Şu Anda Pc'de Ne Oynuyorsun? (10. sayfa)

quote:

Orijinalden alıntı: Lento

A Game Of Thrones RPG, Fantasy 2012?
A Game Of Thrones: Genesis RPG, Strategy, War, Management Jul-30-2011
A New Beginning Adventure, Mystery Q2 2011
A Valley Without Wind Action, Adventure Q4 2011
A Vampyre Story 2: A Bats Tale Adventure, Mystery, Comedy 2011
Afterfall: Insanity Shooter, Action, Horror, Mystery Q1 2011
Age Of Decadence RPG, Strategy, Historic, Management 2011?
Age of Empires Online Online, Strategy, Historic, Management Aug-16-2011
Age Of Japan 2 Strategy Unknown
Age of Pirates: Captain Blood Fantasy, Action, Adventure 2011
Air Conflicts Secret Wars Vehicle Sim, Sandbox, Arcade, War, Historic Aug 2011
Airline Tycoon 2 Strategy, Management Q4 2011
Airport Mania 2: Wild Trips Adventure Unknown
Aliens: Colonial Marines Sci fi, Horror, Shooter, Strategy Spring 2012
Alter Ego Adventure, Mystery, Retro May-20-2011
American McGees Alice 2 Comedy, Horror, Action, Adventure Jun-14-2011
Anno 2070 Strategy, Sandbox, Management, Sci fi Winter 2011
Anomaly: Warzone Earth Strategy, Puzzler, Sci fi Apr-08-2011
APB: Reloaded Shooter, Action, Online, Crime, Social 2011
Apox Strategy, Sci fi, War Jan-20-2011
Arcada Mias Adventure Mid 2011?
ArmA III Shooter, Action, Sandbox, War Summer 2012
Armada 2526: Supernova Strategy, Sci fi, Management Apr-15-2011
Assassins Creed 3 Sandbox, Action, Historic, Stealth Unknown
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood Action, Sandbox, Stealth, Historic Mar-18-2011
Assassins Creed: Revelations Sandbox, Stealth, Historic, Action Nov-15-2011
Astroslugs Arcade, Comedy, Puzzler Jan-15-2011
Avadon: The Black Fortress Adventure, Fantasy, RPG May-09-2011
Back To The Future: Part 2 Adventure, Action, Puzzler, Retro Feb-16-2011
Back To The Future: Part 3 Adventure, Action, Puzzler, Retro Mar-29-2011
Back To The Future: Part 4 Adventure, Action, Puzzler, Retro Jun-06-2011
Back To The Future: Part 5 Adventure, Arcade, Puzzler, Retro Jun-23-2011
Batman: Arkham City Action, Crime, Stealth Oct-21-2011
Battle: Los Angeles Shooter, Action, Sci fi Mar-14-2011
Battlefield 3 Shooter, Online, Action, War, Social Oct-25-2011
Battlefield Play4Free Online, Shooter, War Apr-04-2011
Battlefield: 1943 Historic, War, Shooter, Online TBA
Battlestar Galactica Online Shooter, Online, Sci fi, Social 2011
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 Arcade, Action, Retro, Sci fi Feb-02-2011
Bioshock 2: Minervas Den RPG, Action, Shooter, Horror, Sci fi May-31-2011
Bioshock 2: Protector Trials RPG, Action, Shooter, Horror, Sci fi Mar-14-2011
Bioshock Infinite Shooter, RPG, Horror Q4 2012
Black Mirror 3 Adventure, Horror, Mystery Apr-22-2011
Black Prophecy Sci fi, War, Vehicle Sim, Online, RPG 2011
Blade and Soul Online Unknown
Bloodline Champions Action, Online, Arcade, Fantasy, Social Jan-13-2011
Bracken Tor: The Time of Tooth and Claw Adventure, Puzzler, Mystery Jan-30-2011
Breach Shooter, Online, War Jan-26-2011
Bridge The Construction Game Strategy Apr-04-2011
Brink Sci fi, Shooter, Online May-13-2011
Bronze Strategy, Historic, Puzzler TBA
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 Action, Shooter, Historic, War 2012
Bulletstorm Shooter, War Feb-22-2011
Bully 2 Sandbox, Comedy, Crime 2011?
Bunch of Heroes Arcade, Shooter, Comedy, War 2011
Call of Duty - Black Ops: Escalation Shooter, War, Action, Online Jun-02-2011
Call of Duty - Black Ops: First Strike Shooter, Action, War Mar-25-2011
Call of Duty Elite Shooter Aug-11-2011
Call of Juarez: The Cartel Shooter, Action, Historic, Crime Summer 2011
Capsized Shooter, Sci fi, Retro Apr-29-2011
Captain America: Super Soldier Arcade, Action, Fantasy July 2011
Cargo! Adventure, Comedy, Puzzler, Sandbox Q2 2011
Carmageddon Vehicle Sim, Comedy, Racing 2011?
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission Vehicle Sim, Adventure, Management 2011
Chivalry: Battle for Agatha Action, Historic 2012?
Cities In Motion Sandbox, Vehicle Sim, Management Feb-25-2011
City Defense - The Road Strategy, Fantasy, Puzzler TBA
City of Heroes 2 Online, RPG, Action, Social, Crime 2011?
Civilization V: Polynesia Strategy, Management, War Mar-03-2011
Confrontation Strategy, Fantasy, War Q4 2011
Crash Time 4: The Syndicate Vehicle Sim, Racing, Arcade Mar-04-2011
Crasher Vehicle Sim, Shooter, RPG, Sci fi, Racing Jan-28-2011
Crusader Kings II Strategy, Historic Jan-13-2012
Crysis 2 Sci fi, Stealth, Shooter Mar-25-2011
Crysis 2: Decimation Pack Shooter, Sci fi, Stealth Jun-15-2011
Crysis 2: Retaliation Shooter, Sci fi, Stealth May-18-2011
Darkest Hour Strategy, Historic, War Mar-29-2011
Darksiders 2 Action, Adventure, Fantasy 2012
Darkspore Online, RPG, Action, Social, Sci fi Apr-28-2011
Dawn of Fantasy Strategy, Fantasy 2011?
Dawn of War 2 - Retribution Strategy, Action, RPG, Sci fi, War Mar-04-2011
Dawn of War 2 - Retribution: Dark Angels Strategy, RPG, Action, Sci fi, War Apr-06-2011
Dawntide Online, Fantasy, Social 2011
DC Universe Online Social, Fantasy, Online, RPG, Action Jan-14-2011
Dead Block Arcade, Action, Comedy Summer 2011
Dead Horde Shooter, Horror Jul-30-2011
Dead Island Shooter, Horror Sep-09-2011
Dead Meets Lead Shooter, Historic, Arcade, Horror Apr-01-2011
Dead Rising 2: Off The Record Shooter, Action, Horror Q3 2011
Dead Space II Shooter, Action, Horror, Sci fi Jan-28-2011
Dead Space II: Severed Shooter, Action, Horror, Sci fi Mar-02-2011
Dead State RPG, Horror 2011?
Dear Esther Sandbox, Mystery May-30-2011
Death to Spies 3 Action, Stealth, Historic Q3 2011
Defenders of Ardania Strategy, War 2011
Delta Force: Angel Falls Shooter, Action, Stealth, War 2011
Deponia Adventure Oct-14-2011
Depth Action 2011
Detour Strategy, Management, War May-16-2011
Deus Ex 3 Sci fi, Stealth, Shooter, RPG Aug-25-2011
Dexter The Game Action, Crime Feb-15-2011
Diablo III Fantasy, Action Q4 2011
Dino D-Day Shooter, Historic, Fantasy Apr-09-2011
Dins Curse: Demons War Action, RPG, Fantasy Feb-27-2011
Dirt 3 Vehicle Sim, Arcade, Racing May-24-2011
Disciples III: Resurrection Strategy, Fantasy 2011
Disney Universe Sandbox, Online, Fantasy, Social Oct-20-2011
Doom 4 Sci fi, Horror, Shooter, Action TBA
DOTA 2 Strategy, Online, War, Management Q4 2011
Dragon Age 2 RPG, Fantasy Mar-11-2011
Dragon Age 3 RPG, Fantasy 2012?
Dragon Sky Stealth, Social, RPG, Online, Action Unknown
Drakensang: Phileassons Secret RPG, Fantasy 2011?
Drakensang: The River of Time Fantasy, RPG Jan-11-2011
Dreamlords Resurrection Online, RPG, Social, Fantasy 2011
Driftmoon RPG, Fantasy Q4 2011
Driver: San Francisco Vehicle Sim, Crime Sep-02-2011
Duke Nudem Arcade, Comedy May-19-2011
Duke Nukem Forever Sci fi, Comedy, Shooter, Action Jun-10-2011
Dungeon Defenders Action, RPG, Strategy, Comedy Mar-30-2011
Dungeon Hero Comedy, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, RPG 2010?
Dungeon Lords: The Orb and the Oracle Fantasy, RPG, Action 2010?
Dungeon Siege 3 RPG, Fantasy Jun-17-2011
Dungeons Strategy, RPG, Comedy, Fantasy Feb-04-2011
Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale RPG, Arcade, Action, Fantasy May-25-2011
Dungeons: Into The Dark Strategy, RPG, Comedy, Fantasy Mar-28-2011
Dust 514 Shooter, Online, War, Sci fi 2012?
Dying for Daylight Adventure Feb-11-2011
Earthrise Online, RPG, Sci fi, Social Feb-04-2011
Edge of Twilight Sci fi, Fantasy Unknown
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Strategy, Fantasy, Management 2011
Elite 4 Sci fi, Management, Vehicle Sim, Action, Arcade 2013?
Emergency 2012 Sandbox, Strategy, Management Nov-05-2010
End Of Nations Online, Strategy, War, Social 2011
Eve Online: Incarna Online, Vehicle Sim, Shooter, Sci fi, Social Jun-21-2011
EYE RPG, Shooter, Action, Sci fi, War 2011
F.E.A.R. 3 Shooter, Horror Jun-24-2011
F1 2011 Vehicle Sim, Racing Sep-23-2011
Fable III Sandbox, Adventure, RPG, Fantasy May-20-2011
Faery: Legends of Avalon RPG, Adventure, Action, Fantasy May-06-2011
Fairytale Fights Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy 2011
Fallout Online Online, Action, RPG, Sci fi, Social 2012
Fallout Project V13 Online, RPG, Action, Sci fi, Social 2012
Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money RPG, Sandbox, Action, Sci fi Feb-22-2011
Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts Sandbox, RPG, Action, Sci fi May-17-2011
Fallout: New Vegas - Lonesome Road Sandbox, RPG, Action, Sci fi July 2011
Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues RPG, Sandbox, Action, Sci fi June 2011
Far Cry 3 Shooter, Sandbox, Crime 2012?
Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing Arcade Unknown
Farm Mania 2 Strategy Unknown
Farm Mania: Hot Vacation Strategy Unknown
FIFA 2012 Sport, Arcade, Management OCT 2011
FIFA International Soccer Sport Unknown
Firefall Sandbox, Online, Action, Social, Sci fi Q4 2011
First Templar Action, RPG, Historic May-12-2011
Forsaken World Online Unknown
Fray Strategy, Sci fi 2011
From Dust Sandbox, Strategy, Fantasy, Management 2011
Frozen Synapse Online, Strategy, Retro May-26-2011
Garshasp: The Monster Slayer Action, Adventure, Fantasy May-09-2011
Gary Grigsbys War in the East Strategy, War, Historic Dec-07-2011
Gatheryn RPG, Adventure, Fantasy Unknown
Gatling Gears Shooter, Sci fi Jun-30-2011
Gears of War 2 Sci fi, Shooter 2011
Gears of War 3 RPG Sep-20-2011
Gemini Wars Strategy, Sci fi, War Q4 2011
Gettysburg: Armored Warfare Strategy, Online, Shooter, War, Historic Q4 2011
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Retro, Action, Comedy, Arcade Mar-23-2011
Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising Online, Historic, Fantasy Jun-21-2011
Golden Trails: The New Western Rush Strategy Unknown
Gothic 4: Fall of Setarrif Action, RPG, Adventure, Fantasy Mar-25-2011
Grand Theft Auto V Vehicle Sim, Sandbox, Crime 2012
Gray Matter Adventure, Mystery, Crime Feb-25-2011
Grid Racedriver 2 Vehicle Sim, Arcade, Racing 2012
Grim Dawn RPG, Action, Fantasy 2011?
Grimlands Online, Shooter, War 2011
Grotesque Tactics 2: Dungeons & Donuts RPG, Strategy, Comedy, Fantasy Q3 2011
Ground Branch Shooter, War, Online, Action 2011?
Guardians of Graxia: Elves and Dwarves Strategy, Fantasy, Management Feb-01-2011
Guild Wars 2 Fantasy, RPG, Online 2011
Gunshine RPG Unknown
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Sci fi, Horror, Shooter, Vehicle Sim, Adventure 2011
Hamiltons Great Adventure Adventure, Puzzler May-31-2011
Handball Manager 2010 Sport, Management 2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Action, Adventure, Shooter, Fantasy, Mystery Jul-15-2011
Hawken Vehicle Sim, Action, Sci fi 2011
Hearts of Iron III: For the Motherland Strategy, Historic, War 2011
Heavy Duty War, Strategy 2010
Heavy Hogur Strategy Unknown
Heist Crime, Action, Sandbox Unknown
Hellgate: Resurrection Online, RPG, Fantasy, Sci fi Jun-03-2011
Hellion: Mystery of the Inquisition Shooter, Arcade, Horror, Historic 2011
Heresy War Vehicle Sim, Sci fi, Shooter 2011?
Heroes and Generals Shooter, War, Online, Strategy 2011
Heroes of Might and Magic VI Fantasy, RPG, Adventure, Strategy Sep-08-2011
Heros Journey Fantasy, Online, RPG 2010?
Highlander Stealth, Historic, Action, RPG, Adventure 2010
HistWar: Les Grognards Strategy, War, Historic 2010
Hitman Absolution Stealth, Crime, Shooter 2012
Hoard Action, Arcade, Fantasy Apr-04-2011
Homefront War, Shooter Mar-18-2011
Homefront 2 Shooter, War 2012?
Hunted: The Demons Forge Shooter, Action, Fantasy Jun-03-2011
Hydrophobia Prophecy Adventure, Action, Sci fi, Horror May-09-2011
I Am Alive Shooter, Action, Sci fi Unknown
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Vehicle Sim, War, Historic Mar-31-2011
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Adventure Unknown
inFamous 2 RPG, Sci fi, Action Jun-10-2011
Infinity: The Quest for Earth Shooter, Sci fi, Online 2011
Innergy Arcade, Comedy, Puzzler Unknown
Inquisitor RPG, Online, Adventure, Historic 2011
Insane Adventure, Horror 2013
Interstellar Marines Sci fi, Shooter, RPG, Adventure 2011
Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded Strategy, Management, War, Action, RPG Q4 2011
Jagged Alliance Online RPG, Online, Strategy, War, Management 2011
Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Management, Retro, Strategy, RPG Sep 2011
Jumpgate Evolution Sci fi, Social, Online, RPG, Vehicle Sim 2011?
Jurassic Park: The Game - Part 1 Adventure, Mystery Q3 2011
King Arthur 2 Strategy, RPG, War, Fantasy Q4 2011
King Arthur: The Druids RPG, Strategy, Fantasy, War Jan-18-2011
Kingdom Under Fire 2 Fantasy, War, Action, Strategy, Online Q4 2010
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning RPG, Fantasy 2012
Kings and Castles Strategy, War On Hold
LA Noire Action, Crime May-17-2011
Last Half of Darkness: Tomb of Zojir Adventure, Strategy, Mystery, Puzzler 2010?
Legacy: World Adventure Adventure Unknown
Legends of Daemonica: Farepoynts Purgatory Mystery, Adventure 2010?
Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 Arcade, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy Q4 2011
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game Adventure, Comedy, Action May-24-2011
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Action, Arcade, Adventure, Stealth, Sci fi Mar-25-2011
Lego Universe: Crux Prime Online, Social Feb-08-2011
Lilly Sasha: Curse Of The Immortals Adventure Unknown
LowRider Extreme Vehicle Sim Jul-29-2011
Lucha Fury Action, Arcade, Sport, Comedy 2011
Lucius Adventure, Puzzler, Mystery Mar-30-2011
Madden NFL 12 Sport Aug-30-2011
Magic The Gathering: Tactics Strategy, Online, Fantasy, Management Jan-18-2011
Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 Strategy Jun-15-2011
Magicka RPG, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy Jan-25-2011
Magicka: Marshlands RPG, Fantasy, Comedy, Action Apr-26-2011
Magicka: Vietnam Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, RPG Apr-12-2011
Magna Mundi Strategy, Historic, Sandbox Nov-04-2011
Majesty 2 Collection Strategy, Comedy, Fantasy, Sandbox, RPG Apr-19-2011
Mars Action, RPG, Sci fi 2011
Mass Effect 2: Arrival RPG, Sci fi, Action Mar-29-2011
Mass Effect 3 RPG, Action, Sci fi, Shooter Mar-06-2012
Max Payne 3 Crime, Mystery, Shooter, Action 2011
MDK2 HD Arcade, Shooter, Retro, Sci fi 2011
Mecho Wars Strategy Unknown
Mechwarrior Sci fi, Vehicle Sim, Shooter, Action 2010
Men of War: Assault Squad Strategy, Historic, War Feb-25-2011
Men of War: Vietnam Strategy, Historic, War Sept 2011
Mercenary Wars Shooter, Action, War, RPG 2010?
Metal Gear Solid: Rising Stealth, Action, Shooter, Sci fi 2011
Metal Knight Zero Shooter, Online, Social, War Unknown
Metro: Last Light RPG, Shooter, Action, Horror, Sci fi 2012
Microsoft Flight Sandbox, Vehicle Sim TBA
Minecraft Sandbox, Adventure, Management Nov-11-2011
Mirrors Edge 2 Stealth, Arcade, Sci fi, Action, Shooter 2011?
MLB 2K11 Sport, Arcade, Management Q4 2011
MLB Manager Online Sport, Management 2011
Modern Warfare 3 Shooter, Action, Online, War Nov-08-2011
Monday Night Combat Shooter, Online, Sport, Comedy Jan-24-2011
Mortal Kombat Action, Retro, Arcade Apr-18-2011
Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword RPG, Sandbox, Fantasy, War May-03-2011
Mystic Worldz - Secret of the Sock Adventure Unknown
Mytheon Online, RPG, Adventure, Social, Historic 2011
Naild The Game Arcade, Sport, Vehicle Sim, Racing Feb-04-2011
Nanosaur Adventure Unknown
Natalie Brooks: Mystery at Hillcrest High Adventure Unknown
Natural Selection 2 Sci fi, Shooter, Strategy 2011?
Naval War Arctic Circle Strategy Q1 2012
Need for Speed: The Run Vehicle Sim, Racing, Arcade Nov-15-2011
Neverwinter Online, RPG, Fantasy Q4 2011
New Star Soccer 2010 Sport Unknown
Night Shift Code Adventure Unknown
NightSky Action Unknown
Nuclear Dawn Shooter, Strategy, War, Sci fi Sep 2011
Of Orcs And Men RPG, Fantasy Spring 2012
Off Road Drive Vehicle Sim, Racing Unknown
Operation Flashpoint: Red River Shooter, War Apr-21-2011
Orcs Must Die Action, Strategy, Comedy, Fantasy Summer 2011
Orion: Prelude Shooter 2011
Overgrowth Horror, Fantasy, Action, Adventure 2011
Pacific Liberation Force Action Unknown
Painkiller Redemption Shooter, Sci fi, Action Feb-25-2011
Parabellum Social, War, Online, Shooter, Action 2010?
Path of Exile Online, Fantasy, Action, RPG 2011
Payday: The Heist Shooter, Social, Crime, Action Late 2011
PGA Tour Golf Challenge Sport Jan-11-2011
Phantasmat Adventure, Puzzler, Mystery Feb-08-2011
Pirate Poppers Strategy Unknown
Pirates of Black Cove Strategy, Fantasy, Historic, RPG Summer 2011
Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned Action, Fantasy Cancelled
Portal 2 Adventure, Comedy, Puzzler Apr-18-2011
Post Apocalyptic Mayhem Vehicle Sim, Arcade, Racing, Sci fi Mar-17-2011
Postal III Sandbox, Comedy, Crime Q3 2010
Prey 2 Shooter 2012
Pride of Nations Strategy, Historic Jun-07-2011
Primal Carnage Online, Action, Historic, Shooter 2011
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 Sport, Arcade, Management Oct-15-2011
Project of Planets RPG, Sci fi, Online, Shooter Dec-16-2011
Project Offset Shooter, Fantasy Unknown
Project Rescue Africa Adventure Unknown
Prominence Adventure, Mystery, Sci fi 2011
Prototype 2 Action, Sandbox, Sci fi 2012
Puzzle Agent 2 Adventure, Puzzler, Mystery Jun-30-2011
Rage Horror, Shooter Oct-07-2011
Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades Strategy, Historic, War Sept 2011
Realm of the Titans Strategy 2011
Red Faction: Armageddon Shooter, Sci fi Jun-03-2011
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad Historic, Shooter, Strategy Q3 2011
Renegade Ops Shooter 2011
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Shooter, Action, Horror Winter 2011
Ride to Hell Crime, Sandbox, Action, Adventure 2010
Ridge Racer Unbounded Arcade, Sport, Action, Racing 2012
Rift: Planes of Telara Social, Fantasy, Online, RPG Mar-04-2011
Rise of Immortals Strategy, Fantasy 2011
Risen 2 RPG, Fantasy, Action 2012
Rising Storm Shooter 2011
Road Construction Simulator Strategy Mar-18-2011
Roads Of Rome 2 Strategy Unknown
Rock of Ages Action, Comedy, Historic, Arcade, Strategy 2011
Royal Quest Strategy, Online, Management, Fantasy 2012
Runes of Avalon 2 Strategy, Puzzler, Arcade 2008
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Shooter, Horror 2012
Sail Simulator 5 Vehicle Sim Unknown
Saints Row 3 Sandbox, Crime, Comedy, Action Dec-20-2011
Salem Online, Fantasy 2011?
Salvation Sci fi, Shooter 2010?
Samurai II: Vengeance Action, RPG, Historic, Fantasy May-05-2011
SBK-11 Vehicle Sim, Sport, Arcade, Racing May-30-2011
Scrolls Strategy, Fantasy, War 2011
Section 7: Into Arms Way RPG, Strategy, Sci fi, Management Unknown
Section 8: Prejudice Shooter, Sci fi, War May-04-2011
Serious Sam 3 Shooter, Action, Sci fi, Fantasy Q3 2011
Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops Shooter, Sci fi Apr-15-2011
Shadows Of The Damned Action, Horror Jun-21-2011
Sherlock Holmes: The New Adventures Adventure, Crime, Mystery Q4 2011
Shift 2: Unleashed Vehicle Sim, Arcade, Racing Mar-31-2011
Shogun 2: Total War Strategy, Historic, War Mar-15-2011
Sims 3: Generations Sandbox, Social Jun-05-2011
Sims 3: Outdoor Living Sandbox, Social Feb-01-2011
Sims 3: Pets Sandbox, Social Autumn 2011
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion Strategy, Management, Sci fi 2011
Six Days in Fallujah Historic, War, Shooter, Strategy No Release
Six Gun Saga Strategy, Management, Historic 2011?
Skulls of the Shogun Strategy, Fantasy 2011?
Sky Legends Online, Retro, Arcade 2011
Slage Arcade, Fantasy TBA
Smite Action, Online, Strategy, Fantasy 2011?
Snapshot Adventure, Puzzler, Arcade 2011
Snark Busters: Welcome to the Club Adventure, Puzzler 2010
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 Action, Shooter, War, Stealth 2011
Soul of the Ultimate Nation Fantasy, Online, RPG 2010?
Spec Ops: The Line Shooter, Action, Stealth, War Aug-02-2011
Spider Man: Edge of Time Action, Adventure, Sci fi, Crime Q3 2011
SpyParty Online, Social, Stealth Unknown
Star Raiders Shooter, Arcade, Sci fi May-11-2011
Star Trek Online Sci fi, Social, Online, RPG Feb-05-2010
Star Wars: The Old Republic Sci fi, Online, RPG Late 2011
Star Wolves 3: Ashes of Victory Strategy, RPG, Sci fi, War Q2 2011
Starcraft 2: Phoenix Strategy, Sci fi Q4 2011
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Sci fi, Strategy Q2 2012
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Sci fi, Strategy Q1 2013
Stargate Worlds Sci fi, Online, RPG On Hold
Stellar Dawn RPG, Sci fi, Social, Online 2011
Storm: Frontline Nation Strategy, Historic Jun-28-2011
Street Fighter x Tekken Arcade, Retro Q1 2012
Stronghold 3 Strategy, Action, Management, Historic Q3 2011
Subversion Strategy, Crime, Stealth 2011
Summer Challenge: Athletics Tournament Sport, Retro, Arcade 2010
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Arcade Jul-15-2011
Supreme Ruler: Cold War Management, War, Strategy, Sandbox Q3 2011
Swarm Arcade, Comedy Mar-22-2011
Sword of the Stars 2 Strategy, Sci fi Aug-16-2011
Syberia 3 Adventure, Mystery, Puzzler 2012
Syndicate Strategy, Action, RPG, Sci fi 2011
Tactical Intervention Online, Shooter, Action, Stealth 2011
Take On Helicopters Vehicle Sim 2011
Tanker Truck Simulator 2011 Vehicle Sim, Management Feb-18-2011
Tasty Planet: Back for Seconds Action Unknown
Tera-Online RPG, Online, Fantasy, Social 2011
Terrafarmers Action Unknown
Terraria Sandbox, Retro, Puzzler, Adventure, RPG May-16-2011
Test Drive Unlimited 2 Vehicle Sim, Sandbox, Racing Feb-11-2011
The Adventures of Tintin Adventure, Action, Mystery Oct 2011
The Agency Social, Crime, Online, Shooter, RPG 2010
The AssKickers Arcade, Retro 2011?
The Cursed Crusade Action, Fantasy, Adventure Jul-30-2011
The Darkness 2 Action, Horror Oct-07-2011
The Elder Scrolls V Fantasy, RPG, Sandbox Nov-11-2011
The Haunted: Hells Reach Shooter, Online, Horror 2011
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Adventure, RPG, Fantasy, War Aug-24-2011
The Mysterious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Adventure, Mystery Feb-18-2011
The Next BIG Thing Adventure, Mystery, Comedy Apr-25-2011
The Patrician IV: Rise of a Dynasty Strategy, Sandbox, Historic, Management Apr-01-2011
The Pit: Dog Eat Dog Action, Arcade, Sport, Sci fi, War 2011
The Secret World Horror, Mystery, Adventure, RPG, Online 2011/2012
The Sims Medieval Online, Social Mar-24-2011
The Spire Action, Sci fi, Mystery, Adventure 2011
The Walking Dead: Episode 1 Adventure, Horror Fall 2011
The Witcher II RPG, Horror, Fantasy May-17-2011
The Witness Adventure, Puzzler 2011
Thief 4 Shooter, Strategy, Stealth 2012?
This is Vegas Crime, Sandbox Canned?
Thor Action, Fantasy Summer 2011
Tiny Bang Story Adventure, Puzzler, Mystery Apr-22-2011
Titan Online, Social Q4 2013
Tom Clancy Hawx 2: Open Skies Vehicle Sim, Action, War Feb-11-2011
Tom Clancy Splinter Cell: Retribution Action, Stealth 2011?
Tom Clancy: End War 2 Sci fi, Strategy, Shooter 2012?
Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon Future Soldier Sci fi, War, Shooter, Action March 2012
Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon Online Shooter, Online, War, Sci fi 2011
Tomb Raider Adventure, Action, Puzzler, Mystery Q3 2012
Top Spin 4 Sport Feb-01-2011
Torchlight 2 RPG, Action, Fantasy 2011
Trackmania II Vehicle Sim, Racing Sep-30-2011
Transformers Universe Online, Action, RPG, Sci fi, Retro 2012
Trapped Dead Strategy, Horror, Management Feb-25-2011
Treasure of Persia Strategy Unknown
Tribes Universe Online, Shooter, Sci fi Unknown
Tribes: Ascend Online, Shooter, Sci fi Dec 2011
Trine 2 Action, Fantasy, Puzzler Summer 2011
Tropico 4 Sandbox, Management, Comedy Aug-30-2011
True Crime Sandbox, Shooter, Action, Crime Cancelled
Two Worlds 2 RPG, Fantasy Feb-04-2011
Two Worlds 2: Pirates Of The Flying Fortress RPG, Fantasy Sep-25-2011
Two Worlds: The Temptation Fantasy, RPG Unknown
Universe Sandbox Sandbox, Sci fi, Management Apr-29-2011
Vindictus RPG, Online, Social 2011 EU
Virtua Tennis 4 Sport Summer 2011
Voltage Sci fi, Vehicle Sim, Sport Uncertain
Wanted Corp Shooter, Sci fi Summer 2011
Warface Shooter, War, Action, Online Unknown
Wargame: European Escalation Strategy, War, Historic Q1 2012
Warhammer 40000: Dark Millennium Online Online, RPG, Action, Sci fi, Social 2012
Warhammer 40000: Space Marine Sci fi, War, Shooter, Action Sep-06-2011
Warm Gun Shooter, Online, Historic 2011
Warp Shooter, Puzzler, Retro Jun-30-2011
Westward IV: All Aboard Strategy Unknown
Whisper of a Rose: Gold Adventure Unknown
Wittard: Nemesis of Ragnarok Adventure, Mystery Feb-18-2011
World of Darkness Online, RPG, Action, Horror, Social 2012?
World of Tanks Online, War, Historic Apr-12-2011
Worms Armageddon Strategy Unknown
WSC Real 11 Sport Apr-15-2011
X Rebirth Vehicle Sim, Sci fi Q4 2011
X-Com Shooter, Sci fi Mar-09-2012
Yars Revenge Shooter, Sci fi, Retro Apr-29-2011
Zeit Squared Arcade Jan-12-2011
Zeno Clash 2 Comedy, Fantasy, Action, Shooter Unknown
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Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever

