Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?

[softgrey]

sometimes i wonder......

 

[model_mom]

Can't it be a little of both?

 

[Cosette]

I think it's entirely subjective. For me personally, life imitates art. The way I live - constantly evolving on a day-to-day basis - stems from what my interests are at the time; my interests in books, music, film - pieces of art influence my life one hundred percent... Then again, for someone different, the case may be that what goes on in their life influences what they end up seeking in art, and so it's quite the opposite.

 

[electricladyland]

i think it is both...i think of the way that people from many cultures tried to recreate their environment or objects in it through visual arts, such as painting, music, dance...and then how the ultimate creative forces can be influenced by humans...and how people imitate each other imitating life's creative forces...it's all so friggin beautiful...

 

[fourboltmain]

I was just thinking about how life imitiates art in the form of design, like say, a building. But then vice versa is a camera, right? Aren't they both art? But to be fully sure of art, wouldn't you have be be in touch with the reality it depicts? I've never been sure of colors myself, ever since I was a kid. How do I know that oranges are really orange? The orange I see may be yellow to you. So maybe the only things that really matters is your opinion of it, as you could never put yourself in the artists shoes anyway. Let's talk about this more...

 

[lumy_]

I'm always intrigued by the kind of art that tries to break down the boundaries between art and life... or the ppl who's life break down the boundaries between life and art....

 

[Cosette]

I've never been sure of colors myself, ever since I was a kid. How do I know that oranges are really orange? The orange I see may be yellow to you.

Isn't the colour orange known as "orange" because more than two people agreed that it is so? If people saw it differently, I don't think it could even have a name. I figure so long as you agree with me that my sweater is red, then it is. As soon as someone questions it or disagrees, then I think the name becomes nonexistent...

I really do wonder about how in touch one has to be with reality to create art, though... Like for example, if a boy was placed in a plain white room as soon as he was born (let's say he's also blind and deaf, and has no sense of touch - just go with it for a moment...), with no furniture... just a white floor, white walls, no windows, etc... and grew up without education, interaction... Does this boy have an imagination? Can he visualize anything at all? Does he dream?

 

[electricladyland]

^^^ the boy would need to interact with his environment in some way to have his needs met. when would such an interaction become art? when would his curiosity (which i am assuming is intrinsic to all humans) about his environment compel him to explore or try to alter his world and when would this become art? hmmm....

 

[Pastry]

i think art imitates art nowadays...

 

[electricladyland]

well there's not much art to imitate nowadays...

 

[purechris]

life is art.........art is life

 

[purechris]

I really do wonder about how in touch one has to be with reality to create art, though... Like for example, if a boy was placed in a plain white room as soon as he was born (let's say he's also blind and deaf, and has no sense of touch - just go with it for a moment...), with no furniture... just a white floor, white walls, no windows, etc... and grew up without education, interaction... Does this boy have an imagination? Can he visualize anything at all? Does he dream?

I'm stumped

 

[mirrra]

i imagine they reflect each other - it's subjective - everybody sees or/and have a choise to move in order to see different reflections - like being between two staying face to face mirrors...

 

[Estella*]

^i agree.
i'd say that art is translating or 'raising', exaggerating certain aspects of life ... not so much imitating. and if life is imitating art? there are of course ideas shaped by a cultural interpretation of beauty that everyone inherits and therefore strives to accomplish in one's life...
but in both ways there's always this moment of translation for me.

 

[tinuvielberen]

I really do wonder about how in touch one has to be with reality to create art, though... Like for example, if a boy was placed in a plain white room as soon as he was born (let's say he's also blind and deaf, and has no sense of touch - just go with it for a moment...), with no furniture... just a white floor, white walls, no windows, etc... and grew up without education, interaction... Does this boy have an imagination? Can he visualize anything at all? Does he dream?

It's unlikely his visual system would develop at all, without stimulation. He would likely be functionally blind. Probably the same goes for his aural system. He would have no language. He probably would have some internal sense of his own joint position in space, and so would probably engage in stereotypic, repetitive movements. But otherwise, I suspect his inner life would be utterly bereft of content. His neurons would have no stimulation to form useful connections with one another, and so a mind would be unable to form from his brain.

Autistic children have an impaired ability to interact with their environments. However, a few of these impaired individuals are able to produce stunning artwork, perhaps because their abberant brain wiring makes them see the world in a way that's very different from what everyone else sees/experiences. And that is one role of art: to reflect the world through a novel point of view.

So, I think one has to have some interaction with reality in order to form any sort of meaningful inner life. However, different perspectives on what constitutes reality are part of what contributes to art.

 

[fourboltmain]

There's always room for imagination. No matter how closed off this child would be, if he could latch onto one experiance, that would become his life and he would dream.

Let's say he has no senses. He would have to eat, and maybe he couldn't taste the food, but he would know that food makes him feel better. I think he would dream about that, all day. It would be so important to him, he would know the schedule. He would wonder what it was, where it came from, is there more? He might not be able to comprehend imagination, but it would be there.

As far as him doing art, I don't know. I don't think he would have the dexterity to handle anything.

Art has to imitate something first, although we like to feed off of it ourselves, like movie quotes and dancing and other forms of art we don't always think about. Hmm...

I like this thread.

 

[tinuvielberen]

Hmm...after further consideration, I'd have to say that life definitely imitates art.

A few years ago I saw a couple of art videos at Tate Modern. One consisted of a man jumping up and down and repeating the word "Work" over and over again. The other was of the same man, shaking his head and desperately crying "No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."

My husband and I were greatly amused by these videos and have made much fun of them from time to time over the years.

Today, after many months of being driven absolutely batshit crazy by my job, and...finally...being pushed over the edge....

...I found myself jumping up and down, saying "Work! Work! Work! Work! Work! Work! Work!"--followed by "no no no no no no no no!"

The artist was a genius. I never knew....

 

[smartarse]

I say both...

just like an artist captures life to his canvas...as well as, art captures the artist B)

 

[softgrey]

Hmm...after further consideration, I'd have to say that life definitely imitates art.

A few years ago I saw a couple of art videos at Tate Modern. One consisted of a man jumping up and down and repeating the word "Work" over and over again. The other was of the same man, shaking his head and desperately crying "No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."

My husband and I were greatly amused by these videos and have made much fun of them from time to time over the years.

Today, after many months of being driven absolutely batshit crazy by my job, and...finally...being pushed over the edge....

...I found myself jumping up and down, saying "Work! Work! Work! Work! Work! Work! Work!"--followed by "no no no no no no no no!"

The artist was a genius. I never knew....

...that's fantastic...!!...

...

 

[Multitudes]

I Think its absurd as an artist to try to imitated life..or even think that art imitates life... Art is the violence of sensation and not an imitation... anyway, in my opinion, it should be.. and if it becomes an imitation, I would be so bold to say, then art has lost its power to aesthetically touch us... I think realism must be reinvented. It has to be continually reinvented. In one of his letters Van Gogh speaks of the necessity of making changes in reality that becomes lies which are truer than the pure truth. That is the only way an artist can recreate the intensity of the reality he attempts to capture. I think that reality in art is something profoundly artificial and that it has to be created anew, otherwise it would be merely an illustration for some purpose and thus in fact hersay...Picasso puts it nicely and straight to the point in this little qoute.."I have often used pieces from a newspaper for my papercollages, but never to make a newspaper"..