Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
In education, the level of digital art literacy
depends on the balance between the components
of traditional art education (theory, art history,
critique, and studio work) and the software and
technological literacy. Visualizations, for example
animations improve understanding of systems and
processes that change over time. The growing vi-
sual literacy creates a demand for more advanced
and very up-to-date knowledge visualizations.
At the same time, visual literacy is a prerequisite
and an essential step for producing more efficient
knowledge visualizations (Lengler, 2006).
then artists opened their own Salons des Refusés,
starting in 1874.
Discussion about the essence of art can be
started with a search for an art definition. Art-
work resulting from writing a program is often
as pleasing and impressive as nature itself. It is
so, regardless of any possible remarks and dis-
agreements about the features of art and about
conditions that identify what art really is. Most of
us agree that art means conscious human activity
or a product of such activity. Art works act not
only as the sensory experiences; they also evoke
a stream of ideas about the art meaning that are
determined in particular cultures and analyzed by
art critics and historians. For many philosophers
deciding what is art and what is not art seems
to be impossible; many pose that everyone may
construct one's own opinion. A question has been
still around what is both sufficient and necessary
to call something art. If we would want to create
a definition of art, we should be able to tell what
are the properties that all art works have in com-
mon. Alas, there is no such thing; every artwork
is different. Also, we should tell if there are any
properties we cannot find in non-art objects but
only in art. Again, there are no such things. For
these reasons, it's hard to provide any definition
of art. As stated by Weitz (1956), here is no es-
sence that would be common to all artworks and
restricted only to artworks.
Discussion about what is art and what is not art
continued, especially when Marcel Duchamp, cre-
ated a readymade and called it “Fountain” (1917,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp). In
terms of readymade art, one can take any object
and pronounce it art, for example, by taking it
out of its place and setting it in a new, unfamiliar
place. Duchamp brought a porcelain urinal to
the gallery, signed with the pseudonym R. Mutt,
and then entered it at the art exhibition. This way,
Duchamp defined the concept of a 'ready-made'
art and a 'found-object' art. Marcel Duchamp
(1917) stated, “Whether Mr. Mutt with his own
hands made the fountain or not has no importance.
ART DEFINITIONS: WHAT IS
AN ARTWORK AND WHAT
IS NOT AN ARTWORK?
Few people would challenge the assumption that
art means something different for everyone, so
there is no single art definition available. First of
all, relation between art and the process of creation
has not been seen in a similar way in different
times. Greeks and Romans did not talk or write
about creation - they just made things according
to rules. Plato thought artists could imitate but not
create (Plato, Republic, 2000). During the Middle
Ages creation was restricted to God and artists
studied natural beauty to imitate it. Renaissance
brought about freedom of creating un-natural
forms; Leonardo da Vinci examined them by
creating sketches and drawings. According to the
18
th
century beliefs, art creates beauty or follows
beauty as a model.
Rigid art definitions applied by the art critics
in the 19
th
century caused that prestigious art ex-
hibitions refused to accept works of artists who
chose a non-traditional subject matter. Art jurors
refused an acceptance to the official 1863 Paris
Salon sponsored by the French government of
those artists who were fascinated by a relation-
ship between light and color but not by the exact
rendering of objects and people. Art galleries
displayed works rejected by the Salon jurors, and
