What is Art?

What is art?
I once asked this to a class of people studying art, not one of them had an answer. None of them had really thought of it to the point where they were confident of their answer. In various essays and lectures I have seen a variety of people attempt to answer this in different ways but they all seemed to miss things, being too specific etc. I eventually came up with my own definition.

Art is an attempt at perfection of expression.

art can be anything. It can be seen in cooking, in making and serving tea, fighting, painting, speaking convincingly, playing - art can be anything... IF the artist has something they wish to express(even to themselves) and they wish to do so in a way that improves perfection of that expression(even if their definition of perfection leans away from beauty or harmony or even if their definition of perfection happens to be quantity or simplicity etc). Also, the art does not actually have to be successful and perfect, it just has to be an attempt at approaching perfection even the slightest bit.

However art appreciation is far from universal and that what one considers art is quite often scorned by those who consider themselves true artists. (personally I think this is as much a personal failing of pride as a lack of understanding) I don't appreciate a great quantity of the gallery art sold for thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of etc. I do appreciate a great deal of concept art, spun out in moments, for yearly wages that are relatively similar(or less) to the price of an expensive painting.
I worked at a game company where artists shaped points in space, clothed them in light, animated them in brilliant fashion to form wonderful people and creatures with shapes colors and actions out of the realm of real world possibility that interacted in ways that dragged forth reactions from the viewers that cant be replicated in a typical gallery. Beautiful and wonderful as they were, my art lecturers were far more respectful of the guy who painted a canvas completely blue, the guy who put a toilet in the middle of an art gallery and who painted a pipe, wrote that it was not a pipe etc.
http://twentytwowords.com/2013/05/16/canvas-painted-blue-with-a-white-line-sells-for-nearly-44-million-4-pictures/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
If you want something a bit more humorous, interesting and about as artistic as the original fountain sculpture, here two guys try to pee in it... why it is in the art gallery and behind a glass case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojbegua2yKw

Moving on...

I had an art lecturer who couldn't appreciate that comics might have artistic value. Then when I simply referred to them as "sequential art", like a triptych etc, he suddenly made the slight allowance that they might have some value.
Just different perspectives.

Do you know that Chinese calligraphy is a well respected form of art such that well known pieces have sold for millions. Ever see the movie hero where a group of artists continue to paint calligraphy as arrows rain down killing people? The idea is that what they were trying to express was worth their lives.
So, today, a bit out of the blue I realized something else, art APPRECIATION requires the belief that the art is something worth perfecting. The viewer has to believe that there is an inherent aura, value or nobility about the art.

(after rereading this the following paragraph is a bit... pompous?... oh well, ill leave it in. If anyone has another view on this stuff feel free to comment)
If only people could understand that given the right perspective, anything can have such nobility of character, any action undertaken by a human being can be art. Sadly I think that this idea is being lost in modern society.

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Bit of an idea that might work for a story, probably be an interesting twist to a fantasy world - what if there was a class based system dedicated to the perfection and standard raising of skills. any skills. someone could practice and reach for the greatest heights of perfection as an exemplary potter, woodcutter, fisherman, messenger etc and be called and treated like a lord for their skills and dedication. it would basically allow anyone anywhere to be recognized and rewarded for perfection in any region of their life. People could value effort and skill over speed and cost efficiency.
(I just remembered there was a fantasy world where legendary people gained some kind of magical power when the achieved high skill at something. Blademasters had to draw magical circles to stop the power from escaping when they dueled, can't remember the book though. Still might work as an idea less overtly magic based.)

Aquapunk Bubble Logic: Underwater Computing

Ok, so a while back I had an idea for a story set far future where everyone lives underwater. Humanity has deliberately modified their own genes to be able to survive... as merfolk, sea elves and some crustacean variant of orcs. I wanted a fair bit of modern day science to still be available even though modern day resources were not. i.e.:
Underwater means no combustion so no motors.
Projectiles would be lucky to more than a meter or two.
Electrical circuits are probably not going to work.
The ability of these people to breathe requires oxygenated water with low pollutants so any industrial activity resulting in pollutants/particulates(such as mining) would kill people off.

Anyway, two of the main characters in this story were responsible for researching/designing/maintaining computational systems that would work underwater. I figured this would be possible and was inspired by stories such as 'Souls in the great machine' by Sean McMullen and 'The difference engine' by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.

For other examples of mechanical logic see:
http://mechalogic.wordpress.com/ 
http://xiaoji-chen.com/blog/2010/the-linkage-computer/

Also inspired by: people who build working computers in minecraft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl2pMeTYQo0   -Screen, keyboard input, calculator, music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQqWorbrAaY  -Screen, keyboard input, commands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o#t=299 -Ohm's 16 bit computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdnO1QZJ--M  -Minecraft in minecraft


Yesterday I came up with a few ideas for bubble based logic gates, today I drafted them up:

They aren't quite up there with minecraft computers and they are probably as buggy as hell but it was interesting.
Simple piston raised by bubbles. The piston shaft has holes which allows the reservoir to output bubbles if the piston is in the correct position.
Considering possible issues with using bubbles as a... bit signal? or something, I added in the 'timing plate'(not really a plate) which I see as something similar to a rotating belt with holes that allow output bubbles to be sent before inputs get released into the reservoir as well as limiting the bubbles that can be output within a single computation cycle.
The use of gravity as power source requires a layered design but it should be easy to design a way to signal lower levels by having the piston shaft and output hang beneath the piston instead of above.
This system would have the advantage of being able to use simple analogue counters by collecting bubbles etc.

A quick spot of googling reveals someone has tried a slightly more professional job of designing bubble logic..
http://web.media.mit.edu/~manup/research/bubble-logic/
Also wikipedia has a page on fluidic logic with an interesting fluidic amplifier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluidic_logic

So that's it.
The latest task on my maybe-later-but-probably-never TO DO list is building a functional calculator with bubble logic. Maybe have it set up within a glass tank as a lounge table. Brilliant conversation starter.