GameSpot Score
3.5
bad

Release Date: Jun 14, 2011

Duke Nukem Forever has Duke return after a lengthy hiatus where he must once again save the world from the Aliens.

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Genre: Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

GameSpot Score
9.0
Editors' Choice

Release Date: May 17, 2011

The Witcher 2 is the sequel to developer CD Projekt's mature-themed fantasy role-playing game based on the works of author Andrzej Sapkowski.

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Genre: Action Role-Playing
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Release Date: Nov 8, 2011

A sequel to the $1 billion-grossing shooter Modern Warfare 2 is in development at Infinity Ward.
Genre: Modern First-Person Shooter
Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns

GameSpot Score
7.0
good

Release Date: Jun 14, 2011

Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to the year 2000 PC game, American McGee's Alice.

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Genre: Horror Action Adventure
Dungeon Siege III
Dungeon Siege III
Release Date: Jun 21, 2011

With input from the original developer, Gas Powered Games, Obsidian Entertainment is developing the next incarnation of the Dungeon Siege franchise.
Genre: Action Role-Playing
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft

GameSpot Score
9.5
Editors' Choice

Release Date: Nov 23, 2004

Here is the online role-playing game you should play, no matter who you are.

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Genre: Fantasy Online Role-Playing
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

GameSpot Score
9.0
Editors' Choice

Release Date: Jun 7, 2005

Set in the early 90s, the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto series brings you to San Andreas--a city troubled by gangs, drugs, and corruption. You'll follow a rising gang member in his journey to save his family and to take control of the streets.

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Genre: Modern Action Adventure
The Sims 3
The Sims 3

GameSpot Score
9.0
Editors' Choice

Release Date: Jun 2, 2009

The Sims series returns with the next incarnation of the popular life-simulation game.

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Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses").[1]

The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts," music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. There is also a strong connection between music and mathematics.

