Piper and Performances as Art.

In this week's chapter of The Nature of Art, we were told to read the segment on Adrian Piper and her unique views on art and fetishism. The Q&A question had us analyze and interpret Piper's perspective on performance art and why it was so unique from other art forms that we've studied in this class. Piper maintains that performance art is unique form other art forms because it is the only art form that the human being has an active role in; because of this, every human being is different, therefore every performance is different from the other based upon each performer's unique personality. Essentially, the performer himself or herself is art because they are the ones who make the performance what it is. There is a "social collaboration," according to Piper, between the performers and the audience which takes away the mysterious third party element of out-of-control interpretation, but still maintains the same basic contextual forms of art such as having a basis for interpretation, judgement, and analysis. Each performance is an unreproducible act that can never be repeated in the same exact way again.

My question is, "Do you think that the human form it in itself a form of art? Why or why not?"

Response #14.

This is a response to Chelsea's question in which she asked, "Do you think that forcing our children to take art classes (as many elementary and high schools do) creates in them an appreciation of art, or does it cause them to resent it?"

I think it can go both ways depending on the child who is taking the course and the environment that the course is in. I've taken my fair share of art classes, and for me, both of your scenarios happened. On the one hand, the art classes that I took helped me learn about art, understand the mediums, learn a little bit about the history, and how to improve my skills - so that made me appreciate the art a whole lot more. By learning those things and taking those classes to improve my skills and understand the history, I had more knowledge about art so I was better able to interpret other people's artwork as well as make my own artwork deeper.

On the other hand, I did have some classes where the bad outweighed the good and it made me resent art at the same time. I had one art teacher who pissed me off to no end because I simply did not agree with her teaching habits and the way in which she taught art (she taught art the way she did art, which obviously not everybody does art the same). For instance, her style of art is very mechanical, calculated, and precise while I've been more on the abstract side, so I don't follow any "rules" when it comes to art - I follow my emotions. Being in that teacher's class really made me resent her and my own art because every day was a constant question of "What is art?" and "Why is her art supposedly better than my own?"

All in all, though, it really all depends on the child and the art class itself, because every art teacher has a different teaching method.

My question is, "Do you think there is a specific way of teaching art?"