The six steps

As I stated in my last blog, I seem to agree with McCloud on his definition of art. My idea of art is very broad, 'anything that is produced that creates an emotion or reaction in someone'. I also agree where McCloud defines art as something that creates an emotion, but has no other use than to be a piece of art. Tools for example cannot be considered art, because they are what McCloud would call, things used for the survival instinct in humans.

I think art should be looked at from the point of view of the person who made the piece of art. Any one can look at something that another person has made and judge whether they think it is art or not. But in the end this persons opinion doesnt matter whether it is art or not. If the creator says it is art, then it is art. Say a child made a finger painting that is not much more than a bunch of colours randomly painted on a canvas or a piece of paper. Most people would look at that and recognise it a something a child made, because it has no structure. But the child would look at it and like it, because they made it. Therefore, to the child, it is art.

In regards to McClouds six steps rule, I think he is pretty much right. When I want to, or am required to create something, I think that I go through a similar, or the same process, and as McCloud recognises, I may not use all the steps, and maybe not in the same order. I get an idea for something that I want to make, I either already have the form, or figure out how I'm going to make the idea, so the form comes. I find my idiom, my own way of making my idea in my chosen form. I work on my idea and try to create a structure in my chosen form, and that works with my intended idiom (this step may not always work, or may work, but unintentionally). I apply my craft, my knowledge of my intended form, sometimes I already have the knowledge of the form I am working in, sometimes I have to work it out on the way. And finally I reach the surface, where I apply everything I have done to finish making my intended idea (this is where I often get bored of the process and stop before I have something really good).