Anti-Art Films: Just as Much Fun as the Real Thing

Art films - why do we so quickly call them art while we so quickly call those in our local theaters trash? To be honest, I am seldom moved by a film I see at the local museum or gallery. Perhaps it is because I am preonditioned by the walls of paintings to have the attention span of a gold fish or perhaps it is simply because I don't want to watch someone push an ice block around a city street while a man bangs a gong.

Art films - it is as if the context of the local museum or gallery establishment is in it of itself enough to grant an object a profound existence that we then take in as viewers as a profound, art experience.

In the spirit of art-films, I have created a series of anti-art films that self-manifest the feel of a museum or gallery and ask you, the viewer, one question: does the content even matter? My film "The Wall" is available below. For a full listing, visit: www.youtube.com/artaboutus.

What is Art? Paul Bloom Discusses "Essentialism"

Art is art context. That is to say the classification of anything as art comes largely (if not entirely) from outside forces, such as price, venue, and exclusivity - those factors that we inherently feel go into art, but seldom admit to as we hold "art" in such a higher regard.

Consider, for example, how many times you have gone to an art museum and hated a painting, but at the same time called it art? Now, ask yourself: Did you call it art simply because it was in an art museum?

Now you may be thinking, "But what about those things that are aesthetically profound? Didn't you leave that out of the defintion above, as surely aesthetics comes from the materiality of the piece in question?" Simply put: no. I would argue that even aesthetics are largely defined by outside forces, such as the trajectory of art history, the intent of the artist, and so on and so forth. For instance, how could we come to love a painting by Pollock if we hadn't already been incrementally preconditioned to accept abstraction as aesthetically pleasing by the artists before him?

Still not convinced? Watch a recent TED talk by Paul Bloom wherein he argues that human beings are essentialists - that our beliefs about the history (or what I am calling the context) of an object change how we experience it.