Part 5 Art and Media: Conclusions                   (long version 1.2 March 2012)

Art and media – music, dance, literature, poetry, painting, radio, movies, TV, newspapers, magazines, the internet, and a myriad others – entertain, challenge and inform. 

●   All techniques are permissible in art.  We aren’t restricted to realism, surrealism, representational or abstract, nor to oil on canvas or stone as compared to digitized images or experiential creations.

●   Art can be created and distributed though all forms of media: galleries, concerts, the streets, road shows, the internet, or whatever.

●   Art can be self-expression – the artist presenting works, ignoring their impact on the audience – or communication – an attempt to pass on a message.

●   Artistic works can be perceived to be within a local or a global tradition, exemplifying or extending that tradition, or to be breaking out of that tradition, to provide new insights.

●   Overall, art must be authentic – motivated by truth, to express or communicate, rather than solely for prestige or commercial gain.

●   Art provides a huge variety of models for behaviour, to emulate or deplore.  It explores moral dilemmas, confronts us with difference, and can provide insight, to see things from another’s point of view, and show us how we might react. 

●   Art can express the otherwise inexpressible, some of our innermost feelings.

●   Art can also be just for fun.

●   The media, print or broadcast, must focus on telling the truth, and avoid creating misleading impressions of the nature of life, humanity, society or celebrities.

●   News, current affairs and documentaries, especially, must be balanced, correctly reflecting the weight of the evidence and the uncertainties in each view presented.  more