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Question:

Does art reflect the world or does art change the world?

What do you think? Please provide examples, explainations and experiences if you can.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Ahh... which immitates which?

I think art more likely reflects the stream of consciousness of its creator's respective society. Visual art is merely one category of that reflection, since art is coupled in every aspect of life its almost impossible to seperate culture or life out of an artists work.

Essentially, Art gives a new way to look at things that have always been. Consider Dali who gave us surrealism at its most interesting. He took very basic ideas, such as time in his Persistence of Memory, and skewed them considerably visually that it seemed to turn into something else that is beyond reality. He did not change change the world, merely offered a different view of it. Worhol introduced to our society the idea that art is more than classical paintings only found in museums, but that it is truly all around us.

Further back, visual art directly impacted the world. Ancient cave paintings led the way to various glyphs. Glyphs as we know, evolved into letters, which is why I am able to communicate with you now. Yet, it came from someone making art who showed someone else, so on and so forth.

An artists job is make the viewer's synapses fire and connect in new ways, through that firing and connectin, it is possible to impact the world by changing ideas and perceptions.

So the answer is yes to both. Artists reflect the world back at us, which can prompt us to change how we think about what we see our world as... through those alternate views come new ideas, new problems and new solutions and action may (or may not) follow as a result.