Re: CNN: fossils as art?(long)

["King, Norm" <nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu>]

Here's another bit of possible insight into the issue of what art may be. 
 Only those of you in my age class will remember the rebellious days of 
the 60's, when young people, especially, were challenging virtually every 
established idea and convention (Bob Bakker is also a child of the 60's). 
 There was a concept then (and probably has been all along, but I'm not 
an artist so I don't the whole history of it) called "received art".  We 
humans didn't make it to be art, but once it was "discovered", it was 
considered to be.  A prime example from that era was the geological map 
of the United States.  No one had yet thought of painting the map of the 
US with splotches of bright colors in a seemingly random fashion (at 
least to a non-geologist, it could seem that way).

Where else would this happen but in California?--I'm a native 
Californian, so I can say that.  In California, the very colorful state 
geological map was once placed on a billboard for everyone to see as part 
of a neighborhood beautification program.  Received art! 

Much art is controversial, and we keep debating what art really is.  Time 
will tell if Seilacher's stuff is art.

Back to dinosaurs?


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Norman R. King                                       tel:  (812) 464-1794
Department of Geosciences                            fax:  (812) 464-1960
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712                      e-mail:  nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu