Critical Thinking Applied to the Arts

I found this one very interesting. I don't think art is a singular thing.I don't just mean painting and drawings only. For me, art can be everything. Clothing, signing, motion, faces, games, and so much more. Over the years, I've listened and seen people criticize art. What gives them the authority and the judgment to decide what is beautiful and what is not? A woman who is not physically attractive by society's standards, but yet is very beautiful in the eyes of her husband. Is the husband wrong? I disagree. Everybody has their own perspective of what is beautiful and what is not. Who is right, and who is wrong? I think everyone is right and wrong. There is no middle ground.

I feel influence of others can be a major impact. A child looks up to his father, and wants to emulate him and to please him. To do that, the child will usually follow what the father's views on art are, and over the years it becomes the child's own views. A child growing up hearing his father criticize a certain art, then in turn the child does the same thing. That can make a big difference in criticizing.

While reading "Critical Thinking Applied to the Arts", a story popped up in my mind. I don't know if it's really related to this at all, but yet somehow I feel a connection to this. I remember that I read a story about a group of college students who went to a prison for a experiment. The group was divided in half, one half became prison guards and the other half, prisoners. All was watched by secret cameras hidden around the prison. At the beginning, the "guards" were friendly, helpful, and cheerful. Over the weeks, they slowly changed. They took their jobs very seriously, taunting the prisoners, abusing them and made the prisoners' life a hell and they enjoyed it. It became so bad, the experiment had to be called off. Where did that viciousness come from? Peer pressure? Feeling like you're more superior than others? I thought of that story because very often in art, a "expert" panel judges and chooses which art is genius, and which is not, and often they think average people cannot criticize art as well as the experts themselves can. Eventually, they stop listening to others' opinions and think their own opinions is the only one that matters.

If our perspectives and opinions vary by the billions of the people who inhabit this planet, how do we ascertain who's right and who's wrong? I think you cannot. All you can do is keep an open mind and find out why they like it or don't, rather than just keeping to your own beliefs. Everything is beautiful and everything is not.