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there is nothing that qualifies a particular piece as art or not art. the word is a name like any other. it comes from somewhere. i don't particularly see why critics should have the power to determine what is and is not art either. why not the folk who produce the environments?
and it doesn't bother me that there is nothing at the level of an "essence" that separates art from anything else.
art is a particular type of situation.
consumers are free to "get things out of an experience" or not. they can like or not like things as they like to like things. they don't have any power for that beyond the aggregated power of choosing to buy something or not. but people are also free to not like the books they read, yes?
people are also free to stop being consumers put in the time and energy and make their own pieces. that'd be a preferred response, yes?
if you think that, say, conceptual art is nonsense make something yourself. typically that shuts up the smug Consumer: if you think it's so easy, why aren't you doing it?
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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