone to their inner self, their origins and the cosmos and their place within it, who we are. True art does this; ever see a painting or work of art that “speaks to you”? Touches your soul in a way that is hard to explain in words? Great art does this and this is a very great achievement. True art has esthetic value, no political or commercial agenda that is pornography. For more understanding about this issue see James Joyce or Joseph Campbell.

by Thai sean

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: This is a theme of beauty. Beauty saves life - beauty of nature, landscape, painting or beauty of people, their portraits. What we feel from generation to generation looking at Mona Lisa (Gioconda)of Leonardo da Vinci - it's a secret of life. This secret is everywhere in the arts, in the architecture and in the painting. It's in the music. It's in the classical music. It's in the dance, songs. This all is a culture. I always think people come and look at artists, pictures, sculptures or architecture and they see how great a human being is and it is a human being who has created all these things. When I am standing in Cologne Cathedral I think: Oh my God, people have built this Cathedral. They are like creators, they have created it. How much power does the Creator give us to create this beauty? With help of painting we can show other people how beautiful the life is, or with help of culture. When people are singing, for example, when Chinese women are singing you understand what they are singing about without understanding the language because they are singing with feelings and soul. It's fantastic. I am working in cultural sector. I like theatre very much and when you go to the theatre and see very good things you have a catharsis (it is a form of emotional cleansing).

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: I do not know exactly, but I guess that since the cubism, the stream of consciousness of Joyce and the others, the modern novels and the theatre of Absurd, the most important subject in arts is human being classification. The human being is increasingly and continuously dissociated more and more. Obviously, this dissociation creates the arts from many things, because everything can be altered to art and the dissociation has effect on all small details and creature in the world. I mean, the universe and creature are no longer isolated, so I think it is weird to dream of bigger entities to reunite the world.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: I think, the duty, that every artist has, is to emphasize the sacred value of life. Arts is one way of showing that human beings are capable of creating. I think, this even could be an antidote to death, to numerous unnecessary deaths. An artist should be capable, in first place, of revealing the sacred value of life.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: Art is something we can possess and design. We can show our feelings and emotions with art. People can get inspired by art.

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Hi Layna, thanks for the question. There are many important issues that underpin the arts. But I really believe that the most important issue in creativity is that of humanity, and human compassion must rank very very high in that. And I think that it’s – human compassion would ground the arts far more in its substantive relationship with humanity if you rescue it from its preoccupation with the market place. And I really think that that is the most important issue in the arts. Why? Well, at the moment you know all creativity seems to be so wedded to the idea that its success and failure is measured by its materiality, and its ability to gain visible – and satisfy those indices that make it recognizable in terms of its success and failure in the material world. There are many many forms of creativity that remain completely invisible, beautiful and profound, that move people, that don’t register in any sort of way in that larger or more visible indicator. You know, success in the art world, or in the creative world now, is measured in such a narrow way. The lens is very very narrow. And I think if we relocated to being human, that we develop our sense of being compassionate, that is what will be very important, to re-register, recalibrate it.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: I think one of the important things about the arts is that it allows the exploration of so many issues, so many complexities, and then art can raise issues that we didn’t properly articulate or recognize before. And so, I think art militates against the idea of the one or the most important subject. I think art is inherently a medium that militates against monolithism, monotheism, rigidity in thinking. And so, therefore, I think really the question should be reframed and I would be most interested in reframing it in terms of how is it that we can create space for art to raise more questions, to raise more ideas, to generate new ways of understanding the world and new ways of transforming the world, and really I think that means understanding the centrality of art to political change, seeing that there is an integral relationship between art and social change. And then, [just] understand that art always exists in a political and historical and a material context, and that art can be censored, art can be limited, art can restricted, creativity can be restricted and suppressed by certain material and political circumstances. And today, overwhelmingly, it’s the market that is limiting the arts, that the market even more than states is involved in censorship and suppression, diversity of artistic and cultural expression. And so, we need to challenge those state restrictions, but also those market restrictions that limit the kinds of questions, limit the kinds of expressions that can be found in art.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: Living with love and care; it is the most important.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: I am going to listen to the answers of my colleague sitting next to me.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: I like this question. Because the question of the most important subject in the arts raises the question about the ultimate art, which is the art of being a human being. The art of being. We don’t think if that usually. We think of art as art objects, paintings, and sculptures and architecture, and products that we make, but that is a more limited idea of art. But there is an art, the ultimate art, because the art of consciousness. We conduct and use consciousness to be. And being is not something that happens to us. We participate in that with how we consciously use or unconsciously use our consciousness. In effect, that’s the ultimate art, the ultimate technology. So to me the question, the ultimate question of art and the arts is, are we processing art in object from the ego-lens and egocentric mind? Or are we opening up into a deeper encounter with the work of art in a dialogic relationship, standing open before the work of art, to let the work of art speak to us in its terms? That issue of how we stand with respect to art, not just as objects of art, but in a direct living relationship with the art form and the work of art in a dialogic interactive relation, is a symptom of all of the future of humanity. And the sciences how we stand in knowledge with what we study and what we want to know. How we stand with each other in the I-Thou relationship, which is heart of ethics and the compassion, finding oneself in the other. This is the most fundamental question in the arts before us at this time, as we move into a higher culture.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: I don't -- for me, I don't think there is any most important subject in the arts that need to be talked about. I think the uniqueness of art is the expression itself of the art form, whether it's through painting, whether it's through sculpture, whether it's through dance, whether it's through music, that speaks and addresses all of the important aspects of the human condition, whether in ways that interpret it, in ways of celebration and joy or sorrow, in storytelling, in literature. All of these are art forms that are in and of itself, that do not need to have, be talked about, but are actually lived before us, unfolding as living forms before our very eyes, and this I believe is the importance of art itself. Its unique capacity to be able to do that so that you're immediately taken into the experience of the art form itself. It is uniquely experiential and not a cerebral, detached experience or exercise, but a direct experience with profound impact upon the perceiver of the art unfolding before their very eyes.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: The art of life, the art of humans and to understand humans and the art to move humans. Every kind of art can do that. Paintings which force us to think, paintings which move us and touch our feelings. Books which describe us. Films. Theater which reflects life. Every kind of art is important. Every kind of art which makes us think and moves us. But also every kind of art which makes us happy. Yes, also entertainment. Fun in life is also very important. That's what art does. And that's perfect.

