Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that we should limit our definition of an
Artist to the bone-in-nose art school grad. I simply meant to respond to
the statement, "The flip side is that engineering is art. Any engineers
disagree?" I'm an engineer (software) and I disagree that the simple
practice of engineering is art. However I believe engineering can be an
art and I agree with all of your examples of engineer-artists.
Then why did I choose to make this seemingly obvious distinction? On a
daily basis I'm surrounded by examples of non artistic engineering. I
work in an ugly glass box skyscraper which surely was designed by an
architect but which is not a work of art. Many of the software engineers
in my company couldn't create a software work of art if their lives
depended on it. So what I thought I'd said was exactly what you did say
very well, "you have to be a good artist to produce good art and you
have to be a good engineer to produce good art."
Peter
Richard Sullivan wrote:
>
> At 11:39 AM 11/8/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >I don't think it's the practice of a particular discipline that makes
> >you an artist, it's how you practice that discipline. Anyone can paint,
> >photograph, even do simple engineering tasks but only the artist creates
> >art. Additionally, mastering technical competence in a given area does
> >not automatically qualify one as an artist.
> >
> >Peter
>
> Peter,
>
> I fear we are treading in the snotty swamp of the question of what is art.
> When calls one self and artist and automatically that produces art is
> inviting a tautology. Art is what an artist does and artist is one who does
> art.
>
> Is it not possible that an engineer does art. Roebling and the Brooklyn
> Bridge? Eiffle? Ok these are architects a branch of engineering. The space
> shuttle. Farnsworth and television. The Wright Brothers, like, man that
> thing was beautiful! I truely doubt that every strut was placed there
> purely for functional reasons. Engineers do art, but maybe under the
> restraints of functionality, something that other types of artists don't
> have to deal with. I would say that you have to be a good artist to produce
> good art and you have to be a good engineer to produce good art.
>