To many people in many cultures music is an important part of their way of life. Greek philosophers and ancient Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."[2] Musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez summarizes the relativist, post-modern viewpoint: "The border between music and noise is always culturally defined—which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus ... By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be."[3]
Contents
[hide]

1 History
1.1 Prehistoric eras
1.2 References in the Bible
1.3 Antiquity
1.4 Western cultures
1.5 Asian cultures
1.6 20th and 21st century music
2 Performance
2.1 Aural tradition
2.2 Ornamentation
3 Production
3.1 Composition
3.2 Notation
3.3 Improvisation
3.4 Theory
4 Cognition
5 Sociology
6 Media and technology
6.1 Internet
7 Business
8 Education
8.1 Non-professional
8.2 Academia
8.3 Ethnomusicology
9 Music therapy
10 See also
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links

History
Main article: History of music
Prehistoric eras
Main article: Prehistoric music

Prehistoric music can only be theorized based on findings from paleolithic archaeology sites. Flutes are often discovered, carved from bones in which lateral holes have been pierced; these are thought to have been blown at one end like the Japanese shakuhachi. The Divje Babe flute, carved from a cave bear femur, is thought to be at least 40,000 years old. Instruments, such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites.[4] India has one of the oldest musical traditions in the world—references to Indian classical music (marga) can be found in the ancient scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas.[5] The earliest and largest collection of prehistoric musical instruments was found in China and dates back to between 7000 and 6600 BC.[6] The Hurrian song, found on clay tablets that date back to the approximately 1400 BC, is the oldest surviving notated work of music.
References in the Bible
Main article: History of music in the biblical period
"David with his harp" Paris Psalter,
c. 960, Constantinople

Music and theatre scholars studying the history and anthropology of Semitic and early Judeo-Christian culture, have also discovered common links between theatrical and musical activity in the classical cultures of the Hebrews with those of the later cultures of the Greeks and Romans. The common area of performance is found in a "social phenomenon called litany," a form of prayer consisting of a series of invocations or supplications. The Journal of Religion and Theatre notes that among the earliest forms of litany, "Hebrew litany was accompanied by a rich musical tradition:"[7]

"While Genesis 4.21 identifies Jubal as the “father of all such as handle the harp and pipe,” the Pentateuch is nearly silent about the practice and instruction of music in the early life of Israel. Then, in I Samuel 10 and the texts that follow, a curious thing happens. “One finds in the biblical text,” writes Alfred Sendrey, “a sudden and unexplained upsurge of large choirs and orchestras, consisting of thoroughly organized and trained musical groups, which would be virtually inconceivable without lengthy, methodical preparation.” This has led some scholars to believe that the prophet Samuel was the patriarch of a school, which taught not only prophets and holy men, but also sacred-rite musicians. This public music school, perhaps the earliest in recorded history, was not restricted to a priestly class—which is how the shepherd boy David appears on the scene as a minstrel to King Saul."[7]

Antiquity

Music was an important part of cultural and social life in Ancient Greece: mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual ceremonies; musicians and singers had a prominent role in ancient Greek theater.[8]
Western cultures

The music of Greece was a major part of ancient Greek theater. In Ancient Greece, mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument, the lyre, especially the special kind called a kithara. Music was an important part of education in ancient Greece, and boys were taught music starting at age six. Greek musical literacy created a flowering of development; Greek music theory included the Greek musical modes, eventually became the basis for Western religious music and classical music. Later, influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire changed Greek music.

During the Medieval music era (500–1400), the only European repertory that survives from before about 800 is the monophonic liturgical plainsong of the Roman Catholic Church, the central tradition of which was called Gregorian chant. Alongside these traditions of sacred and church music there existed a vibrant tradition of secular song. Examples of composers from this period are Léonin, Pérotin and Guillaume de Machaut. From the Renaissance music era (1400–1600), much of the surviving music of 14th century Europe is secular. By the middle of the 15th century, composers and singers used a smooth polyphony for sacred musical compositions. The introduction of commercial printing helped to disseminate musical styles more quickly and across a larger area. Prominent composers from this era are Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Thomas Morley and Orlande de Lassus.
Allegory of Music, by Filippino Lippi

The era of Baroque music (1600–1750) began when the first operas were written and when contrapuntal music became prevalent. German Baroque composers wrote for small ensembles including strings, brass, and woodwinds, as well as choirs, pipe organ, harpsichord, and clavichord. During the Baroque period, several major music forms were defined that lasted into later periods when they were expanded and evolved further, including the fugue, the invention, the sonata, and the concerto.[9] Composers from the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann. The music of the Classical period (1750–1800) is characterized by homophonic texture, often featuring a prominent melody with accompaniment. These new melodies tended to be almost voice-like and singable. The now popular instrumental music was dominated by further evolution of musical forms initially defined in the Baroque period: the sonata, and the concerto, with the addition of the new form, the symphony. Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are among the central figures of the Classical period.

In 1800, the Romantic era (1800–1890s) in music developed, with Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert as transitional composers who introduced a more dramatic, expressive style. During this era, existing genres, forms, and functions of music were developed, and the emotional and expressive qualities of music came to take precedence over technique and tradition. In Beethoven's case, motifs (developed organically) came to replace melody as the most significant compositional unit. The late 19th century saw a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestra, and in the role of concerts as part of urban society. Later Romantic composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Gustav Mahler created complex and often much longer musical works. They used more complex chords and used more dissonance to create dramatic tension.
Asian cultures

Indian classical music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world.[10] The Indus Valley civilization has sculptures that show dance[11] and old musical instruments, like the seven holed flute. Various types of stringed instruments and drums have been recovered from Harrappa and Mohenjo Daro by excavations carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler.[12] The Rigveda has elements of present Indian music, with a musical notation to denote the metre and the mode of chanting.[13] Indian classical music (marga) is monophonic, and based on a single melody line or raga rhythmically organized through talas. Hindustani music was influenced by the Persian performance practices of the Afghan Mughals. Carnatic music popular in the southern states, is largely devotional; the majority of the songs are addressed to the Hindu deities. There are a lot of songs emphasising love and other social issues.

Asian music covers the music cultures of Arabia, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Chinese classical music, the traditional art or court music of China, has a history stretching over around three thousand years. It has its own unique systems of musical notation, as well as musical tuning and pitch, musical instruments and styles or musical genres. Chinese music is pentatonic-diatonic, having a scale of twelve notes to an octave (5 + 7 = 12) as does European-influenced music. Persian music is the music of Persia and Persian language countries: musiqi, the science and art of music, and muzik, the sound and performance of music (Sakata 1983). See also: Music of Iran, Music of Afghanistan, Music of Tajikistan, Music of Uzbekistan.
20th and 21st century music
Main article: 20th century music
Double bassist Reggie Workman, tenor saxophone player Pharoah Sanders, and drummer Idris Muhammad performing in 1978

With 20th century music, there was a vast increase in music listening as the radio gained popularity and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music. The focus of art music was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds. Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage were all influential composers in 20th century art music. The invention of sound recording and the ability to edit music gave rise to new sub-genre of classical music, including the acousmatic [14] and Musique concrète schools of electronic composition.

Jazz evolved and became a significant genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock music did the same. Jazz is an American musical art form that originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.[15] From its early development until the present, jazz has also incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music.[16] Jazz has, from its early 20th century inception, spawned a variety of subgenres, ranging from New Orleans Dixieland (1910s) to 1970s and 1980s-era jazz-rock fusion.

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed in the 1960s from 1950s rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, and country music. The sound of rock often revolves around the electric guitar or acoustic guitar, and it uses a strong back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums, and keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or, since the 1970s, analog synthesizers and digital ones and computers since the 1990s. Along with the guitar or keyboards, saxophone and blues-style harmonica are used as soloing instruments. In its "purest form," it "has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody."[17] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock music branched out into different subgenres, ranging from blues rock and jazz-rock fusion to heavy metal and punk rock, as well as the more classical influenced genre of progressive rock and several types of experimental rock genres.
Performance
Main article: Performance
Chinese Naxi musicians

Performance is the physical expression of music. Often, a musical work is performed once its structure and instrumentation are satisfactory to its creators; however, as it gets performed, it can evolve and change. A performance can either be rehearsed or improvised. Improvisation is a musical idea created without premeditation, while rehearsal is vigorous repetition of an idea until it has achieved cohesion. Musicians will sometimes add improvisation to a well-rehearsed idea to create a unique performance.

Many cultures include strong traditions of solo and performance, such as in Indian classical music, and in the Western Art music tradition. Other cultures, such as in Bali, include strong traditions of group performance. All cultures include a mixture of both, and performance may range from improvised solo playing for one's enjoyment to highly planned and organised performance rituals such as the modern classical concert, religious processions, music festivals or music competitions. Chamber music, which is music for a small ensemble with only a few of each type of instrument, is often seen as more intimate than symphonic works.
Aural tradition

Many types of music, such as traditional blues and folk music were originally preserved in the memory of performers, and the songs were handed down orally, or aurally (by ear). When the composer of music is no longer known, this music is often classified as "traditional." Different musical traditions have different attitudes towards how and where to make changes to the original source material, from quite strict, to those that demand improvisation or modification to the music. A culture's history may also be passed by ear through song.
Ornamentation
Main article: Ornament (music)
In a score or on a performer's music part, this sign indicates that the musician should perform a trill—a rapid alternation between two notes.

The detail included explicitly in the music notation varies between genres and historical periods. In general, art music notation from the 17th through the 19th century required performers to have a great deal of contextual knowledge about performing styles. For example, in the 17th and 18th century, music notated for solo performers typically indicated a simple, unadorned melody. However, performers were expected to know how to add stylistically appropriate ornaments, such as trills and turns. In the 19th century, art music for solo performers may give a general instruction such as to perform the music expressively, without describing in detail how the performer should do this. The performer was expected to know how to use tempo changes, accentuation, and pauses (among other devices) to obtain this "expressive" performance style. In the 20th century, art music notation often became more explicit and used a range of markings and annotations to indicate to performers how they should play or sing the piece.

In popular music and jazz, music notation almost always indicates only the basic framework of the melody, harmony, or performance approach; musicians and singers are expected to know the performance conventions and styles associated with specific genres and pieces. For example, the "lead sheet" for a jazz tune may only indicate the melody and the chord changes. The performers in the jazz ensemble are expected to know how to "flesh out" this basic structure by adding ornaments, improvised music, and chordal accompaniment.
Production
Main article: Music production
Jean-Gabriel Ferlan performing at a 2008 concert at the collège-lycée Saint-François Xavier

Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Amateur musicians compose and perform music for their own pleasure, and they do not derive their income from music. Professional musicians are employed by a range of institutions and organisations, including armed forces, churches and synagogues, symphony orchestras, broadcasting or film production companies, and music schools. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings.

There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians. In community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles and orchestras. In some cases, amateur musicians attain a professional level of competence, and they are able to perform in professional performance settings. A distinction is often made between music performed for the benefit of a live audience and music that is performed for the purpose of being recorded and distributed through the music retail system or the broadcasting system. However, there are also many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is recorded and distributed (or broadcast).
Composition
Main article: Musical composition
An old songbook showing a composition

"Composition" is often classed as the creation and recording of music via a medium by which others can interpret it (i.e., paper or sound). Many cultures use at least part of the concept of preconceiving musical material, or composition, as held in western classical music. Even when music is notated precisely, there are still many decisions that a performer has to make. The process of a performer deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers' interpretations of the same music can vary widely. Composers and song writers who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others or folk music. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a given time and a given place is referred to as performance practice, whereas interpretation is generally used to mean either individual choices of a performer, or an aspect of music that is not clear, and therefore has a "standard" interpretation.

In some musical genres, such as jazz and blues, even more freedom is given to the performer to engage in improvisation on a basic melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic framework. The greatest latitude is given to the performer in a style of performing called free improvisation, which is material that is spontaneously "thought of" (imagined) while being performed, not preconceived. Improvised music usually follows stylistic or genre conventions and even "fully composed" includes some freely chosen material. Composition does not always mean the use of notation, or the known sole authorship of one individual. Music can also be determined by describing a "process" that creates musical sounds. Examples of this range from wind chimes, through computer programs that select sounds. Music from random elements is called Aleatoric music, and is associated with such composers as John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Witold Lutosławski.

Music can be composed for repeated performance or it can be improvised: composed on the spot. The music can be performed entirely from memory, from a written system of musical notation, or some combination of both. Study of composition has traditionally been dominated by examination of methods and practice of Western classical music, but the definition of composition is broad enough to include spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African drummers such as the Ewe drummers.


Notation
Main article: Musical notation
Sheet music is written representation of music. This is a homorhythmic (i.e., hymn-style) arrangement of a traditional piece entitled Adeste Fideles, in standard two-staff format for mixed voices.

Notation is the written expression of music notes and rhythms on paper using symbols. When music is written down, the pitches and rhythm of the music is notated, along with instructions on how to perform the music. The study of how to read notation involves music theory, harmony, the study of performance practice, and in some cases an understanding of historical performance methods. Written notation varies with style and period of music. In Western Art music, the most common types of written notation are scores, which include all the music parts of an ensemble piece, and parts, which are the music notation for the individual performers or singers. In popular music, jazz, and blues, the standard musical notation is the lead sheet, which notates the melody, chords, lyrics (if it is a vocal piece), and structure of the music. Scores and parts are also used in popular music and jazz, particularly in large ensembles such as jazz "big bands."

In popular music, guitarists and electric bass players often read music notated in tablature (often abbreviated as "tab"), which indicates the location of the notes to be played on the instrument using a diagram of the guitar or bass fingerboard. Tabulature was also used in the Baroque era to notate music for the lute, a stringed, fretted instrument. Notated music is produced as sheet music. To perform music from notation requires an understanding of both the rhythmic and pitch elements embodied in the symbols and the performance practice that is associated with a piece of music or a genre.
Improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creation of spontaneous music. Improvisation is often considered an act of instantaneous composition by performers, where compositional techniques are employed with or without preparation. Improvisation is a major part of some types of music, such as blues, jazz, and jazz fusion, in which instrumental performers improvise solos and melody lines. In the Western art music tradition, improvisation was an important skill during the Baroque era and during the Classical era; solo performers and singers improvised virtuoso cadenzas during concerts. However, in the 20th and 21st century, improvisation played a smaller role in Western Art music.
Theory
Main article: Music theory

Music theory encompasses the nature and mechanics of music. It often involves identifying patterns that govern composers' techniques and examining the language and notation of music. In a grand sense, music theory distills and analyzes the parameters or elements of music – rhythm, harmony (harmonic function), melody, structure, form, and texture. Broadly, music theory may include any statement, belief, or conception of or about music.[18] People who study these properties are known as music theorists. Some have applied acoustics, human physiology, and psychology to the explanation of how and why music is perceived. Music has many different fundamentals or elements. These are, but are not limited to: pitch, beat or pulse, rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, allocation of voices, timbre or color, expressive qualities (dynamics and articulation), and form or structure.

Pitch is a subjective sensation, reflecting generally the lowness or highness of a sound. Rhythm is the arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter animates time in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars. A melody is a series of notes sounding in succession. The notes of a melody are typically created with respect to pitch systems such as scales or modes. Harmony is the study of vertical sonorities in music. Vertical sonority refers to considering the relationships between pitches that occur together; usually this means at the same time, although harmony can also be implied by a melody that outlines a harmonic structure. Notes can be arranged into different scales and modes. Western music theory generally divides the octave into a series of 12 notes that might be included in a piece of music. In music written using the system of major-minor tonality, the key of a piece determines the scale used. Musical texture is the overall sound of a piece of music commonly described according to the number of and relationship between parts or lines of music: monophony, heterophony, polyphony, homophony, or monody.

Timbre, sometimes called "Color" or "Tone Color" is the quality or sound of a voice or instrument.[19] Expressive Qualities are those elements in music that create change in music that are not related to pitch, rhythm or timbre. They include Dynamics and Articulation. Form is a facet of music theory that explores the concept of musical syntax, on a local and global level. Examples of common forms of Western music include the fugue, the invention, sonata-allegro, canon, strophic, theme and variations, and rondo. Popular Music often makes use of strophic form often in conjunction with Twelve bar blues. Analysis is the effort to describe and explain music.
Cognition
Further information: Hearing (sense) and Psychoacoustics
A chamber music group consisting of stringed instrument players, a flautist, and a harpsichordist perform in Salzburg

The field of music cognition involves the study of many aspects of music including how it is processed by listeners. Rather than accepting the standard practices of analyzing, composing, and performing music as a given, much research in music cognition seeks instead to uncover the mental processes that underlie these practices. Also, research in the field seeks to uncover commonalities between the musical traditions of disparate cultures and possible cognitive "constraints" that limit these musical systems. Questions regarding musical innateness, and emotional responses to music are also major areas of research in the field.

Deaf people can experience music by feeling the vibrations in their body, a process that can be enhanced if the individual holds a resonant, hollow object. A well-known deaf musician is the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed many famous works even after he had completely lost his hearing. Recent examples of deaf musicians include Evelyn Glennie, a highly acclaimed percussionist who has been deaf since age twelve, and Chris Buck, a virtuoso violinist who has lost his hearing. This is relevant because it indicates that music is a deeper cognitive process than unexamined phrases such as, "pleasing to the ear" suggests. Much research in music cognition seeks to uncover these complex mental processes involved in listening to music, which may seem intuitively simple, yet are vastly intricate and complex.

University of Montreal researcher Valorie Salimpoor and her colleagues have now shown that the pleasurable feelings associated with emotional music are the result of dopamine release in the striatum--the same anatomical areas that underpin the anticipatory and rewarding aspects of drug addiction [20].
Sociology
This Song Dynasty (960–1279) painting, entitled the "Night Revels of Han Xizai," shows Chinese musicians entertaining guests at a party in a 10th century household.

