Good Art
August 9, 2009 10:29 AM Subscribe
David Foster Wallace said that “the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness.” What is the best art you've experienced?
Taking DFW's definition of good art, what has been your best experience with good art?
Please cast your net widely! A dance piece, a great meal, music performance, a play, a story, and beyond. I'm not interested in only highbrow examples, but I'm not opposed to highbrow examples. I'm interested in authenticity.
I want more good art in my life. I'm in DC, so if you have any recommendations for this area, bring 'em on.
Taking DFW's definition of good art, what has been your best experience with good art?
Please cast your net widely! A dance piece, a great meal, music performance, a play, a story, and beyond. I'm not interested in only highbrow examples, but I'm not opposed to highbrow examples. I'm interested in authenticity.
I want more good art in my life. I'm in DC, so if you have any recommendations for this area, bring 'em on.
This post was deleted for the following reason: I think the net has been cast too widely to really work as a question with clearly definiable answers; this is pretty chatfiltery. -- cortex
Can't help with the second question, but with the first, The Weather Project, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London.
posted by ambient2 at 10:42 AM on August 9, 2009
posted by ambient2 at 10:42 AM on August 9, 2009
Art, one of those funny things people like to act as though it means the same to everyone, is to me something someone else spent a lot of time to try to affect me in some way. So, in my experience, there's absolutely nothing like a really well crafted story.
Since I was little, the Harry Potter series has been one of those I'm afraid to let my friends know I read, but there's so much going on in an atmospheric sense that it's an insanely immersive experience to spend a day reading. A childish example, I guess, but the works of Lewis Carrol, Tolkien's sagas, Stephen King's The Dark Tower (especially the first, The Gunslinger), and some sci-fi books in the vein of Alfred Bester and a couple comic books/graphic novels have been known to do the same thing to me.
Beside that, I would refer to music as another of my personal favorite arts. When I'm reading, I usually mellow out and enjoy some classical or ambient electronic just to kind of drown out the background noise of living in a college-town apartment complex, but at my parents' house I read in complete silence. Otherwise, Opeth (a progressively-styled death metal band) was pretty much the single driving force in my attachment to metal for the past six years. Seeing any truly amazing band live is in itself sort of a religious experience to me, and I've been fortunate enough to see Opeth. The fan response they get at those concerts is awe-inspiring and the band plays it to the best of their ability every time they go out. My brain almost doesn't even register their songs as "music" anymore; I think it just adopted their sound as the default hum of my universe. None of their stuff ever gets old to me and it always elicits some emotional or psychological response.
tl;dr:
Stories and music (especially live) are the best arts that I've ever had the privilege to experience.
posted by s0urc3 at 10:53 AM on August 9, 2009
Since I was little, the Harry Potter series has been one of those I'm afraid to let my friends know I read, but there's so much going on in an atmospheric sense that it's an insanely immersive experience to spend a day reading. A childish example, I guess, but the works of Lewis Carrol, Tolkien's sagas, Stephen King's The Dark Tower (especially the first, The Gunslinger), and some sci-fi books in the vein of Alfred Bester and a couple comic books/graphic novels have been known to do the same thing to me.
Beside that, I would refer to music as another of my personal favorite arts. When I'm reading, I usually mellow out and enjoy some classical or ambient electronic just to kind of drown out the background noise of living in a college-town apartment complex, but at my parents' house I read in complete silence. Otherwise, Opeth (a progressively-styled death metal band) was pretty much the single driving force in my attachment to metal for the past six years. Seeing any truly amazing band live is in itself sort of a religious experience to me, and I've been fortunate enough to see Opeth. The fan response they get at those concerts is awe-inspiring and the band plays it to the best of their ability every time they go out. My brain almost doesn't even register their songs as "music" anymore; I think it just adopted their sound as the default hum of my universe. None of their stuff ever gets old to me and it always elicits some emotional or psychological response.
tl;dr:
Stories and music (especially live) are the best arts that I've ever had the privilege to experience.
posted by s0urc3 at 10:53 AM on August 9, 2009
Hands down, the Pieta. I saw it (at age 10) at the 1964 World's Fair and was totally moved by it.
On a less traditional (or "highbrow") note, celebrity photographic portraits by Karsh. Iconic, and deservedly so.
posted by DrGail at 10:54 AM on August 9, 2009
On a less traditional (or "highbrow") note, celebrity photographic portraits by Karsh. Iconic, and deservedly so.
posted by DrGail at 10:54 AM on August 9, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by OmieWise at 10:41 AM on August 9, 2009