When many people say "advanced technology can be an art", they are referring to the physical beauty of the object that is created by an advanced technology. This is essentially incorrect, as they are referring to an object's beauty to be an art, not the object's technology. I believe that advanced technology can be considered beautiful and artistic without creating an object. Many subjects of hard science are about figuring out the world and universe that we live in. Hence, if we assume that the universe is artistic, and science is about explaining the universe, science it self has a potential to be artistic.

Opera and technology

It is often easy to think that opera is very exclusive. This is because the shows often have limited seats and the price of admission is pretty high. However, this is not too accurate thanks to new broadcasting technologies that allows live stream of a show from stage to movie theaters. In fact, according to the link below, 3 million individuals watched a play via this service.

http://imgartists.com/news/watch_fleming_bychkov_and_tatum_in_otello_for_met_live_in_hd_saturday_27th/

Arts ARE weird....

Let's be frank, modern abstract arts are weird and obscure. In fact, I don't even understand how to start appreciating them. Yet, I hear numbers of stories where such abstract and odd arts are praised and appreciated globally. So, does this bother me, a person who does not understand the art? Not really, I understand that such art pieces can be appreciated by many people for some reasons, but I do have taste and ability to appreciate other forms of art in a different way. In conclusion, I don't think anyone should feel particularly bad about it.

Propaganda and appreciation of their style

Just like any other tools or methods, arts can be a dangerous thing. For instance, The propaganda art above is calling for a violent act against the USA. This particular art is produced by professional working for North Korean government; so it reflects very biased point of view. Anyhow, even though one may not agree with the message presented in this art, it is difficult to not to appreciate its style. With high contrast of colors, abstract imagery, and clear focus on easily detectable meaning, the styles of propaganda art are highly stylized and easily noticeable. In fact, many pop artists are using similar styles to make interesting works like the picture below.

Artistic humanism and inffluence of religion in our daily lives

     Starting in renaissance, humanism in art started to become popular. In this particular style of art, people's lives and emotions were depicted and glorified. Different from previous Gothic style, that focused on pious devotion and glory of religious figures. Few centuries later, religion is seldom a topic of art and human secularism is widely spread.

     Is today's secular societies part of natural change of people? Are we designed to seek better explanation of the universe such as science? Or is this result of ongoing humanism movement that may end one day?

     It is hard to conclude anything without extensive study, but I personally believe that it is a human nature to become secular over time. Of course, one may argue that I cannot see beyond the boundary of the societies' virtues and beliefs, and our entire society has been influenced by humanism; making my perspective skewed toward the secular movements.

Bloody money, blood art.

During 15th century, in the middle of golden age of renaissance, the Lorenzo Medici was the center of the world. As the head of the most powerful family of the western hemisphere, his wealth was unimaginable. Also, he was not stingy, he was patron of numerous artists. This inevitably lead to numerous great arts that changed everything, and made the art of the century flourish.

     However, it should be noted that the Medici family is not the most pious or innocent businessmen either. It is clear that Lorenzo Medici orders numbers of assassinations and threats to his competitors. In short, the Medici family may be considered as a mafia. So, does this make the arts supported from the Medici family less honorable? Well, I don't think it is a bad idea to avoid a business that treats others badly, but this has been centuries ago. Hence, it seems OK to admire the art as the art is perceived, without any other preconceived notion.

Comedy as art?

It is often difficult to treat comedy as a form of art. This is perhaps because comedy is very diverse in terms of its material within its genre. Ranging from slapstick to political satire, jokes can be cruel or sophisticated. So it might be easy to say that only sophisticated and dark humors and art-like. However, the comedy should be homogeneously considered as an art. This is because even the most dirty and cheap slapstick comedy involves format of the genre, effort, and purpose. So, an episode of jackass should be considered as a art. Of course, its quality and substance is still debatable.

War, what is it good for?

Absolutely nothing? Well, of course war is a horrible event overall. However, can a same thing be said regarding the art? In one perspective, during a process of battles and chaos destroys art, artifacts, and other precious pieces. However, it also inspired many arts just like Guernica by Picasso above. In fact, war greatly changes culture and lifestyle of the society and artists; since culture and art are so integrated, a change in culture will change art as well. So any war WOULD all arts made during and after the war. So, in terms of art, how is war overall? I believe that it is still a horrible casualty. Newly inspired arts are interesting and important, but loss of old masters' works are definitely costly, especially considering that the artists would have made other arts even if the war did not happen.