Music is experienced by individuals in a range of social settings ranging from being alone to attending a large concert. Musical performances take different forms in different cultures and socioeconomic milieus. In Europe and North America, there is often a divide between what types of music are viewed as a "high culture" and "low culture." "High culture" types of music typically include Western art music such as Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern-era symphonies, concertos, and solo works, and are typically heard in formal concerts in concert halls and churches, with the audience sitting quietly in seats.

Other types of music—including, but not limited to, jazz, blues, soul, and country—are often performed in bars, nightclubs, and theatres, where the audience may be able to drink, dance, and express themselves by cheering. Until the later 20th century, the division between "high" and "low" musical forms was widely accepted as a valid distinction that separated out better quality, more advanced "art music" from the popular styles of music heard in bars and dance halls.

However, in the 1980s and 1990s, musicologists studying this perceived divide between "high" and "low" musical genres argued that this distinction is not based on the musical value or quality of the different types of music.[citation needed] Rather, they argued that this distinction was based largely on the socioeconomics standing or social class of the performers or audience of the different types of music.[citation needed] For example, whereas the audience for Classical symphony concerts typically have above-average incomes, the audience for a rap concert in an inner-city area may have below-average incomes. Even though the performers, audience, or venue where non-"art" music is performed may have a lower socioeconomic status, the music that is performed, such as blues, rap, punk, funk, or ska may be very complex and sophisticated.

When composers introduce styles of music that break with convention, there can be a strong resistance from academic music experts and popular culture. Late-period Beethoven string quartets, Stravinsky ballet scores, serialism, bebop-era jazz, hip hop, punk rock, and electronica have all been considered non-music by some critics when they were first introduced.[citation needed] Such themes are examined in the sociology of music. The sociological study of music, sometimes called sociomusicology, is often pursued in departments of sociology, media studies, or music, and is closely related to the field of ethnomusicology.
Media and technology
Further information: Computer music
A 12-inch (30-cm) 331⁄3 rpm record (left), a 7-inch 45 rpm record (right), which are both analog sound storage mediums, and a CD (above), a digital medium.

The music that composers make can be heard through several media; the most traditional way is to hear it live, in the presence, or as one of the musicians. Live music can also be broadcast over the radio, television or the Internet. Some musical styles focus on producing a sound for a performance, while others focus on producing a recording that mixes together sounds that were never played "live." Recording, even of essentially live styles, often uses the ability to edit and splice to produce recordings considered better than the actual performance.

As talking pictures emerged in the early 20th century, with their prerecorded musical tracks, an increasing number of moviehouse orchestra musicians found themselves out of work.[21] During the 1920s live musical performances by orchestras, pianists, and theater organists were common at first-run theaters.[22] With the coming of the talking motion pictures, those featured performances were largely eliminated. The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) took out newspaper advertisements protesting the replacement of live musicians with mechanical playing devices. One 1929 ad that appeared in the Pittsburgh Press features an image of a can labeled "Canned Music / Big Noise Brand / Guaranteed to Produce No Intellectual or Emotional Reaction Whatever"[23]

Since legislation introduced to help protect performers, composers, publishers and producers, including the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 in the United States, and the 1979 revised Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in the United Kingdom, recordings and live performances have also become more accessible through computers, devices and Internet in a form that is commonly known as Music-On-Demand.

In many cultures, there is less distinction between performing and listening to music, since virtually everyone is involved in some sort of musical activity, often communal. In industrialized countries, listening to music through a recorded form, such as sound recording or watching a music video, became more common than experiencing live performance, roughly in the middle of the 20th century.

Sometimes, live performances incorporate prerecorded sounds. For example, a disc jockey uses disc records for scratching, and some 20th century works have a solo for an instrument or voice that is performed along with music that is prerecorded onto a tape. Computers and many keyboards can be programmed to produce and play Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) music. Audiences can also become performers by participating in karaoke, an activity of Japanese origin centered on a device that plays voice-eliminated versions of well-known songs. Most karaoke machines also have video screens that show lyrics to songs being performed; performers can follow the lyrics as they sing over the instrumental tracks.
Internet

The advent of the Internet has transformed the experience of music, partly through the increased ease of access to music and the increased choice. Chris Anderson, in his book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, suggests that while the economic model of supply and demand describes scarcity, the Internet retail model is based on abundance. Digital storage costs are low, so a company can afford to make its whole inventory available online, giving customers as much choice as possible. It has thus become economically viable to offer products that very few people are interested in. Consumers' growing awareness of their increased choice results in a closer association between listening tastes and social identity, and the creation of thousands of niche markets.[24]

Another effect of the Internet arises with online communities like YouTube and MySpace. MySpace has made social networking with other musicians easier, and greatly facilitates the distribution of one's music. YouTube also has a large community of both amateur and professional musicians who post videos and comments.[citation needed] Professional musicians also use YouTube as a free publisher of promotional material. YouTube users, for example, no longer only download and listen to MP3s, but also actively create their own. According to Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, in their book Wikinomics, there has been a shift from a traditional consumer role to what they call a "prosumer" role, a consumer who both creates and consumes. Manifestations of this in music include the production of mashes, remixes, and music videos by fans.[25]
Business
Main article: Music industry

The music industry refers to the business industry connected with the creation and sale of music. It consists of record companies, labels and publishers that distribute recorded music products internationally and that often control the rights to those products. Some music labels are "independent," while others are subsidiaries of larger corporate entities or international media groups. In the 2000s, the increasing popularity of listening to music as digital music files on MP3 players, iPods, or computers, and of trading music on file sharing sites or buying it online in the form of digital files had a major impact on the traditional music business. Many smaller independent CD stores went out of business as music buyers decreased their purchases of CDs, and many labels had lower CD sales. Some companies did well with the change to a digital format, though, such as Apple's iTunes, an online store that sells digital files of songs over the Internet.
Education
Non-professional
Main article: Music education
A Suzuki violin recital with students of varying ages.

The incorporation of music training from preschool to post secondary education is common in North America and Europe. Involvement in music is thought to teach basic skills such as concentration, counting, listening, and cooperation while also promoting understanding of language, improving the ability to recall information, and creating an environment more conducive to learning in other areas.[26] In elementary schools, children often learn to play instruments such as the recorder, sing in small choirs, and learn about the history of Western art music. In secondary schools students may have the opportunity to perform some type of musical ensembles, such as choirs, marching bands, concert bands, jazz bands, or orchestras, and in some school systems, music classes may be available. Some students also take private music lessons with a teacher. Amateur musicians typically take lessons to learn musical rudiments and beginner- to intermediate-level musical techniques.

At the university level, students in most arts and humanities programs can receive credit for taking music courses, which typically take the form of an overview course on the history of music, or a music appreciation course that focuses on listening to music and learning about different musical styles. In addition, most North American and European universities have some type of musical ensembles that non-music students are able to participate in, such as choirs, marching bands, or orchestras. The study of Western art music is increasingly common outside of North America and Europe, such as the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, or the classical music programs that are available in Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China. At the same time, Western universities and colleges are widening their curriculum to include music of non-Western cultures, such as the music of Africa or Bali (e.g. Gamelan music).
Academia

Musicology is the study of the subject of music. The earliest definitions defined three sub-disciplines: systematic musicology, historical musicology, and comparative musicology or ethnomusicology. In contemporary scholarship, one is more likely to encounter a division of the discipline into music theory, music history, and ethnomusicology. Research in musicology has often been enriched by cross-disciplinary work, for example in the field of psychoacoustics. The study of music of non-western cultures, and the cultural study of music, is called ethnomusicology. Students can pursue the undergraduate study of musicology, ethnomusicology, music history, and music theory through several different types of degrees, including a B.Mus, a B.A. with concentration in music, a B.A. with Honors in Music, or a B.A. in Music History and Literature. Graduates of undergraduate music programs can go on to further study in music graduate programs.

Graduate degrees include the Master of Music, the Master of Arts, the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (e.g., in musicology or music theory), and more recently, the Doctor of Musical Arts, or DMA. The Master of Music degree, which takes one to two years to complete, is typically awarded to students studying the performance of an instrument, education, voice or composition. The Master of Arts degree, which takes one to two years to complete and often requires a thesis, is typically awarded to students studying musicology, music history, or music theory. Undergraduate university degrees in music, including the Bachelor of Music, the Bachelor of Music Education, and the Bachelor of Arts (with a major in music) typically take three to five years to complete. These degrees provide students with a grounding in music theory and music history, and many students also study an instrument or learn singing technique as part of their program.

The PhD, which is required for students who want to work as university professors in musicology, music history, or music theory, takes three to five years of study after the Master's degree, during which time the student will complete advanced courses and undertake research for a dissertation. The DMA is a relatively new degree that was created to provide a credential for professional performers or composers that want to work as university professors in musical performance or composition. The DMA takes three to five years after a Master's degree, and includes advanced courses, projects, and performances. In Medieval times, the study of music was one of the Quadrivium of the seven Liberal Arts and considered vital to higher learning. Within the quantitative Quadrivium, music, or more accurately harmonics, was the study of rational proportions.

Zoomusicology is the study of the music of non-human animals, or the musical aspects of sounds produced by non-human animals. As George Herzog (1941) asked, "do animals have music?" François-Bernard Mâche's Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion (1983), a study of "ornitho-musicology" using a technique of Nicolas Ruwet's Language, musique, poésie (1972) paradigmatic segmentation analysis, shows that bird songs are organised according to a repetition-transformation principle. Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990), argues that "in the last analysis, it is a human being who decides what is and is not musical, even when the sound is not of human origin. If we acknowledge that sound is not organised and conceptualised (that is, made to form music) merely by its producer, but by the mind that perceives it, then music is uniquely human."

Music theory is the study of music, generally in a highly technical manner outside of other disciplines. More broadly it refers to any study of music, usually related in some form with compositional concerns, and may include mathematics, physics, and anthropology. What is most commonly taught in beginning music theory classes are guidelines to write in the style of the common practice period, or tonal music. Theory, even of music of the common practice period, may take many other forms. Musical set theory is the application of mathematical set theory to music, first applied to atonal music. Speculative music theory, contrasted with analytic music theory, is devoted to the analysis and synthesis of music materials, for example tuning systems, generally as preparation for composition.
Ethnomusicology
Main article: Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore recording Blackfoot chief Mountain Chief for the Bureau of American Ethnology (1916)

Ethnomusicology

In the West, much of the history of music that is taught deals with the Western civilization's art music. The history of music in other cultures ("world music" or the field of "ethnomusicology") is also taught in Western universities. This includes the documented classical traditions of Asian countries outside the influence of Western Europe, as well as the folk or indigenous music of various other cultures. Popular styles of music varied widely from culture to culture, and from period to period. Different cultures emphasised different instruments, or techniques, or uses for music. Music has been used not only for entertainment, for ceremonies, and for practical and artistic communication, but also for propaganda.

There is a host of music classifications, many of which are caught up in the argument over the definition of music. Among the largest of these is the division between classical music (or "art" music), and popular music (or commercial music – including rock music, country music, and pop music). Some genres do not fit neatly into one of these "big two" classifications, (such as folk music, world music, or jazz music).

As world cultures have come into greater contact, their indigenous musical styles have often merged into new styles. For example, the United States bluegrass style contains elements from Anglo-Irish, Scottish, Irish, German and African instrumental and vocal traditions, which were able to fuse in the United States' multi-ethnic society. Genres of music are determined as much by tradition and presentation as by the actual music. Some works, like George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, are claimed by both jazz and classical music, while Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story are claimed by both opera and the Broadway musical tradition. Many current music festivals celebrate a particular musical genre.

Indian music, for example, is one of the oldest and longest living types of music, and is still widely heard and performed in South Asia, as well as internationally (especially since the 1960s). Indian music has mainly three forms of classical music, Hindustani, Carnatic, and Dhrupad styles. It has also a large repertoire of styles, which involve only percussion music such as the talavadya performances famous in South India.
Music therapy
Main article: Music therapy

Music therapy is an interpersonal process in which the therapist uses music and all of its facets—physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help clients to improve or maintain their health. In some instances, the client's needs are addressed directly through music; in others they are addressed through the relationships that develop between the client and therapist. Music therapy is used with individuals of all ages and with a variety of conditions, including: psychiatric disorders, medical problems, physical handicaps, sensory impairments, developmental disabilities, substance abuse, communication disorders, interpersonal problems, and aging. It is also used to: improve learning, build self-esteem, reduce stress, support physical exercise, and facilitate a host of other health-related activities.

One of the earliest mentions of Music Therapy was in Al-Farabi's (c. 872 – 950) treatise Meanings of the Intellect, which described the therapeutic effects of music on the soul.[27][verification needed] Music has long been used to help people deal with their emotions. In the 17th century, the scholar Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy argued that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia.[28] He noted that music has an "excellent power ...to expel many other diseases" and he called it "a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy." He pointed out that in Antiquity, Canus, a Rhodian fiddler, used music to "make a melancholy man merry, ...a lover more enamoured, a religious man more devout." [29][30][31] In November 2006, Dr. Michael J. Crawford[32] and his colleagues also found that music therapy helped schizophrenic patients.[33] In the Ottoman Empire, mental illnesses were treated with music.[34]
See also
'A' (PSF).png Music portal
Main articles: Outline of music and Index of music articles

Wikipedia Books: Wikipedia:Books/Music
Music-specific disorders
Lists of musicians

References

^ Mousike, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
^ John Cage, 79, a Minimalist Enchanted With Sound, Dies
^ Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and discourse: toward a semiology of music. Carolyn Abbate, translator. Princeton University Press. pp. 48, 55. ISBN 0691027145.
^ The Music of India By Reginald MASSEY, Jamila MASSEY. Google Books
^ Brown, RE (1971). "India's Music". Readings in Ethnomusicology.
^ Wilkinson, Endymion Porter (2000). Chinese history. Harvard University Asia Center.
^ a b "A Theatre Before the World: Performance History at the Intersection of Hebrew, Greek, and Roman Religious Processional" The Journal of Religion and Theatre, Vol. 5, No. 1, Summer 2006.
^ West, Martin Litchfield (1994). Ancient Greek music. Oxford University Press.
^ Baroque Music by Elaine Thornburgh and Jack Logan, Ph. D.[dead link]
^ World Music: The Basics By Nidel Nidel, Richard O. Nidel (page 219)
^ World History: Societies of the Past By Charles Kahn (page 98)
^ World History: Societies of the Past By Charles Kahn (page 11)
^ World Music: The Basics By Nidel Nidel, Richard O. Nidel (page 10)
^ Schaeffer, P. (1966), Traité des objets musicaux, Le Seuil, Paris.
^ Alyn Shipton, A New History of Jazz, 2nd. ed., Continuum, 2007, pp. 4–5
^ Bill Kirchner, The Oxford Companion to Jazz, Oxford University Press, 2005, Chapter Two.
^ allmusic – Rock and Roll
^ Boretz, Benjamin (1995). Meta-Variations: studies in the foundations of musical thought…. Open Space.
^ Harnsberger, Lindsey. "Articulation." Essential Dictionary of Music. Alfred Publishing Co., Inc,. Los Angeles, CA.
^http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21217764
^ American Federation of Musicians/History[dead link]
^ Hubbard (1985), p. 429.
^ "Canned Music on Trial" part of Duke University's Ad*Access project.
^ Anderson, Chris (2006). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. Hyperion. ISBN 1-4013-0237-8.
^ Tapscott, Don; Williams, Anthony D. (2006-12-28). Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 978-1591841388.
^ Woodall and Ziembroski, 2002
^ Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists," Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357–377 [363]
^ cf. The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton, subsection 3, on and after line 3,480, "Music a Remedy"
^ Ismenias the Theban, Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other diseases by music alone: as now thy do those, saith Bodine, that are troubled with St. Vitus's Bedlam dance. Project Gutenberg's The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Democritus Junior
^ "Humanities are the Hormones: A Tarantella Comes to Newfoundland. What should we do about it?" by Dr. John Crellin, MUNMED, newsletter of the Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1996.
^ Aung, Steven K.H., Lee, Mathew H.M., "Music, Sounds, Medicine, and Meditation: An Integrative Approach to the Healing Arts," Alternative & Complementary Therapies, Oct 2004, Vol. 10, No. 5: 266–270.
^ Dr. Michael J. Crawford page at Imperial College London, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychological Medicine.
^ Crawford, Mike J.; Talwar, Nakul, et al. (November 2006). "Music therapy for in-patients with schizophrenia: Exploratory randomised controlled trial". The British Journal of Psychiatry (2006) 189: 405–409. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.105.015073. PMID 17077429. "Music therapy may provide a means of improving mental health among people with schizophrenia, but its effects in acute psychoses have not been explored".
^ Treatment of Mental Illnesses With Music Therapy – A different approach from history

Further reading

Colles, Henry Cope (1978). The Growth of Music : A Study in Musical History, 4th ed., London ; New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-316116-8 (1913 edition online at Google Books)
Harwood, Dane (1976). "Universals in Music: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology," Ethnomusicology 20, no. 3:521–33.
Small, Christopher (1977). Music, Society, Education. John Calder Publishers, London. ISBN 0-7145-3614-8

External links
Find more about Music on Wikipedia's sister projects:
Definitions from Wiktionary
Images and media from Commons
Learning resources from Wikiversity
News stories from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks

BBC Blast Music For 13–19-year-olds interested in learning about, making, performing and talking about music.
The Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary, with definitions, pronunciations, examples, quizzes and simulations
The Music-Web Music Encyclopedia, for musicians, composers and music lovers
Dolmetsch free online music dictionary, complete, with references to a list of specialised music dictionaries (by continent, by instrument, by genre, etc.)
Musical Terms – Glossary of music terms from Naxos
"On Hermeneutical Ethics and Education: Bach als Erzieher", a paper by Prof. Miguel Ángel Quintana Paz in which he explains the history of the different views hold about music in Western societies, since the Ancient Greece to our days.
Monthly Online Features From Bloomingdale School of Music, addressing a variety of musical topics for a wide audience
Arts and Music Uplifting Society towards Transformation and Tolerance Articles meant to stimulate people’s awareness about the peace enhancing, transforming, communicative, educational and healing powers of music.
Scientific American, Musical Chills Related to Brain Dopamine Release


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Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, and even disciplines such as history and psychology analyze its relationship with humans and generations.

