Hello MOQ Focusers,
I agree with Marco, originally art and craft were the same. For example,
Leonardo was as much into technology as into art.
I think, the divorce happened when society raised demands for more and more
goods and too many low skilled artisans were able to sell their work by
slashing prices at the expense of quality. At same time, high classes were
still able to afford goods which looked like objects of art (many of them
are in museums now).
So, it's just a matter of high quality technology (voted by society to be
included into art category) and low quality technology (produced cheaper for
mass affordability). Luckily lots of technology still feels like an art to
me (I used to be a mechanical engineer).
I think, the level of divorce between technology and art will be diminishing
with the growth of esthetic demands and wealth among the population (social
level). I don't think art has to be useless (to paraphrase and may be
distort Marco's "His creation had a meaning, and maybe it was not useful.").
Some day we all will be buying our teapots and office supplies at the MOMA
store and watch only Woody Allen's movies.
Gene.
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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