6 April 2012
Mrs. Baker
ART 1210
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 I had the opportunity to attend a meeting, roundtable discussion, on art in our modern age and this topic began with the idea of abstractionism. What kind of art is abstract; what does abstract art look like; but more importantly, what is abstract art in our modern times? How can we make people more aware of abstract art? The discussion includes how each media/medium is used and what these media are without their medium, i.e. what is a stage backdrop without the theater? So why is art and in particular, abstractionism, important and culturally relevant in our time? Our society has become increasingly dependent on technology, particularly, the use of computing power to retrieve information about questions in almost-real time. This idea that technology can allow us to all be librarians and retrieve answers to our search queries allows each individual to be their own “know-it-all”, Permitting people to not just not know the answer to questions but also cause them to not logically deduce such answers, i.e. Society would just have them look-up an answer rather than come up with that answer using their own brainpower. This increase in the use of technology causes certain laziness, thoughtlessness, which in turn causes society to do the same with pieces of culture, art. Instead of visiting an art gallery, museum, or theater, one can use technology to look up what “society” believes that piece of culture represents, and thus allow one to “avoid” the “need” to go see that piece of culture, art, for him/her. This, avoiding culture, causes society as a whole to believe what that piece of art or culture is or represents, and that is the ultimate question of art in our modern time. How do we, as a society, get our members to continue viewing culture, art, so that each person may have the experience, the thoughts and the ideas of what that piece of art is? Without, society may lose the