Traditionally, the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery. This conception changed during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science".[1] Generally, art is made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions.
Contents
[hide]

1 Evaluation
1.1 Definition
2 History
3 Characteristics
4 Forms, genres, media, and styles
4.1 Skill and craft
4.2 Value judgment
5 Purpose of art
5.1 Non-motivated functions of art
5.2 Motivated functions of art
6 Controversial art
7 Art theories
8 Classification disputes
9 Art, class, and value
10 See also
11 Notes
12 Bibliography
13 Further reading
14 External links

Evaluation

Philosopher Richard Wollheim distinguishes three approaches to assessing the aesthetic value of art: the realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans.[2] An object may be characterized by the intentions, or lack thereof, of its creator, regardless of its apparent purpose. A cup, which ostensibly can be used as a container, may be considered art if intended solely as an ornament, while a painting may be deemed craft if mass-produced.

The nature of art has been described by Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture".[3] It has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation. Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another.[4] Benedetto Croce and R.G. Collingwood advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator.[5][6] The theory of art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and was developed in the early twentieth century by Roger Fry and Clive Bell. Art as mimesis or representation has deep roots in the philosophy of Aristotle.[4] More recently, thinkers influenced by Martin Heidegger have interpreted art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for self-expression and interpretation.[7]
Definition
Works of art worldwide can tell stories or simply express an aesthetic truth or feeling. Panorama of a section of A Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, a 12th-century painting by Song Dynasty artist Wang Ximeng.

Britannica Online defines art as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others." By this definition of the word, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early pre-historic art to contemporary art; however, some theories restrict the concept to modern Western societies.[8] Adorno said in 1970, "It is now taken for granted that nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more: neither art itself, nor art in relationship to the whole, nor even the right of art to exist."[9] The first and broadest sense of art is the one that has remained closest to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft." A few examples where this meaning proves very broad include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, and military arts. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology.
20th-century Rwandan bottle. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value.

The second and more recent sense of the word art is as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art. Fine art means that a skill is being used to express the artist's creativity, or to engage the audience's aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the finer things. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it will be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are sometimes considered applied art. Some art followers have argued that the difference between fine art and applied art has more to do with value judgments made about the art than any clear definitional difference.[10] However, even fine art often has goals beyond pure creativity and self-expression. The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically, spiritually, or philosophically motivated art; to create a sense of beauty (see aesthetics); to explore the nature of perception; for pleasure; or to generate strong emotions. The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent.

Art can describe several things: a study of creative skill, a process of using the creative skill, a product of the creative skill, or the audience's experience with the creative skill. The creative arts (art as discipline) are a collection of disciplines (arts) that produce artworks (art as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and echo or reflect a message, mood, or symbolism for the viewer to interpret (art as experience). Artworks can be defined by purposeful, creative interpretations of limitless concepts or ideas in order to communicate something to another person. Artworks can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. It is also an expression of an idea and it can take many different forms and serve many different purposes. Although the application of scientific knowledge to derive a new scientific theory involves skill and results in the "creation" of something new, this represents science only and is not categorized as art.
History
Main article: History of art
Venus of Willendorf, circa 24,000–22,000 BP.

Sculptures, cave paintings, rock paintings, and petroglyphs from the Upper Paleolithic dating to roughly 40,000 years ago have been found, but the precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them. The oldest art objects in the world—a series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old—were discovered in a South African cave.[11]
Cave painting of a horse from the Lascaux caves, c. 16,000 BP.

Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as Inca, Maya, and Olmec. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Because of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, this period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions.

In Byzantine and Medieval art of the Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression of Biblical and nonmaterial truths, and used styles that showed the higher unseen glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Nevertheless a classical realist tradition persisted in small Byzantine works, and realism steadily grew in the art of Catholic Europe.

Renaissance art had a greatly increased emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material world, and the place of humans in it, reflected in the corporeality of the human body, and development of a systematic method of graphical perspective to depict recession in a three-dimensional picture space.
The stylized signature of Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire was written in Arabic calligraphy. It reads Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also called the Mosque of Uqba) is one of the finest, most significant and best preserved artistic and architectural examples of early great mosques; dated in its present state from the 9th century, it is the ancestor and model of all the mosques in the western Islamic lands.[12] The Great Mosque of Kairouan is located in the city of Kairouan in Tunisia.

In the east, Islamic art's rejection of iconography led to emphasis on geometric patterns, calligraphy, and architecture. Further east, religion dominated artistic styles and forms too. India and Tibet saw emphasis on painted sculptures and dance, while religious painting borrowed many conventions from sculpture and tended to bright contrasting colors with emphasis on outlines. China saw the flourishing of many art forms: jade carving, bronzework, pottery (including the stunning terracotta army of Emperor Qin), poetry, calligraphy, music, painting, drama, fiction, etc. Chinese styles vary greatly from era to era and each one is traditionally named after the ruling dynasty. So, for example, Tang Dynasty paintings are monochromatic and sparse, emphasizing idealized landscapes, but Ming Dynasty paintings are busy and colorful, and focus on telling stories via setting and composition. Japan names its styles after imperial dynasties too, and also saw much interplay between the styles of calligraphy and painting. Woodblock printing became important in Japan after the 17th century.
Painting by Song Dynasty artist Ma Lin, c. 1250. 24,8 × 25,2 cm.

The western Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century saw artistic depictions of physical and rational certainties of the clockwork universe, as well as politically revolutionary visions of a post-monarchist world, such as Blake's portrayal of Newton as a divine geometer, or David's propagandistic paintings. This led to Romantic rejections of this in favor of pictures of the emotional side and individuality of humans, exemplified in the novels of Goethe. The late 19th century then saw a host of artistic movements, such as academic art, Symbolism, impressionism and fauvism among others.

The history of twentieth century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. Thus the parameters of Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc. cannot be maintained very much beyond the time of their invention. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art, such as Pablo Picasso being influenced by African sculpture. Japanese woodblock prints (which had themselves been influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on Impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken up by Picasso and to some extent by Matisse. Similarly, the west has had huge impacts on Eastern art in the 19th and 20th centuries, with originally western ideas like Communism and Post-Modernism exerting a powerful influence on artistic styles.

Modernism, the idealistic search for truth, gave way in the latter half of the 20th century to a realization of its unattainability. Relativism was accepted as an unavoidable truth, which led to the period of contemporary art and postmodern criticism, where cultures of the world and of history are seen as changing forms, which can be appreciated and drawn from only with irony. Furthermore the separation of cultures is increasingly blurred and some argue it is now more appropriate to think in terms of a global culture, rather than regional cultures.
Characteristics

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Art tends to facilitate intuitive rather than rational understanding, and is usually consciously created with this intention.[citation needed] Fine art intentionally serves no other purpose.[dubious – discuss] As a result of this impetus, works of art are elusive, refractive to attempts at classification, because they can be appreciated in more than one way, and are often susceptible to many different interpretations. In the case of Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, special knowledge concerning the shipwreck that the painting depicts is not a prerequisite to appreciating it, but allows the appreciation of Géricault's political intentions in the piece. Even art that superficially depicts a mundane event or object, may invite reflection upon elevated themes.

Traditionally, the highest achievements of art demonstrate a high level of ability or fluency within a medium. This characteristic might be considered a point of contention, since many modern artists (most notably, conceptual artists) do not themselves create the works they conceive, or do not even create the work in a conventional, demonstrative sense. Art has a transformative capacity: it confers particularly appealing or aesthetically satisfying structures or forms upon an original set of unrelated, passive constituents.
Forms, genres, media, and styles
Main article: The arts
Detail of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, showing the painting technique of sfumato.

The creative arts are often divided into more specific categories, each related to its technique, or medium, such as decorative arts, plastic arts, performing arts, or literature. Unlike scientific fields, art is one of the few subjects that are academically organized according to technique [1]. An artistic medium is the substance or material the artistic work is made from, and may also refer to the technique used. For example, paint is a medium used in painting, and paper is a medium used in drawing.

An art form is the specific shape, or quality an artistic expression takes. The media used often influence the form. For example, the form of a sculpture must exist in space in three dimensions, and respond to gravity. The constraints and limitations of a particular medium are thus called its formal qualities. To give another example, the formal qualities of painting are the canvas texture, color, and brush texture. The formal qualities of video games are non-linearity, interactivity and virtual presence. The form of a particular work of art is determined by the formal qualities of the media, and is not related to the intentions of the artist or the reactions of the audience in any way what so ever.

A genre is a set of conventions and styles within a particular medium. For instance, well recognized genres in film are western, horror and romantic comedy. Genres in music include death metal and trip hop. Genres in painting include still life and pastoral landscape. A particular work of art may bend or combine genres but each genre has a recognizable group of conventions, clichés and tropes. (One note: the word genre has a second older meaning within painting; genre painting was a phrase used in the 17th to 19th centuries to refer specifically to paintings of scenes of everyday life and can still be used in this way.)
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849), colored woodcut print.
R. Gopakumar: Cognition-Libido (Digital Print on Canvas, Limited Edition, 1/7) In the permanent collection of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction

The style of an artwork, artist, or movement is the distinctive method and form followed by the respective art. Any loose brushy, dripped or poured abstract painting is called expressionistic. Often a style is linked with a particular historical period, set of ideas, and particular artistic movement. So Jackson Pollock is called an Abstract Expressionist.

Because a particular style may have specific cultural meanings, it is important to be sensitive to differences in technique. Roy Lichtenstein's (1923–1997) paintings are not pointillist, despite his uses of dots, because they are not aligned with the original proponents of Pointillism. Lichtenstein used Ben-Day dots: they are evenly spaced and create flat areas of color. Dots of this type, used in halftone printing, were originally used in comic strips and newspapers to reproduce color. Lichtenstein thus uses the dots as a style to question the "high" art of painting with the "low" art of comics – to comment on class distinctions in culture. Lichtenstein is thus associated with the American Pop art movement (1960s). Pointillism is a technique in late Impressionism (1880s), developed especially by the artist Georges Seurat, that employs dots that are spaced in a way to create variation in color and depth in an attempt to paint images that were closer to the way people really see color. Both artists use dots, but the particular style and technique relate to the artistic movement adopted by each artist.

These are all ways of beginning to define a work of art, to narrow it down. "Imagine you are an art critic whose mission is to compare the meanings you find in a wide range of individual artworks. How would you proceed with your task? One way to begin is to examine the materials each artist selected in making an object, image video, or event. The decision to cast a sculpture in bronze, for instance, inevitably effects its meaning; the work becomes something different from how it might be if it had been cast in gold or plastic or chocolate, even if everything else about the artwork remains the same. Next, you might examine how the materials in each artwork have become an arrangement of shapes, colors, textures, and lines. These, in turn, are organized into various patterns and compositional structures. In your interpretation, you would comment on how salient features of the form contribute to the overall meaning of the finished artwork. [But in the end] the meaning of most artworks... is not exhausted by a discussion of materials, techniques, and form. Most interpretations also include a discussion of the ideas and feelings the artwork engenders."[13]
Skill and craft
Adam. Detail from Michelangelo's fresco in the Cappella Sistina (1511)
See also: Conceptual Art and Artistic Skill

Art can connote a sense of trained ability or mastery of a medium. Art can also simply refer to the developed and efficient use of a language to convey meaning with immediacy and or depth. Art is an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations.[14] There is an understanding that is reached with the material as a result of handling it, which facilitates one's thought processes. A common view is that the epithet "art", particular in its elevated sense, requires a certain level of creative expertise by the artist, whether this be a demonstration of technical ability or an originality in stylistic approach such as in the plays of Shakespeare, or a combination of these two. Traditionally skill of execution was viewed as a quality inseparable from art and thus necessary for its success; for Leonardo da Vinci, art, neither more nor less than his other endeavors, was a manifestation of skill. Rembrandt's work, now praised for its ephemeral virtues, was most admired by his contemporaries for its virtuosity. At the turn of the 20th century, the adroit performances of John Singer Sargent were alternately admired and viewed with skepticism for their manual fluency, yet at nearly the same time the artist who would become the era's most recognized and peripatetic iconoclast, Pablo Picasso, was completing a traditional academic training at which he excelled.

A common contemporary criticism of some modern art occurs along the lines of objecting to the apparent lack of skill or ability required in the production of the artistic object. In conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" is among the first examples of pieces wherein the artist used found objects ("ready-made") and exercised no traditionally recognised set of skills. Tracey Emin's My Bed, or Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living follow this example and also manipulate the mass media. Emin slept (and engaged in other activities) in her bed before placing the result in a gallery as work of art. Hirst came up with the conceptual design for the artwork but has left most of the eventual creation of many works to employed artisans. Hirst's celebrity is founded entirely on his ability to produce shocking concepts. The actual production in many conceptual and contemporary works of art is a matter of assembly of found objects. However there are many modernist and contemporary artists who continue to excel in the skills of drawing and painting and in creating hands-on works of art.
Value judgment
Aboriginal hollow log tombs. National Gallery, Canberra, Australia.
This section may stray from the topic of the article into the topic of another article, Art_(disambiguation). Please help improve this section or discuss this issue on the talk page. (November 2010)

Somewhat in relation to the above, the word art is also used to apply judgments of value, as in such expressions as "that meal was a work of art" (the cook is an artist), or "the art of deception", (the highly attained level of skill of the deceiver is praised). It is this use of the word as a measure of high quality and high value that gives the term its flavor of subjectivity.

Making judgments of value requires a basis for criticism. At the simplest level, a way to determine whether the impact of the object on the senses meets the criteria to be considered art is whether it is perceived to be attractive or repulsive. Though perception is always colored by experience, and is necessarily subjective, it is commonly understood that what is not somehow aesthetically satisfying cannot be art. However, "good" art is not always or even regularly aesthetically appealing to a majority of viewers. In other words, an artist's prime motivation need not be the pursuit of the aesthetic. Also, art often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. For example, Francisco Goya's painting depicting the Spanish shootings of 3rd of May 1808 is a graphic depiction of a firing squad executing several pleading civilians. Yet at the same time, the horrific imagery demonstrates Goya's keen artistic ability in composition and execution and produces fitting social and political outrage. Thus, the debate continues as to what mode of aesthetic satisfaction, if any, is required to define 'art'.

The assumption of new values or the rebellion against accepted notions of what is aesthetically superior need not occur concurrently with a complete abandonment of the pursuit of what is aesthetically appealing. Indeed, the reverse is often true, that the revision of what is popularly conceived of as being aesthetically appealing allows for a re-invigoration of aesthetic sensibility, and a new appreciation for the standards of art itself. Countless schools have proposed their own ways to define quality, yet they all seem to agree in at least one point: once their aesthetic choices are accepted, the value of the work of art is determined by its capacity to transcend the limits of its chosen medium to strike some universal chord by the rarity of the skill of the artist or in its accurate reflection in what is termed the zeitgeist.

Art is often intended to appeal to and connect with human emotion. It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists express something so that their audience is aroused to some extent, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art may be considered an exploration of the human condition; that is, what it is to be human.[15]
Purpose of art
A Navajo rug made c. 1880.
Mozarabic Beatus miniature; Spain, late 10th century.

Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the purpose of Art is "vague", but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created. Some of these functions of Art are provided in the following outline. The different purposes of art may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated (Levi-Strauss).
Non-motivated functions of art

The non-motivated purposes of art are those that are integral to being human, transcend the individual, or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. Aristotle said, "Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature." [16] In this sense, Art, as creativity, is something humans must do by their very nature (i.e., no other species creates art), and is therefore beyond utility.

Basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm. Art at this level is not an action or an object, but an internal appreciation of balance and harmony (beauty), and therefore an aspect of being human beyond utility.

"Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry." -Aristotle [17]

Experience of the mysterious. Art provides a way to experience one's self in relation to the universe. This experience may often come unmotivated, as one appreciates art, music or poetry.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." -Albert Einstein [18]

Expression of the imagination. Art provide a means to express the imagination in non-grammatic ways that are not tied to the formality of spoken or written language. Unlike words, which come in sequences and each of which have a definite meaning, art provides a range of forms, symbols and ideas with meanings that are maleable.

"Jupiter's eagle [as an example of art] is not, like logical (aesthetic) attributes of an object, the concept of the sublimity and majesty of creation, but rather something else – something that gives the imagination an incentive to spread its flight over a whole host of kindred representations that provoke more thought than admits of expression in a concept determined by words. They furnish an aesthetic idea, which serves the above rational idea as a substitute for logical presentation, but with the proper function, however, of animating the mind by opening out for it a prospect into a field of kindred representations stretching beyond its ken." -Immanuel Kant[19]

Universal communication. Art allows the individual to express things toward the world as a whole.[according to whom?] Earth artists often create art in remote locations that will never be experienced by another person. The practice of placing a cairn, or pile of stones at the top of a mountain, is an example. (Note: This need not suggest a particular view of God, or religion.) Art created in this way is a form of communication between the individual and the world as a whole.[citation needed]
Ritualistic and symbolic functions. In many cultures, art is used in rituals, performances and dances as a decoration or symbol. While these often have no specific utilitarian (motivated) purpose, anthropologists know that they often serve a purpose at the level of meaning within a particular culture. This meaning is not furnished by any one individual, but is often the result of many generations of change, and of a cosmological relationship within the culture.

"Most scholars who deal with rock paintings or objects recovered from prehistoric contexts that cannot be explained in utilitarian terms and are thus categorized as decorative, ritual or symbolic, are aware of the trap posed by the term 'art'." -Silva Tomaskova[20]

Motivated functions of art

Motivated purposes of art refer to intentional, conscious actions on the part of the artists or creator. These may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to illustrate another discipline, to (with commercial arts) to sell a product, or simply as a form of communication.

Communication. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication. As most forms of communication have an intent or goal directed toward another individual, this is a motivated purpose. Illustrative arts, such as scientific illustration, are a form of art as communication. Maps are another example. However, the content need not be scientific. Emotions, moods and feelings are also communicated through art.

"[Art is a set of] artefacts or images with symbolic meanings as a means of communication." -Steve Mithen[21]

Art as entertainment. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood, for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer. This is often the function of the art industries of Motion Pictures and Video Games.
The Avante-Garde. Art for political change. One of the defining functions of early twentieth century art has been to use visual images to bring about political change. Art movements that had this goal—Dadaism, Surrealism, Russian Constructivism, and Abstract Expressionism, among others—are collectively referred to as the avante-garde arts.

"By contrast, the realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit. It is this attitude which today gives birth to these ridiculous books, these insulting plays. It constantly feeds on and derives strength from the newspapers and stultifies both science and art by assiduously flattering the lowest of tastes; clarity bordering on stupidity, a dog's life." -André Breton (Surrealism)[22]

Art for psychological and healing purposes. Art is also used by art therapists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists as art therapy. The Diagnostic Drawing Series, for example, is used to determine the personality and emotional functioning of a patient. The end product is not the principal goal in this case, but rather a process of healing, through creative acts, is sought. The resultant piece of artwork may also offer insight into the troubles experienced by the subject and may suggest suitable approaches to be used in more conventional forms of psychiatric therapy.
Art for social inquiry, subversion and/or anarchy. While similar to art for political change, subversive or deconstructivist art may seek to question aspects of society without any specific political goal. In this case, the function of art may be simply to criticize some aspect of society.
Spray-paint graffiti on a wall in Rome.
Graffiti art and other types of street art are graphics and images that are spray-painted or stencilled on publicly viewable walls, buildings, buses, trains, and bridges, usually without permission. Certain art forms, such as graffiti, may also be illegal when they break laws (in this case vandalism).
Art for propaganda, or commercialism. Art is often utilized as a form of propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or mood. In a similar way, art that tries to sell a product also influences mood and emotion. In both cases, the purpose of art here is to subtly manipulate the viewer into a particular emotional or psychological response toward a particular idea or object.[23]

The functions of art described above are not mutually exclusive, as many of them may overlap. For example, art for the purpose of entertainment may also seek to sell a product, i.e. the movie or video game.
Controversial art
Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, c. 1820
Further information: Art and politics

Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa (c. 1820), was a social commentary on a current event, unprecedented at the time. Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863), was considered scandalous not because of the nude woman, but because she is seated next to men fully dressed in the clothing of the time, rather than in robes of the antique world. John Singer Sargent's Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madam X) (1884), caused a huge uproar over the reddish pink used to color the woman's ear lobe, considered far too suggestive and supposedly ruining the high-society model's reputation.

In the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937) used arresting cubist techniques and stark monochromatic oils, to depict the harrowing consequences of a contemporary bombing of a small, ancient Basque town. Leon Golub's Interrogation III (1981), depicts a female nude, hooded detainee strapped to a chair, her legs open to reveal her sexual organs, surrounded by two tormentors dressed in everyday clothing. Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (1989) is a photograph of a crucifix, sacred to the Christian religion and representing Christ's sacrifice and final suffering, submerged in a glass of the artist's own urine. The resulting uproar led to comments in the United States Senate about public funding of the arts.
Art theories

In the nineteenth century, artists were primarily concerned with ideas of truth and beauty. The aesthetic theorist John Ruskin, who championed what he saw as the naturalism of J. M. W. Turner, saw art's role as the communication by artifice of an essential truth that could only be found in nature.[24]

The definition and evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century. Richard Wollheim distinguishes three approaches: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans.[25]

The arrival of Modernism in the late nineteenth century lead to a radical break in the conception of the function of art,[26] and then again in the late twentieth century with the advent of postmodernism. Clement Greenberg's 1960 article "Modernist Painting" defines modern art as "the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself".[27] Greenberg originally applied this idea to the Abstract Expressionist movement and used it as a way to understand and justify flat (non-illusionistic) abstract painting:

Realistic, naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; modernism used art to call attention to art. The limitations that constitute the medium of

painting – the flat surface, the shape of the support, the properties of the pigment — were treated by the Old Masters as negative factors that could be acknowledged only implicitly or indirectly. Under Modernism these same limitations came to be regarded as positive factors, and were acknowledged openly.[27]

After Greenberg, several important art theorists emerged, such as Michael Fried, T. J. Clark, Rosalind Krauss, Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock among others. Though only originally intended as a way of understanding a specific set of artists, Greenberg's definition of modern art is important to many of the ideas of art within the various art movements of the 20th century and early 21st century.

Pop artists like Andy Warhol became both noteworthy and influential through work including and possibly critiquing popular culture, as well as the art world. Artists of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s expanded this technique of self-criticism beyond high art to all cultural image-making, including fashion images, comics, billboards and pornography.
Classification disputes
Main article: Classificatory disputes about art

Disputes as to whether or not to classify something as a work of art are referred to as classificatory disputes about art.

Classificatory disputes in the 20th century have included cubist and impressionist paintings, Duchamp's Fountain, the movies, superlative imitations of banknotes, conceptual art, and video games.[28]

Philosopher David Novitz has argued that disagreement about the definition of art are rarely the heart of the problem. Rather, "the passionate concerns and interests that humans vest in their social life" are "so much a part of all classificatory disputes about art" (Novitz, 1996). According to Novitz, classificatory disputes are more often disputes about societal values and where society is trying to go than they are about theory proper. For example, when the Daily Mail criticized Hirst's and Emin's work by arguing "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all" they are not advancing a definition or theory about art, but questioning the value of Hirst's and Emin's work.[29] In 1998, Arthur Danto, suggested a thought experiment showing that "the status of an artifact as work of art results from the ideas a culture applies to it, rather than its inherent physical or perceptible qualities. Cultural interpretation (an art theory of some kind) is therefore constitutive of an object's arthood."[30][31]

Anti-art is a label for art that intentionally challenges the established parameters and values of art;[32] it is term associated with Dadaism and attributed to Marcel Duchamp just before World War I,[32] when he was making art from found objects.[32] One of these, Fountain (1917), an ordinary urinal, has achieved considerable prominence and influence on art.[32] Anti-art is a feature of work by Situationist International,[33] the lo-fi Mail art movement, and the Young British Artists,[32] though it is a form still rejected by the Stuckists,[32] who describe themselves as anti-anti-art.[34][35]
Art, class, and value
Versailles: Louis Le Vau opened up the interior court to create the expansive entrance cour d'honneur, later copied all over Europe.

Art is sometimes perceived as belonging exclusively to higher social classes. In this context, art is seen as an upper-class activity associated with wealth, the ability to purchase art, and the leisure required to pursue or enjoy it. The Palace of Versailles and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg illustrate this view: such vast collections of art are the preserve of the rich, of governments and wealthy organizations.

Fine and expensive goods have been popular markers of status in many cultures, and they continue to be so today. There has been a cultural push in the other direction since at least 1793, when the Louvre, which had been a private palace of the Kings of France, was opened to the public as an art museum during the French Revolution. Most modern public museums and art education programs for children in schools can be traced back to this impulse to have art available to everyone. Museums in the United States tend to be gifts from the very rich to the masses (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for example, was created by John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum.) But despite all this, at least one of the important functions of art in the 21st century remains as a marker of wealth and social status.
Performance by Joseph Beuys, 1978 : Everyone an artist — On the way to the libertarian form of the social organism.

There have been attempts by artists to create art that can not be bought by the wealthy as a status object. One of the prime original motivators of much of the art of the late 1960s and 1970s was to create art that could not be bought and sold. It is "necessary to present something more than mere objects"[36] said the major post war German artist Joseph Beuys. This time period saw the rise of such things as performance art, video art, and conceptual art. The idea was that if the artwork was a performance that would leave nothing behind, or was simply an idea, it could not be bought and sold. "Democratic precepts revolving around the idea that a work of art is a commodity impelled the aesthetic innovation which germinated in the mid-1960s and was reaped throughout the 1970s. Artists broadly identified under the heading of Conceptual art... substituting performance and publishing activities for engagement with both the material and materialistic concerns of painted or sculptural form... [have] endeavored to undermine the art object qua object."[37]

In the decades since, these ideas have been somewhat lost as the art market has learned to sell limited edition DVDs of video works,[38] invitations to exclusive performance art pieces, and the objects left over from conceptual pieces. Many of these performances create works that are only understood by the elite who have been educated as to why an idea or video or piece of apparent garbage may be considered art. The marker of status becomes understanding the work instead of necessarily owning it, and the artwork remains an upper-class activity. "With the widespread use of DVD recording technology in the early 2000s, artists, and the gallery system that derives its profits from the sale of artworks, gained an important means of controlling the sale of video and computer artworks in limited editions to collectors."[39]
See also
Book: Art
Wikipedia Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.
WPVA-khamsa.png Visual arts portal

Art movement
Artist in residence
Formal analysis
List of artistic media
Outline of the visual arts

Notes

^ Gombrich, Ernst. (2005). "Press statement on The Story of Art". The Gombrich Archive. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
^ Wollheim 1980, op. cit. Essay VI. pp. 231–39.
^ Richard Wollheim, Art and its objects, p.1, 2nd edn, 1980, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521297060
^ a b Jerrold Levinson, The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, Oxford university Press, 2003, p5. ISBN 0-1992-7945-4
^ Jerrold Levinson, The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, Oxford university Press, 2003, p16. ISBN 0-1992-7945-4
^ R.G. Collingwood's view, expressed in The Principles of Art, is considered in Wollheim, op. cit. 1980 pp 36–43
^ Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art", in Poetry, Language, Thought, (Harper Perenniel, 2001). See also Maurice Merleau-Ponty, "Cézanne's Doubt" in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, Galen Johnson and Michael Smith (eds), (Northwestern University Press, 1994) and John Russon, Bearing Witness to Epiphany, (State University of New York Press, 2009).
^ Elkins, James "Art History and Images That Are Not Art", The Art Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec. 1995), with previous bibliography. "Non-Western images are not well described in terms of art, and neither are medieval paintings that were made in the absence of humanist ideas of artistic value". 553
^ Adorno, Theodor W., Aesthetic Theory, (1970 in German)
^ David Novitz, "The Boundaries of Art", 1992
^ Radford, Tim. "World's Oldest Jewellery Found in Cave". Guardian Unlimited, April 16, 2004. Retrieved on January 18, 2008.
^ John Stothoff Badeau and John Richard Hayes, The Genius of Arab civilization: source of Renaissance. Taylor & Francis. 1983. p. 104
^ Robertson, Jean and Craig McDaniel: Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980, page 4. Oxford University Press, 2005.
^ Breskin, Vladimir, Triad: Method for studying the core of the semiotic parity of language and art, Signs – International Journal of Semiotics 3, pp.1–28, 2010. ISSN: 1902-8822
^ Graham, Gordon (2005). Philosophy of the arts: an introduction to aesthetics. Taylor & Francis.
^ Aristotle. The Poetics, Republic
^ Aristotle. The Poetics, Republic. Note: Although speaking mostly of poetry here, the Ancient greeks often speak of the arts collectively.http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-2.html
^ Einstein, Albert. The World as I See It.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm
^ Immanuel Kant, Critique of Aesthetic Judgement (1790).
^ Silvia Tomaskova, "Places of Art: Art and Archaeology in Context": (1997)
^ Steve Mithen. The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. 1999
^ André Breton, Surrealist Manifesto (1924)
^ Roland Barthes, Mythologies
^ "go to nature in all singleness of heart, rejecting nothing and selecting nothing, and scorning nothing, believing all things are right and good, and rejoicing always in the truth." Ruskin, John. Modern Painters, Volume I, 1843. London: Smith, Elder and Co.
^ Wollheim 1980, Essay VI. pp. 231–39.
^ Griselda Pollock, Differencing the Canon. Routledge, London & N.Y.,1999. ISBN 0-415-06700-6
^ a b Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology. ed. Francis Frascina and Charles Harrison, 1982.
^ Deborah Solomon, "2003: the 3rd Annual Year in Ideas: Video Game Art", New York Times, Magazine Section, December 14, 2003
^ Painter, Colin. "Contemporary Art and the Home". Berg Publishers, 2002. p. 12. ISBN 1-8597-3661-0
^ Dutton, Denis Tribal Art in Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, edited by Michael Kelly (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
^ Danto, Arthur. "Artifact and Art." In Art/Artifact, edited by Susan Vogel. New York, 1988.
^ a b c d e f "Glossary: Anti-art", Tate. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
^ Schneider, Caroline. "Asger Jorn", Artforum, 1 September 2001. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com, 24 January 2010.
^ Ferguson, Euan. "In bed with Tracey, Sarah ... and Ron", The Observer, 20 April 2003. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
^ "Stuck on the Turner Prize", artnet, 27 October 2000. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
^ Sharp, Willoughby (December 1969). "An Interview with Joseph Beuys". ArtForum 8 (4): 45.
^ Rorimer, Anne: New Art in the 60s and 70s Redefining Reality, page 35. Thames and Hudson, 2001.
^ Fineman, Mia (2007-03-21). "YouTube for ArtistsThe best places to find video art online.". Slate. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
^ Robertson, Jean and Craig McDaniel: Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980, page 16. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Bibliography

Arthur Danto, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art. 2003
Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson (eds.) Art and Thought. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2003.
Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey (eds.) Art History and Visual Studies. Yale University Press, 2002.
John Whitehead. Grasping for the Wind. 2001
Noel Carroll, Theories of Art Today. 2000
Evelyn Hatcher, ed. Art as Culture: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Art. 1999
Catherine de Zegher (ed.). Inside the Visible. MIT Press, 1996.
Nina, Felshin, ed. But is it Art? 1995
Stephen Davies, Definitions of Art. 1991
Oscar Wilde, "Intentions".
Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, "Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980." 2005

Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Art

Augros, Robert M., Stanciu, George N., The New Story of Science: mind and the universe, Lake Bluff, Ill.: Regnery Gateway, c1984. ISBN 0895268337 (this book has significant material on Art and Science)
Richard Wollheim, Art and its Objects
Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
Benedetto Croce, Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic, 1902
Władysław Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1980.
Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?, 1897
Kleiner, Gardner, Mamiya and Tansey (2004). Art Through the Ages, Twelfth Edition (2 volumes). Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-64095-8 (vol 1) and ISBN 0-534-64091-5 (vol 2).
Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, eds., Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

External links
Look up art in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Art and Play from the Dictionary of the History of ideas
In-depth directory of art
Art and Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries Collection (2005) Smithsonian Digital Libraries
Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) – online collections from UK museums, galleries, universities
RevolutionArt – Art magazines with worldwide exhibitions, callings and competitions
Artforum magazine – online art reviews – also previews of upcoming exhibitions
Article on the meaning of Art in Ancient India on the website of Frontline
The Definition of Art entry by Thomas Adajian in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, and even disciplines such as history and psychology analyze its relationship with humans and generations.