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: I would say it’s an art of observation. How we observe things? It’s been proven to actually affect the outcome. Cause and effect that which is observing can then change the outcome of what is happening. It is an observational art to be able to allow the natural systems to flow. Be a part of it and have a positive effect. Part of observation, part from protracted observation, child-like observation, the way we measure things in observation, technical observation, there so many different ways and approach easily taken in a creative, artistic way of how and also an experimental way. So we can really, truly begin to observe in a way that’s beneficial for nature systems, the planet and the people. Ask yourself how you observe? Then you can take your head off so you can really feel what’s going on around you and really sense what’s going on around or you’re still on your mind thinking. Go somewhere in nature and take your head off and see what you’ll observe after five minutes.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: In a global world where there's a tendency to give great importance to appearance, and to the relation with what come from outside, limiting, and not necessarily giving importance of the relation a human being with their inside, it's necessary to get - to think in another dimension. And this for instance I believe, I really believe that dancing is a very important element of art that can really help us identify a human being as a subject, of a subject of his own creation or his creativity. Dance can be the balance between human being and nature. The movement of the beauty, and also the spirit and intensity, the moment when the heart connects with your soul, then dancing become truly magical. Then your relation with the world changes regarding to the value of your body. Your perception of your inside, your perceptions of the forms, your perception of your context. The sense of touch, [listen] and comprehension, and the collective creation of the movements, are part of your new discovery. Once you get that point, you're part of a system, you're part of a balance, you're part of another holistic integrity. And dance can be a way to get there. Sharing your emotions by the movement and the deep understanding of unity and integrity bring together the logic and the feeling with intelligence and also with feelings and emotions.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: I think the most important thing that the arts needs to talk about is the way in which it talks to science. Science is discovering a lot of things about the world, about how our brains work, about the factors that lead to wealth, to poverty, to health, to ill health and in many cases these are at odds with the views of the humanities. And I’m not suggesting that science can replace the humanities but only that they need to have a dialogue. As C. P. Snow talked about, these are two cultures and they don’t well talk to each other. And it’s incredibly important that the humanistic tradition adapt to the reality of what we know about the world in the same way that religions insist that the world is 2000 years old or was created 3000 years ago are not up to date in the world. I mean, it’s nice that those stories exist and they’re stories and the religions have great moral values to teach but just as data’s not credible in the world we live in today so humanities is uninformed by science is not credible. The arts have a lot to contribute. They can move us in ways that mere scientific facts and theorems and experiments cannot. But they should do so in a spirit of being realistic about the way things work in the world, the way our minds work, the way cultures work and all the knowledge that we have, not just the emotional knowledge from the arts, but also the factual knowledge from the sciences.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 5:35:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: Choices in the art are personal, making a general rule would be inappropriate.Art subjects rise in moments according to many facts. I am not able to make a choice in this matter.

by Bora Cosic