is it art....or an idea.....or reality?

This notion of art being only a base form of imitation struck me as an interesting viewpoint. Plato’s take on the matter says that all art is simply a mere imitation of reality, and that this is harmful to people trying to take something away from the art. I had a hard time following Plato’s thoughts on ideas versus reality versus art though. If ideas are the only true meaning of something, then how can the reality of that something be any less meaningful than the idea of it? For instance, how can the reality of a nice mountain scene be less meaningful than the idea of it? Reality is grounded; there is no changing it. In my opinion, an idea of something is really just an imitation of the reality, as one person’s ideas on a particular object can be vastly different than somebody else’s take on the same thing. In this respect, art is just an extension of an individual’s take on reality and is not supposed to be an accurate depiction of reality. After all, if I wanted to see the Matterhorn I could simply go and see it in person. If I wanted to see an person’s personal depiction of the mountain, I could go look at a painting of it knowing full well that I am not viewing reality. The same holds true for other mediums besides paintings.

Aristotle’s take makes more sense to me. He countered Plato by claiming that instead of art being intrinsically bad and distorting people’s view of reality, it can actually be a good thing. Art can appeal to individual’s senses and educate them about life, providing cathartic effects. People imitate things they see all the time. Think of a pretty sunset. Obviously there is no way for us to recreate that phenomenon, though we can attempt to capture our feelings about it through mediums we know how to use—things such as paintings or poetry. In a sense, we are imitating the sunset, just in a way that is feasible to us. That is how art works. Art is merely our perception of something and should not be confused with reality.

The Natural World

After reading The Natural Art, I started thinking about things and places I find enjoyable. I love the outdoors and seeing new places, and more often than not I’ve thought about what I would do if somehow I could mold my own little world together and create a place to live that has all the attributes I consider desirable for living. In my mind, my perfect world would have rolling green hills interspersed with groves of trees, my comfy house would be perched on a nice hummock that affords a view of the rural surroundings. Flowing through my little domain would be a quaint little stream, and maybe I’d have a pond or a lake for good measure. So in other words, it would look something like the Shire from Lord of the Rings.
With this in my head, I was surprised to see how well this all melded with what was discussed in the article. Apparently I’m just like any other human and susceptible to falling to my unconscious likes and dislikes. I can’t speak for the accuracy of the views presented in the reading, as I’m not a scientist who can say if it is right or wrong. Much of it seemed like speculation, though I feel it is certainly very plausible speculation. The notion that human’s behavior is shaped by our early past and loaded into our very genes does not at all seem unlikely to me. Just off the top of my head I can think of a few examples of other animals that still exhibit behavior that harkens back to a time when they needed it to survive. Housecats still perch on tall things to afford a view of their surroundings, and gerbils burrow down out of sight when they go to sleep. Why should humans not have inherent influences at work in our minds when we pick places to call home? Maybe it is no wonder that what people consider nice homes often share qualities such as big yards, pools, large trees and views. This falls right in line with the article’s concept that we pick places resembling our early habitat, places that are optimized for our safety, and ultimately, our survival. I suppose I was literally doing what felt right when daydreaming about my perfect place to live.