Traditionally, the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery. This conception changed during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science".[1] Generally, art is made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions.
Contents
[hide]

1 Evaluation
1.1 Definition
2 History
3 Characteristics
4 Forms, genres, media, and styles
4.1 Skill and craft
4.2 Value judgment
5 Purpose of art
5.1 Non-motivated functions of art
5.2 Motivated functions of art
6 Controversial art
7 Art theories
8 Classification disputes
9 Art, class, and value
10 See also
11 Notes
12 Bibliography
13 Further reading
14 External links

Evaluation

Philosopher Richard Wollheim distinguishes three approaches to assessing the aesthetic value of art: the realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans.[2] An object may be characterized by the intentions, or lack thereof, of its creator, regardless of its apparent purpose. A cup, which ostensibly can be used as a container, may be considered art if intended solely as an ornament, while a painting may be deemed craft if mass-produced.

The nature of art has been described by Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture".[3] It has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation. Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another.[4] Benedetto Croce and R.G. Collingwood advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator.[5][6] The theory of art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and was developed in the early twentieth century by Roger Fry and Clive Bell. Art as mimesis or representation has deep roots in the philosophy of Aristotle.[4] More recently, thinkers influenced by Martin Heidegger have interpreted art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for self-expression and interpretation.[7]
Definition
Works of art worldwide can tell stories or simply express an aesthetic truth or feeling. Panorama of a section of A Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, a 12th-century painting by Song Dynasty artist Wang Ximeng.

Britannica Online defines art as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others." By this definition of the word, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early pre-historic art to contemporary art; however, some theories restrict the concept to modern Western societies.[8] Adorno said in 1970, "It is now taken for granted that nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more: neither art itself, nor art in relationship to the whole, nor even the right of art to exist."[9] The first and broadest sense of art is the one that has remained closest to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft." A few examples where this meaning proves very broad include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, and military arts. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology.
20th-century Rwandan bottle. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value.

The second and more recent sense of the word art is as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art. Fine art means that a skill is being used to express the artist's creativity, or to engage the audience's aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the finer things. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it will be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are sometimes considered applied art. Some art followers have argued that the difference between fine art and applied art has more to do with value judgments made about the art than any clear definitional difference.[10] However, even fine art often has goals beyond pure creativity and self-expression. The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically, spiritually, or philosophically motivated art; to create a sense of beauty (see aesthetics); to explore the nature of perception; for pleasure; or to generate strong emotions. The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent.

Art can describe several things: a study of creative skill, a process of using the creative skill, a product of the creative skill, or the audience's experience with the creative skill. The creative arts (art as discipline) are a collection of disciplines (arts) that produce artworks (art as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and echo or reflect a message, mood, or symbolism for the viewer to interpret (art as experience). Artworks can be defined by purposeful, creative interpretations of limitless concepts or ideas in order to communicate something to another person. Artworks can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. It is also an expression of an idea and it can take many different forms and serve many different purposes. Although the application of scientific knowledge to derive a new scientific theory involves skill and results in the "creation" of something new, this represents science only and is not categorized as art.
History
Main article: History of art
Venus of Willendorf, circa 24,000–22,000 BP.

Sculptures, cave paintings, rock paintings, and petroglyphs from the Upper Paleolithic dating to roughly 40,000 years ago have been found, but the precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them. The oldest art objects in the world—a series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old—were discovered in a South African cave.[11]
Cave painting of a horse from the Lascaux caves, c. 16,000 BP.

Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as Inca, Maya, and Olmec. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Because of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, this period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions.

In Byzantine and Medieval art of the Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression of Biblical and nonmaterial truths, and used styles that showed the higher unseen glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Nevertheless a classical realist tradition persisted in small Byzantine works, and realism steadily grew in the art of Catholic Europe.

Renaissance art had a greatly increased emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material world, and the place of humans in it, reflected in the corporeality of the human body, and development of a systematic method of graphical perspective to depict recession in a three-dimensional picture space.
The stylized signature of Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire was written in Arabic calligraphy. It reads Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also called the Mosque of Uqba) is one of the finest, most significant and best preserved artistic and architectural examples of early great mosques; dated in its present state from the 9th century, it is the ancestor and model of all the mosques in the western Islamic lands.[12] The Great Mosque of Kairouan is located in the city of Kairouan in Tunisia.

In the east, Islamic art's rejection of iconography led to emphasis on geometric patterns, calligraphy, and architecture. Further east, religion dominated artistic styles and forms too. India and Tibet saw emphasis on painted sculptures and dance, while religious painting borrowed many conventions from sculpture and tended to bright contrasting colors with emphasis on outlines. China saw the flourishing of many art forms: jade carving, bronzework, pottery (including the stunning terracotta army of Emperor Qin), poetry, calligraphy, music, painting, drama, fiction, etc. Chinese styles vary greatly from era to era and each one is traditionally named after the ruling dynasty. So, for example, Tang Dynasty paintings are monochromatic and sparse, emphasizing idealized landscapes, but Ming Dynasty paintings are busy and colorful, and focus on telling stories via setting and composition. Japan names its styles after imperial dynasties too, and also saw much interplay between the styles of calligraphy and painting. Woodblock printing became important in Japan after the 17th century.
Painting by Song Dynasty artist Ma Lin, c. 1250. 24,8 × 25,2 cm.

The western Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century saw artistic depictions of physical and rational certainties of the clockwork universe, as well as politically revolutionary visions of a post-monarchist world, such as Blake's portrayal of Newton as a divine geometer, or David's propagandistic paintings. This led to Romantic rejections of this in favor of pictures of the emotional side and individuality of humans, exemplified in the novels of Goethe. The late 19th century then saw a host of artistic movements, such as academic art, Symbolism, impressionism and fauvism among others.

The history of twentieth century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. Thus the parameters of Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc. cannot be maintained very much beyond the time of their invention. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art, such as Pablo Picasso being influenced by African sculpture. Japanese woodblock prints (which had themselves been influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on Impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken up by Picasso and to some extent by Matisse. Similarly, the west has had huge impacts on Eastern art in the 19th and 20th centuries, with originally western ideas like Communism and Post-Modernism exerting a powerful influence on artistic styles.

Modernism, the idealistic search for truth, gave way in the latter half of the 20th century to a realization of its unattainability. Relativism was accepted as an unavoidable truth, which led to the period of contemporary art and postmodern criticism, where cultures of the world and of history are seen as changing forms, which can be appreciated and drawn from only with irony. Furthermore the separation of cultures is increasingly blurred and some argue it is now more appropriate to think in terms of a global culture, rather than regional cultures.
Characteristics

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It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since January 2010.
It may contain original research or unverifiable claims. Tagged since January 2010.
It reads like a personal reflection or essay. Tagged since January 2010.

Art tends to facilitate intuitive rather than rational understanding, and is usually consciously created with this intention.[citation needed] Fine art intentionally serves no other purpose.[dubious – discuss] As a result of this impetus, works of art are elusive, refractive to attempts at classification, because they can be appreciated in more than one way, and are often susceptible to many different interpretations. In the case of Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, special knowledge concerning the shipwreck that the painting depicts is not a prerequisite to appreciating it, but allows the appreciation of Géricault's political intentions in the piece. Even art that superficially depicts a mundane event or object, may invite reflection upon elevated themes.

Traditionally, the highest achievements of art demonstrate a high level of ability or fluency within a medium. This characteristic might be considered a point of contention, since many modern artists (most notably, conceptual artists) do not themselves create the works they conceive, or do not even create the work in a conventional, demonstrative sense. Art has a transformative capacity: it confers particularly appealing or aesthetically satisfying structures or forms upon an original set of unrelated, passive constituents.
Forms, genres, media, and styles
Main article: The arts
Detail of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, showing the painting technique of sfumato.

The creative arts are often divided into more specific categories, each related to its technique, or medium, such as decorative arts, plastic arts, performing arts, or literature. Unlike scientific fields, art is one of the few subjects that are academically organized according to technique [1]. An artistic medium is the substance or material the artistic work is made from, and may also refer to the technique used. For example, paint is a medium used in painting, and paper is a medium used in drawing.

An art form is the specific shape, or quality an artistic expression takes. The media used often influence the form. For example, the form of a sculpture must exist in space in three dimensions, and respond to gravity. The constraints and limitations of a particular medium are thus called its formal qualities. To give another example, the formal qualities of painting are the canvas texture, color, and brush texture. The formal qualities of video games are non-linearity, interactivity and virtual presence. The form of a particular work of art is determined by the formal qualities of the media, and is not related to the intentions of the artist or the reactions of the audience in any way what so ever.

A genre is a set of conventions and styles within a particular medium. For instance, well recognized genres in film are western, horror and romantic comedy. Genres in music include death metal and trip hop. Genres in painting include still life and pastoral landscape. A particular work of art may bend or combine genres but each genre has a recognizable group of conventions, clichés and tropes. (One note: the word genre has a second older meaning within painting; genre painting was a phrase used in the 17th to 19th centuries to refer specifically to paintings of scenes of everyday life and can still be used in this way.)
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849), colored woodcut print.
R. Gopakumar: Cognition-Libido (Digital Print on Canvas, Limited Edition, 1/7) In the permanent collection of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction

The style of an artwork, artist, or movement is the distinctive method and form followed by the respective art. Any loose brushy, dripped or poured abstract painting is called expressionistic. Often a style is linked with a particular historical period, set of ideas, and particular artistic movement. So Jackson Pollock is called an Abstract Expressionist.

Because a particular style may have specific cultural meanings, it is important to be sensitive to differences in technique. Roy Lichtenstein's (1923–1997) paintings are not pointillist, despite his uses of dots, because they are not aligned with the original proponents of Pointillism. Lichtenstein used Ben-Day dots: they are evenly spaced and create flat areas of color. Dots of this type, used in halftone printing, were originally used in comic strips and newspapers to reproduce color. Lichtenstein thus uses the dots as a style to question the "high" art of painting with the "low" art of comics – to comment on class distinctions in culture. Lichtenstein is thus associated with the American Pop art movement (1960s). Pointillism is a technique in late Impressionism (1880s), developed especially by the artist Georges Seurat, that employs dots that are spaced in a way to create variation in color and depth in an attempt to paint images that were closer to the way people really see color. Both artists use dots, but the particular style and technique relate to the artistic movement adopted by each artist.

These are all ways of beginning to define a work of art, to narrow it down. "Imagine you are an art critic whose mission is to compare the meanings you find in a wide range of individual artworks. How would you proceed with your task? One way to begin is to examine the materials each artist selected in making an object, image video, or event. The decision to cast a sculpture in bronze, for instance, inevitably effects its meaning; the work becomes something different from how it might be if it had been cast in gold or plastic or chocolate, even if everything else about the artwork remains the same. Next, you might examine how the materials in each artwork have become an arrangement of shapes, colors, textures, and lines. These, in turn, are organized into various patterns and compositional structures. In your interpretation, you would comment on how salient features of the form contribute to the overall meaning of the finished artwork. [But in the end] the meaning of most artworks... is not exhausted by a discussion of materials, techniques, and form. Most interpretations also include a discussion of the ideas and feelings the artwork engenders."[13]
Skill and craft
Adam. Detail from Michelangelo's fresco in the Cappella Sistina (1511)
See also: Conceptual Art and Artistic Skill

Art can connote a sense of trained ability or mastery of a medium. Art can also simply refer to the developed and efficient use of a language to convey meaning with immediacy and or depth. Art is an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations.[14] There is an understanding that is reached with the material as a result of handling it, which facilitates one's thought processes. A common view is that the epithet "art", particular in its elevated sense, requires a certain level of creative expertise by the artist, whether this be a demonstration of technical ability or an originality in stylistic approach such as in the plays of Shakespeare, or a combination of these two. Traditionally skill of execution was viewed as a quality inseparable from art and thus necessary for its success; for Leonardo da Vinci, art, neither more nor less than his other endeavors, was a manifestation of skill. Rembrandt's work, now praised for its ephemeral virtues, was most admired by his contemporaries for its virtuosity. At the turn of the 20th century, the adroit performances of John Singer Sargent were alternately admired and viewed with skepticism for their manual fluency, yet at nearly the same time the artist who would become the era's most recognized and peripatetic iconoclast, Pablo Picasso, was completing a traditional academic training at which he excelled.

A common contemporary criticism of some modern art occurs along the lines of objecting to the apparent lack of skill or ability required in the production of the artistic object. In conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" is among the first examples of pieces wherein the artist used found objects ("ready-made") and exercised no traditionally recognised set of skills. Tracey Emin's My Bed, or Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living follow this example and also manipulate the mass media. Emin slept (and engaged in other activities) in her bed before placing the result in a gallery as work of art. Hirst came up with the conceptual design for the artwork but has left most of the eventual creation of many works to employed artisans. Hirst's celebrity is founded entirely on his ability to produce shocking concepts. The actual production in many conceptual and contemporary works of art is a matter of assembly of found objects. However there are many modernist and contemporary artists who continue to excel in the skills of drawing and painting and in creating hands-on works of art.
Value judgment
Aboriginal hollow log tombs. National Gallery, Canberra, Australia.
This section may stray from the topic of the article into the topic of another article, Art_(disambiguation). Please help improve this section or discuss this issue on the talk page. (November 2010)

Somewhat in relation to the above, the word art is also used to apply judgments of value, as in such expressions as "that meal was a work of art" (the cook is an artist), or "the art of deception", (the highly attained level of skill of the deceiver is praised). It is this use of the word as a measure of high quality and high value that gives the term its flavor of subjectivity.

Making judgments of value requires a basis for criticism. At the simplest level, a way to determine whether the impact of the object on the senses meets the criteria to be considered art is whether it is perceived to be attractive or repulsive. Though perception is always colored by experience, and is necessarily subjective, it is commonly understood that what is not somehow aesthetically satisfying cannot be art. However, "good" art is not always or even regularly aesthetically appealing to a majority of viewers. In other words, an artist's prime motivation need not be the pursuit of the aesthetic. Also, art often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. For example, Francisco Goya's painting depicting the Spanish shootings of 3rd of May 1808 is a graphic depiction of a firing squad executing several pleading civilians. Yet at the same time, the horrific imagery demonstrates Goya's keen artistic ability in composition and execution and produces fitting social and political outrage. Thus, the debate continues as to what mode of aesthetic satisfaction, if any, is required to define 'art'.

The assumption of new values or the rebellion against accepted notions of what is aesthetically superior need not occur concurrently with a complete abandonment of the pursuit of what is aesthetically appealing. Indeed, the reverse is often true, that the revision of what is popularly conceived of as being aesthetically appealing allows for a re-invigoration of aesthetic sensibility, and a new appreciation for the standards of art itself. Countless schools have proposed their own ways to define quality, yet they all seem to agree in at least one point: once their aesthetic choices are accepted, the value of the work of art is determined by its capacity to transcend the limits of its chosen medium to strike some universal chord by the rarity of the skill of the artist or in its accurate reflection in what is termed the zeitgeist.

Art is often intended to appeal to and connect with human emotion. It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists express something so that their audience is aroused to some extent, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art may be considered an exploration of the human condition; that is, what it is to be human.[15]
Purpose of art
A Navajo rug made c. 1880.
Mozarabic Beatus miniature; Spain, late 10th century.

Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the purpose of Art is "vague", but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created. Some of these functions of Art are provided in the following outline. The different purposes of art may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated (Levi-Strauss).
Non-motivated functions of art

The non-motivated purposes of art are those that are integral to being human, transcend the individual, or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. Aristotle said, "Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature." [16] In this sense, Art, as creativity, is something humans must do by their very nature (i.e., no other species creates art), and is therefore beyond utility.

Basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm. Art at this level is not an action or an object, but an internal appreciation of balance and harmony (beauty), and therefore an aspect of being human beyond utility.

"Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry." -Aristotle [17]

Experience of the mysterious. Art provides a way to experience one's self in relation to the universe. This experience may often come unmotivated, as one appreciates art, music or poetry.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." -Albert Einstein [18]

Expression of the imagination. Art provide a means to express the imagination in non-grammatic ways that are not tied to the formality of spoken or written language. Unlike words, which come in sequences and each of which have a definite meaning, art provides a range of forms, symbols and ideas with meanings that are maleable.

