my thoughts about art

what is art?

Is it the expression of an emotion, is it about capturing a feeling, is it about recreating a sight, the rendition of an idea, an abstract one maybe.....

what is art today might not have been art yesterday, is art always art, can something become art with time? Very Possible.

art is in music, dance, painting, architecture, sculpture, writing ....why isnt programing an art, or cooking?

what does a critic know, i might be touched by what offends someone else, are we a race doomed to regurgitate someone elses opinions? where is original thought? is everybody capable of original thought?

art serves no practical purpose, the moment it does, it ceases to be art, rather it becomes an utility or a craft.

Art: pure expression of a spirit (say a painting)
Craft: an utiliterian object with some beauty in it
Thing: the mass machine made pure utiliterian object

its not fair to talk about art in terms of colour, size, brightness, shape .... thats reserved for a craft, art can only be described in terms of emotion, how does it make you feel

even a everyday photo can evoke million of myriad emotions well that is also art, does the photograph of my mother qualify as art, it evokes so much emotion in me everytime I see it. Its just an ordinary photograph though, not evoking anything in anybody else.

can art be considered the transfer of thought

5 senses eyes, ears,nose,touch,taste,

when is something an art,

is it just a means of communicationor atleast i think thats the history of art, some guy drawing a lion to describe it to other people, maybe that started cave paintings but i guess it gave people emotional fullfillment

to copy is not art, to imitate is not art. hence the difference between skilful and artistic
are those two terms equivalent

Transgressions in sports

All is fair in love and war, not sports, sports is supposed to be the antithesis of war, though, it has long been played as a substitute for war. People lay out more emotion in a game than they ever might in a war.

There are four main transgressions in sports,

Playing Dirty
Cheating,
Tampering
Illegal Supplements

Playing dirty means playing rough, body line bowling, beaning somebody with a baseball, a dirty tackle etc. These when caught are punished by the refree with a penalty, yellow card or red card. People usually play dirty when emotion gets the better of them, more so when they feel helpless, when faced with a very good opponent. People also play dirty when they have ulterior motives other than just playing, You dont have to play dirty to be serious, but when you cross that fine line, somebody gets hurt and leaves a sour taste for everybody.

Cheating involves not making calls which might go against you, or vice versa. Por Exemplo not accepting that you touched the net in a volleyball game, or calling something as out when it was actually in, simply because nobody is watching or nobody else can. The idea being, if I can get away with something, why not. Usually its a tit for tat measure, if you feel your opponent will call it, then you do too, else if you think he cheats, then you cheat too, a classic hawk dove situation. Many people think its a part and parcel of the game. This is a conscience call, nobody but the cheater will know, and at the end of the game, victory just might not taste that good.This is usually taken care of by having an impartial refree.

Tampering involves wrongly altering sport equipment to ones advantage, like scratching a cricket ball on one side with a crown cap, corking a bat, pine tar, spring shoes etc. The game has rules so that it is played fairly, everybody is started off on an even keel and then tested on their skill, ability and mental attitude. People tamper to get an unfair advantage, its pre-meditated and one of the most looked down transgressions in sports. This is not about emotion, its about taking the easy way out, not trying to fight mentally or physically but trying to win, by blatantly bending the rules. People do this because they think they are smarter, they can get away with it, and many times because they feel that without it they cannot win.

There are two sides to this tampering issue, one is the guy who deliberately alters standard equipment using his knowledge of physics and cheap resources, and the other who goes out and buys himself the latest technologically advanced equipment. One uses his brains, other his money, its a thin line, we look down on the former and applaud the latter, I say they are both on the same side of the coin. They have both undertaken to get an (un)fair advantage. Anything that takes away from skill, fitness and mental attitude does not have a place in sports, its just a race to get the new latest and greatest which will make the difference between winning and losing.

Illegal supplements involve ingesting drugs i.e. steroids which will help you perform over your natural body limit. This is the mecca of all sport transgressions, the ultimate disgrace, the dirty way out. Every body has limits, I will never be able to run a 4 min mile, but with drugs who knows. This has always been a catch me if you can game, there are millions spent trying to find the latest drug that will go unnoticed under the present radar, and the drug police trying their best to bring as many drugs as possible under their net. Every year many fall, many still go unnoticed, it seems they have become a part and parcel of the game.

Steroids are not a cut and dry line, what of the person who takes supplements to train, supplements to build muscle mass, are they any less in the grey than the person who takes steroids on the day of the game. They are able to train better, build better muscle, better endurance and hence perform better when required. I think we have to look at the supplement issue as a whole and not seperate it from steroids.

My contention is that anything that influences a game outside the control of coaches and athletes negates the very concept of sports. In the sense, when the race shifts from the athletes and coaches, their skill, fitness and mental attitude, to the doctors and engineers behind them, it changes the whole dimension of the game. The game then is won in the lab rather than the field. This is a broad statement, what of the engineer that uses a super computer to understand the fluid dynamics of a ball and somebody uses that to come up with an unplayable ball, what of a nutritionist who comes up with a better thirst quencher are they all wrongly influencing the game. Its a thin line, a line whose position varies, some things feel right others dont, though they will all appear on the same side when looked at dispassionately.

One hand we have a game in which everybody is given standard issued equipment and supplements and on the other we have a genetically engineered athlete, the choice between venom and poison. We are somewhere in the middle, with loosely defined rules and enforcers.

Why did sports become like this, how did things turn out this way? When we substituted war with sports, we had to win, victory meant everything. When we poured money into sports, made it a profession, performance meant everything. When people started watching sports for entertainment, the desires of the people watching meant everything. When we started playing for reasons other than just playing, sports lost its innocence. I mourn the loss of innocence in sports (to know the difference watch kids playing a game in the playfield). The corrution started long ago, it was a wheel set into motion when sports was first substituted for something, and one that will definitely get to the first genetically engineered athlete winning the 100m dash at the olympics, where it will go from there is beyond my present ken.