low art

Crawford writes: "Computer games are too trivial, too frivolous to be called art."

This reminded me quickly of what I've read in the realm of criticism, which tries to define abstract concepts, such as "art," "experience," and "emotion." Duchamp's "Fountain" barely seems artistic to some.Duchamp's "Fountain"

I. A. Richards, considered one of the founding fathers of modern criticism, explains that art must communicate. I'm paraphrasing him here, but this same idea is apparent in Crawford, who writes: "Art is something designed to evoke emotion through fantasy." This is exactly what it does. Richards further explains that art communicates, through emotion, an EXPERIENCE. This is the guiding light of art. Now, how well it communicates that experience, and satisfies impulses, determines "good art" from "bad art". I will simply refer to these as "high art" and "low art," respectively.  read more »