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Jack Weinstein

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In anticipation of today’s episode of WHY? Radio (“How to tell the story of art” with guest Ross King), I thought it would be worth asking just a brief question: what is the purpose of art? The following video is really cool, it shows a building synchronized with a rubrics cube so that the window colors change when the cube is turned. Watch it; it will only take a minute:

 

So, having seen it, it is now worth asking, what’s the point of such a massive endeavor? Is being “cool” enough of a reason to create something like this? Further, perhaps we should ask whether it is art in the first place? What’s the difference between aesthetic creation and a cool new technological trick?

A lot of what we consider art wasn’t thought of as art the first time people saw it. And even if it were recognized as it, it was considered useless, or self-indulgent, or grotesque, and condemned. So what about a giant simulated Rubics cube. Is that art? If so why and if so, what’s it’s point? Why do we create art at all and why does it seem to be a human compulsion. What does it do for us?

Have any thoughts? We’d love to read them.

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