The Role of Art in Shaping Societal Perception & Beliefs

[Armchair Activist]

An interesting topic and as such I hope to enter into discussion about it.

We all know how much the great artists of the Italian renaissance period had on transforming the general public population of not just Italy but most of Europe. The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance | Watch Free Documentary Online

Perhaps this affect derived from arts ability to capture an indebt understanding about life, the world, science, spirituality and all that to be or not to be stuff.

It could be said that art has the ability to simplify and relate rather complex theories. This form of expression is not new. Our primitive ancestors used song and dance to ward off evil spirits. Their actions implied fearlessness and defiance. Likewise with our modern economic or social elite whom construct buildings to imply superiority or capstone like status and power.

Art is basically human expression, it is a means of communicating our ideas through whatever physiological or technological means possible.

It is said that Saint Patrick used the shamrock in order to demonstrate the meanings of Christianity. In turn transforming Ireland from an island of barbaric maniacs into bible bashing maniacs.

So the age of enlightenment took people out of the dark and into the ‘now you know’ realm as they call it. Shakespeare played an immense role in this mass educating system in respect that the plays been designed for the common peoples.

The objective of art is to transform public opinion, to perhaps elevate people to a higher level of understanding which in turn leads them to either adopt or disbanding moral or ethical codes in which judicial laws are build around.

The same is true today with our modern pop star music and Hollywood movie productions. So I ask the impact our hyper sexualised idols are having on our children and inevitably our society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6RE0WpTW_U

I hope this discussion is of interest I look forward to discussing.

[The Saltees Eagle]

'The objective of art is to transform public opinion' ... sounds like you regard it as a public relations tool. It can and is certainly used as such by the advertising industry but it also exists on a standalone basis I'd have thought. I wouldn't agree that art has to have a function.

Trying to come up with my own definition of art ...

[Dylan2010]

is there a chicken and egg thing going on here, does art more reflect the society as opposed to shaping it? I'd have thought the former.

[Armchair Activist]

Michael Savage - Stupid College Education Leads to Obama as President - (Aired September 3, 2009) - YouTube

Watch this... our society is dumb getting dumber. The war on wisdom rages through hyper sexualised idols. Lady Gaga is the mother fiquire for your daughter and Gangster murder rappers are the father figure. Welcome the age of degeneracy.

That is the role of modern art in my opinion.

However there are non mainstream artists like Banksy who we all know as the urban graffitist.. his work brings into light the issues that we so often ignore.

[Lonewolfe]

Michael Savage - Stupid College Education Leads to Obama as President - (Aired September 3, 2009) - YouTube

Watch this... our society is dumb getting dumber. The war on wisdom rages through hyper sexualised idols. Lady Gaga is the mother fiquire for your daughter and Gangster murder rappers are the father figure. Welcome the age of degeneracy.

That is the role of modern art in my opinion.

However there are non mainstream artists like Banksy who we all know as the urban graffitist.. his work brings into light the issues that we so often ignore.

"Beauty is truth and truth is beauty". I think the fundamental characteristic of great art is honesty. Honesty and hence truth are always edgy and potentially dangerous.

[Armchair Activist]

I wouldn't agree that art has to have a function.

Trying to come up with my own definition of art ...

Everything has a function in the universial, holistic sense of things. Function and intention are two very different things.

Cause and affect stuff.

Think of your interest in biology and evoltion.. the cause came from listening to people like Dawkins for example, the affect resulted in you taking greater interest to learn more.

Its all about inspring people to believe in one thing or another... people act on the basis of what they believe in. If its a sunny day you may go outside for example.

[The Saltees Eagle]

I'd agree that there is definitely an anti-intellectualism abroad. Get money. Consume. Die. That seems to have been the philosophical sum of much of the madness of the years between the eighties and the noughties in many lives alright. I detect the dislike of hypersexualisation in your posts but wouldn't regard Lady Gaga as a particularly hypersexualising figure- to me she's just this season's madonna and not particularly intellectual. She's going for the Star Wars George Lucas vision of the pop star of the future I suppose ... still sex, like design art, sells automobiles.

One could have said that the statues of Diana were the hypersexualisation of their time. Gangsta rappers are fairly infantile in artistic connotations in my opinion and are more like uberconsumers and brand marketeers with their own names the brand they are pushing. I wouldn't call them art although some can be literary contributors with extreme and deft wordplay. The whole dollar bills spraying all over sundry shaking booties is a bit of a 1980's rerun and you can just read Tom Wolfe and transpose it to ghetto music and get all that.

Maybe art is an expression of human emotion in a way that can't be otherwise said using other media and gangsta rappers and Lady Gaga aren't saying anything new that they aren't adopting from pop culture and the fashion world. I think they are derivative at best and can be outranked by a low note from a piano in a room with great accoustics easily enough.

Throwaway stuff.

[Dylan2010]

Its all about inspring people to believe in one thing or another... people act on the basis of what they believe in. If its a sunny day you may go outside for example.

thats only one side surely. An other side of art is simply to flatter/impress the buyer or be an egotistical expression of the artists themselves.

[Lonewolfe]

thats only one side surely. An other side of art is simply to flatter/impress the buyer or be an egotistical expression of the artists themselves.

High art and low art.

[Armchair Activist]

"Beauty is truth and truth is beauty". I think the fundamental characteristic of great art is honesty. Honesty and hence truth are always edgy and potentially dangerous.

Its not Jesus if they're preaching murder. Understanding this much has giving me a much greater appreciation for Irish culture and sentiments. I might even be so bold as to say that if their were God, the Irish for their love of the simple life and promotion of the criac and banter would be His chosen people.

The Dubliners - Lord Of The Dance - YouTube

If I were intending anything in this thread as someone may have suspected it would be should be taking greater efforts to create a global Irish propeganda machine. All of which implies the big scary word, honesty.