26 Japanese universities to abolish humanities, social sciences

Many people I know create art because they enjoy it, that to me makes me think that the most important part for them is the process and therefore the viewer on the other side is secondary to this.

How many of those people are formally trained or have any interest in becoming formally trained? Someone who paints as a hobby is fundamentally different from someone who is actively trying to express themselves (in a way where they desire to be heard) through their painting. It's the difference between writing in a diary and writing a novel. Both are the act of writing, but the former activity is not outwardly expressive.

This is not to say that one activity is better or worse than the other. Just that one would not actively seek formal education in writing to produce better diary entries while one would study literature and creative writing if they wanted to be better and producing novels.

In any case people become isolated when preconceived ideas are given(forced on) to them, they reach their own conclusions based on this and that can have profound effect on what they produce.

The majority of people who subject themselves to this training fall outside the hobbyist demographic and do want to produce works that people will engage with. I disagree with the notion that one is better primed to create novel and interesting works in a state of ignorance rather than knowledge. There is nothing stopping an artist from producing anything - knowledge simply allows them to be more deliberate in what they do.

For someone who advocates social sciences you seem to be ignoring social trends, there is no code of conduct or uniform but social trends permeate the art world through all practices and peoples beliefs and methods are undoubtedly affected by that.

I don't advocate social sciences. Social Science is a thing that indisputably exists and is well understood as a set of academic disciplines. I would not, for example, state that Art is a social science because it does not engage in scientific rigor of any stripe. It is, however, under the humanities as the study of Art (from both a practitioners and historians perspective) is a study of human culture.

I think where we differ is that you see value in these trends and I see nothing but distraction and condescension to anyone who is not following/up to date with current trends.

And yet many of the great artists achieved greatness by deliberately and knowingly subverting or disregarding the prevailing trends of their day often to the derision of the critics of their day. Many were never accepted in their own time however they were not operating from a position of ignorance but instead leveraged their knowledge of existing trends and history in order to buck them.

Its exclusionary, can you tell me you have never heard someone say "i cant it'll be shit" when asked to draw or paint? People are constantly put down because they have been told that they are not "skillful" enough.

I think the idea that art is a field that should award participation medals is flawed. Just because anyone can put color on a page doesn't mean that they should be lauded as no better or worse than someone who is producing something that a great many people find compelling. You're 100% right but there is value in the simple process of creating art - but for those who are actually interested in conveying something with their end product there is great value in having knowledge of the cultural context in which your work exists.

/r/worldnews Thread Parent Link - the-japan-news.com