[PD] Am I alone?

Pierre Massat pimassat at gmail.com
Sat Mar 19 23:34:15 CET 2011


Oh no, not again...

2011/3/19 Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca>

>
> sorry, my following reply sat a long time in my email account.
>
> On Sun, 30 Jan 2011, ailo wrote:
>
>  I guess what I meant was, can we define music generally so that everyone
>> can agree on what is the definition of music?
>>
>
> Well, if «everyone» also includes those people who purposefully want you to
> fail at coming up with a unanimous definition, you can't. There are also
> those who just won't listen to you because they are busy preparing the
> answer « it can't be defined. period. » without any explanation (they don't
> enjoy explanations any more than definitions, anyway).
>
>  I know I can generalize for myself, but I think I can't do it for
>> everyone else.
>>
>
> There are also problems of common meaning of the words, whereby people will
> accidentally agree or disagree because they have different impressions about
> what you mean with the words that you used for writing the definition.
>
>  I suppose people like to avoid it mostly because it can discourage
>> people to do their own thing.
>>
>
> I would rather bet on this phenomenon :
>  http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22art+can%27t+be+explained%22
>
> Which is more of the mystical mindframe of non-explanations and
> epistemological hopelessness.
>
> By extension, the word « art » is often used to mean whatever skill is
> considered unexplainable or mysterious.
>
>  If we need to do it for a specific practical purpose, then we have no
>> choice.
>>
>
> A definition of art needs not dictate a single purpose, and a single
> purpose does not dictate a single approach, and a single approach does not
> dictate a single outcome. When you acknowledge a definition of art that just
> tries to be vaguely universal, you still have plenty of decisions to make.
>
> A definition of art needs not to be dumb like « music is whatever Beethoven
> was doing and that can't be done anymore because he died » or « we play both
> kinds of music : Country and Western ».
>
>  Words like beauty and ugliness are commonly used. When we say, I like ugly
>> things, does that make these things wrong? [...]
>>
>
> (I didn't know what to reply to the rest of your email.)
>
>  _______________________________________________________________________
> | Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
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