"Jupiter's eagle [as an example of art] is not, like logical (aesthetic) attributes of an object, the concept of the sublimity and majesty of creation, but rather something else – something that gives the imagination an incentive to spread its flight over a whole host of kindred representations that provoke more thought than admits of expression in a concept determined by words. They furnish an aesthetic idea, which serves the above rational idea as a substitute for logical presentation, but with the proper function, however, of animating the mind by opening out for it a prospect into a field of kindred representations stretching beyond its ken." -Immanuel Kant[19]

Universal communication. Art allows the individual to express things toward the world as a whole.[according to whom?] Earth artists often create art in remote locations that will never be experienced by another person. The practice of placing a cairn, or pile of stones at the top of a mountain, is an example. (Note: This need not suggest a particular view of God, or religion.) Art created in this way is a form of communication between the individual and the world as a whole.[citation needed]
Ritualistic and symbolic functions. In many cultures, art is used in rituals, performances and dances as a decoration or symbol. While these often have no specific utilitarian (motivated) purpose, anthropologists know that they often serve a purpose at the level of meaning within a particular culture. This meaning is not furnished by any one individual, but is often the result of many generations of change, and of a cosmological relationship within the culture.

"Most scholars who deal with rock paintings or objects recovered from prehistoric contexts that cannot be explained in utilitarian terms and are thus categorized as decorative, ritual or symbolic, are aware of the trap posed by the term 'art'." -Silva Tomaskova[20]

Motivated functions of art

Motivated purposes of art refer to intentional, conscious actions on the part of the artists or creator. These may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to illustrate another discipline, to (with commercial arts) to sell a product, or simply as a form of communication.

Communication. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication. As most forms of communication have an intent or goal directed toward another individual, this is a motivated purpose. Illustrative arts, such as scientific illustration, are a form of art as communication. Maps are another example. However, the content need not be scientific. Emotions, moods and feelings are also communicated through art.

"[Art is a set of] artefacts or images with symbolic meanings as a means of communication." -Steve Mithen[21]

Art as entertainment. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood, for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer. This is often the function of the art industries of Motion Pictures and Video Games.
The Avante-Garde. Art for political change. One of the defining functions of early twentieth century art has been to use visual images to bring about political change. Art movements that had this goal—Dadaism, Surrealism, Russian Constructivism, and Abstract Expressionism, among others—are collectively referred to as the avante-garde arts.

"By contrast, the realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit. It is this attitude which today gives birth to these ridiculous books, these insulting plays. It constantly feeds on and derives strength from the newspapers and stultifies both science and art by assiduously flattering the lowest of tastes; clarity bordering on stupidity, a dog's life." -André Breton (Surrealism)[22]

Art for psychological and healing purposes. Art is also used by art therapists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists as art therapy. The Diagnostic Drawing Series, for example, is used to determine the personality and emotional functioning of a patient. The end product is not the principal goal in this case, but rather a process of healing, through creative acts, is sought. The resultant piece of artwork may also offer insight into the troubles experienced by the subject and may suggest suitable approaches to be used in more conventional forms of psychiatric therapy.
Art for social inquiry, subversion and/or anarchy. While similar to art for political change, subversive or deconstructivist art may seek to question aspects of society without any specific political goal. In this case, the function of art may be simply to criticize some aspect of society.
Spray-paint graffiti on a wall in Rome.
Graffiti art and other types of street art are graphics and images that are spray-painted or stencilled on publicly viewable walls, buildings, buses, trains, and bridges, usually without permission. Certain art forms, such as graffiti, may also be illegal when they break laws (in this case vandalism).
Art for propaganda, or commercialism. Art is often utilized as a form of propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or mood. In a similar way, art that tries to sell a product also influences mood and emotion. In both cases, the purpose of art here is to subtly manipulate the viewer into a particular emotional or psychological response toward a particular idea or object.[23]

The functions of art described above are not mutually exclusive, as many of them may overlap. For example, art for the purpose of entertainment may also seek to sell a product, i.e. the movie or video game.
Controversial art
Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, c. 1820
Further information: Art and politics

Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa (c. 1820), was a social commentary on a current event, unprecedented at the time. Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863), was considered scandalous not because of the nude woman, but because she is seated next to men fully dressed in the clothing of the time, rather than in robes of the antique world. John Singer Sargent's Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madam X) (1884), caused a huge uproar over the reddish pink used to color the woman's ear lobe, considered far too suggestive and supposedly ruining the high-society model's reputation.

In the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937) used arresting cubist techniques and stark monochromatic oils, to depict the harrowing consequences of a contemporary bombing of a small, ancient Basque town. Leon Golub's Interrogation III (1981), depicts a female nude, hooded detainee strapped to a chair, her legs open to reveal her sexual organs, surrounded by two tormentors dressed in everyday clothing. Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (1989) is a photograph of a crucifix, sacred to the Christian religion and representing Christ's sacrifice and final suffering, submerged in a glass of the artist's own urine. The resulting uproar led to comments in the United States Senate about public funding of the arts.
Art theories

In the nineteenth century, artists were primarily concerned with ideas of truth and beauty. The aesthetic theorist John Ruskin, who championed what he saw as the naturalism of J. M. W. Turner, saw art's role as the communication by artifice of an essential truth that could only be found in nature.[24]

The definition and evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century. Richard Wollheim distinguishes three approaches: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans.[25]

The arrival of Modernism in the late nineteenth century lead to a radical break in the conception of the function of art,[26] and then again in the late twentieth century with the advent of postmodernism. Clement Greenberg's 1960 article "Modernist Painting" defines modern art as "the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself".[27] Greenberg originally applied this idea to the Abstract Expressionist movement and used it as a way to understand and justify flat (non-illusionistic) abstract painting:

Realistic, naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; modernism used art to call attention to art. The limitations that constitute the medium of

painting – the flat surface, the shape of the support, the properties of the pigment — were treated by the Old Masters as negative factors that could be acknowledged only implicitly or indirectly. Under Modernism these same limitations came to be regarded as positive factors, and were acknowledged openly.[27]

After Greenberg, several important art theorists emerged, such as Michael Fried, T. J. Clark, Rosalind Krauss, Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock among others. Though only originally intended as a way of understanding a specific set of artists, Greenberg's definition of modern art is important to many of the ideas of art within the various art movements of the 20th century and early 21st century.

Pop artists like Andy Warhol became both noteworthy and influential through work including and possibly critiquing popular culture, as well as the art world. Artists of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s expanded this technique of self-criticism beyond high art to all cultural image-making, including fashion images, comics, billboards and pornography.
Classification disputes
Main article: Classificatory disputes about art

Disputes as to whether or not to classify something as a work of art are referred to as classificatory disputes about art.

Classificatory disputes in the 20th century have included cubist and impressionist paintings, Duchamp's Fountain, the movies, superlative imitations of banknotes, conceptual art, and video games.[28]

Philosopher David Novitz has argued that disagreement about the definition of art are rarely the heart of the problem. Rather, "the passionate concerns and interests that humans vest in their social life" are "so much a part of all classificatory disputes about art" (Novitz, 1996). According to Novitz, classificatory disputes are more often disputes about societal values and where society is trying to go than they are about theory proper. For example, when the Daily Mail criticized Hirst's and Emin's work by arguing "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all" they are not advancing a definition or theory about art, but questioning the value of Hirst's and Emin's work.[29] In 1998, Arthur Danto, suggested a thought experiment showing that "the status of an artifact as work of art results from the ideas a culture applies to it, rather than its inherent physical or perceptible qualities. Cultural interpretation (an art theory of some kind) is therefore constitutive of an object's arthood."[30][31]

Anti-art is a label for art that intentionally challenges the established parameters and values of art;[32] it is term associated with Dadaism and attributed to Marcel Duchamp just before World War I,[32] when he was making art from found objects.[32] One of these, Fountain (1917), an ordinary urinal, has achieved considerable prominence and influence on art.[32] Anti-art is a feature of work by Situationist International,[33] the lo-fi Mail art movement, and the Young British Artists,[32] though it is a form still rejected by the Stuckists,[32] who describe themselves as anti-anti-art.[34][35]
Art, class, and value
Versailles: Louis Le Vau opened up the interior court to create the expansive entrance cour d'honneur, later copied all over Europe.

Art is sometimes perceived as belonging exclusively to higher social classes. In this context, art is seen as an upper-class activity associated with wealth, the ability to purchase art, and the leisure required to pursue or enjoy it. The Palace of Versailles and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg illustrate this view: such vast collections of art are the preserve of the rich, of governments and wealthy organizations.

Fine and expensive goods have been popular markers of status in many cultures, and they continue to be so today. There has been a cultural push in the other direction since at least 1793, when the Louvre, which had been a private palace of the Kings of France, was opened to the public as an art museum during the French Revolution. Most modern public museums and art education programs for children in schools can be traced back to this impulse to have art available to everyone. Museums in the United States tend to be gifts from the very rich to the masses (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for example, was created by John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum.) But despite all this, at least one of the important functions of art in the 21st century remains as a marker of wealth and social status.
Performance by Joseph Beuys, 1978 : Everyone an artist — On the way to the libertarian form of the social organism.

There have been attempts by artists to create art that can not be bought by the wealthy as a status object. One of the prime original motivators of much of the art of the late 1960s and 1970s was to create art that could not be bought and sold. It is "necessary to present something more than mere objects"[36] said the major post war German artist Joseph Beuys. This time period saw the rise of such things as performance art, video art, and conceptual art. The idea was that if the artwork was a performance that would leave nothing behind, or was simply an idea, it could not be bought and sold. "Democratic precepts revolving around the idea that a work of art is a commodity impelled the aesthetic innovation which germinated in the mid-1960s and was reaped throughout the 1970s. Artists broadly identified under the heading of Conceptual art... substituting performance and publishing activities for engagement with both the material and materialistic concerns of painted or sculptural form... [have] endeavored to undermine the art object qua object."[37]

In the decades since, these ideas have been somewhat lost as the art market has learned to sell limited edition DVDs of video works,[38] invitations to exclusive performance art pieces, and the objects left over from conceptual pieces. Many of these performances create works that are only understood by the elite who have been educated as to why an idea or video or piece of apparent garbage may be considered art. The marker of status becomes understanding the work instead of necessarily owning it, and the artwork remains an upper-class activity. "With the widespread use of DVD recording technology in the early 2000s, artists, and the gallery system that derives its profits from the sale of artworks, gained an important means of controlling the sale of video and computer artworks in limited editions to collectors."[39]
See also
Book: Art
Wikipedia Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.
WPVA-khamsa.png Visual arts portal

Art movement
Artist in residence
Formal analysis
List of artistic media
Outline of the visual arts

Notes

^ Gombrich, Ernst. (2005). "Press statement on The Story of Art". The Gombrich Archive. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
^ Wollheim 1980, op. cit. Essay VI. pp. 231–39.
^ Richard Wollheim, Art and its objects, p.1, 2nd edn, 1980, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521297060
^ a b Jerrold Levinson, The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, Oxford university Press, 2003, p5. ISBN 0-1992-7945-4
^ Jerrold Levinson, The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, Oxford university Press, 2003, p16. ISBN 0-1992-7945-4
^ R.G. Collingwood's view, expressed in The Principles of Art, is considered in Wollheim, op. cit. 1980 pp 36–43
^ Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art", in Poetry, Language, Thought, (Harper Perenniel, 2001). See also Maurice Merleau-Ponty, "Cézanne's Doubt" in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, Galen Johnson and Michael Smith (eds), (Northwestern University Press, 1994) and John Russon, Bearing Witness to Epiphany, (State University of New York Press, 2009).
^ Elkins, James "Art History and Images That Are Not Art", The Art Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec. 1995), with previous bibliography. "Non-Western images are not well described in terms of art, and neither are medieval paintings that were made in the absence of humanist ideas of artistic value". 553
^ Adorno, Theodor W., Aesthetic Theory, (1970 in German)
^ David Novitz, "The Boundaries of Art", 1992
^ Radford, Tim. "World's Oldest Jewellery Found in Cave". Guardian Unlimited, April 16, 2004. Retrieved on January 18, 2008.
^ John Stothoff Badeau and John Richard Hayes, The Genius of Arab civilization: source of Renaissance. Taylor & Francis. 1983. p. 104
^ Robertson, Jean and Craig McDaniel: Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980, page 4. Oxford University Press, 2005.
^ Breskin, Vladimir, Triad: Method for studying the core of the semiotic parity of language and art, Signs – International Journal of Semiotics 3, pp.1–28, 2010. ISSN: 1902-8822
^ Graham, Gordon (2005). Philosophy of the arts: an introduction to aesthetics. Taylor & Francis.
^ Aristotle. The Poetics, Republic
^ Aristotle. The Poetics, Republic. Note: Although speaking mostly of poetry here, the Ancient greeks often speak of the arts collectively.http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-2.html
^ Einstein, Albert. The World as I See It.http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm
^ Immanuel Kant, Critique of Aesthetic Judgement (1790).
^ Silvia Tomaskova, "Places of Art: Art and Archaeology in Context": (1997)
^ Steve Mithen. The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. 1999
^ André Breton, Surrealist Manifesto (1924)
^ Roland Barthes, Mythologies
^ "go to nature in all singleness of heart, rejecting nothing and selecting nothing, and scorning nothing, believing all things are right and good, and rejoicing always in the truth." Ruskin, John. Modern Painters, Volume I, 1843. London: Smith, Elder and Co.
^ Wollheim 1980, Essay VI. pp. 231–39.
^ Griselda Pollock, Differencing the Canon. Routledge, London & N.Y.,1999. ISBN 0-415-06700-6
^ a b Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology. ed. Francis Frascina and Charles Harrison, 1982.
^ Deborah Solomon, "2003: the 3rd Annual Year in Ideas: Video Game Art", New York Times, Magazine Section, December 14, 2003
^ Painter, Colin. "Contemporary Art and the Home". Berg Publishers, 2002. p. 12. ISBN 1-8597-3661-0
^ Dutton, Denis Tribal Art in Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, edited by Michael Kelly (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
^ Danto, Arthur. "Artifact and Art." In Art/Artifact, edited by Susan Vogel. New York, 1988.
^ a b c d e f "Glossary: Anti-art", Tate. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
^ Schneider, Caroline. "Asger Jorn", Artforum, 1 September 2001. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com, 24 January 2010.
^ Ferguson, Euan. "In bed with Tracey, Sarah ... and Ron", The Observer, 20 April 2003. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
^ "Stuck on the Turner Prize", artnet, 27 October 2000. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
^ Sharp, Willoughby (December 1969). "An Interview with Joseph Beuys". ArtForum 8 (4): 45.
^ Rorimer, Anne: New Art in the 60s and 70s Redefining Reality, page 35. Thames and Hudson, 2001.
^ Fineman, Mia (2007-03-21). "YouTube for ArtistsThe best places to find video art online.". Slate. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
^ Robertson, Jean and Craig McDaniel: Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980, page 16. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Bibliography

Arthur Danto, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art. 2003
Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson (eds.) Art and Thought. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2003.
Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey (eds.) Art History and Visual Studies. Yale University Press, 2002.
John Whitehead. Grasping for the Wind. 2001
Noel Carroll, Theories of Art Today. 2000
Evelyn Hatcher, ed. Art as Culture: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Art. 1999
Catherine de Zegher (ed.). Inside the Visible. MIT Press, 1996.
Nina, Felshin, ed. But is it Art? 1995
Stephen Davies, Definitions of Art. 1991
Oscar Wilde, "Intentions".
Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, "Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980." 2005

Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Art

Augros, Robert M., Stanciu, George N., The New Story of Science: mind and the universe, Lake Bluff, Ill.: Regnery Gateway, c1984. ISBN 0895268337 (this book has significant material on Art and Science)
Richard Wollheim, Art and its Objects
Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
Benedetto Croce, Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic, 1902
Władysław Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1980.
Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?, 1897
Kleiner, Gardner, Mamiya and Tansey (2004). Art Through the Ages, Twelfth Edition (2 volumes). Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-64095-8 (vol 1) and ISBN 0-534-64091-5 (vol 2).
Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, eds., Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

External links
Look up art in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Art and Play from the Dictionary of the History of ideas
In-depth directory of art
Art and Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries Collection (2005) Smithsonian Digital Libraries
Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) – online collections from UK museums, galleries, universities
RevolutionArt – Art magazines with worldwide exhibitions, callings and competitions
Artforum magazine – online art reviews – also previews of upcoming exhibitions
Article on the meaning of Art in Ancient India on the website of Frontline
The Definition of Art entry by Thomas Adajian in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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