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Everything About Art Explained:

The Utilitity of Art

by Chris Sunami

What, if any, practical purpose or function is served by art? Some have argued that art is precisely those objects which serve no practical purpose or function at all. This is incorrect. However, the utility of a piece of art as a piece of art is different (and generally independent) from the utility of (for example) a pot as a pot; although one object can possess both material and artistic types of utility simultaneously.

The philosopher Immanuel Kant described art as possessing “purposiveness without a purpose,” meaning that art presents as meaningful, yet without having a well-defined function. I would amend this definition by calling art an “underdetermined heuristic”, meaning a generalized solution to a vaguely defined problem.

At the most abstract level, the problem that all art seeks to solve is the coexistence of two or more unlike things. This is also the basic problem facing all worldly entities. To exist is to have an identity. To have an identity is to be distinguishable from what is around you, and to be distinguishable from what is around you is to contrast with your surroundings, and inevitably, to enter into conflict with them. Yet nothing can long thrive or even survive in opposition to its environment and to the entities that compose its environment.

Each artwork, at a minimum, brings two elements into relationship with each other: the medium, whether that be word, sound, movement, or physical matter, and the additional level of meaning or significance imposed by the artist, whatever that may be. When these two (as well as a potentially unlimited number of additional elements) come together successfully, it serves as a model for the general problem of living successfully as an individual within a frequently hostile and indifferent world.

In addition, as complex creatures, we often exist in states of high Tension, in which the different elements of our existence come into conflict with one another. Over the course of time, such a state can be very inefficient and destructive. A successful artwork provides a model for resolving our internal and external conflicts. By observing the way the tension in the artwork is resolved, we discover how to find similar consonances in our own lives. This explains why better art is produced during times of social unrest, or personal trauma, or by persons with dysfunctional personas. The more damaging the Tension experienced by a person, the more they experience the necessity for good art.

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