November, 7th, 2008
last updated September, 3rd, 2010

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Everything About Art Explained:

The Quality of Art

by Chris Sunami

1. Tension

   Tension is a measure of the metaphysical distance between the elements composing the artwork. The more unlike or oppositional those elements, the more Tension is possessed by the artwork. An artwork with a high degree of Tension is potentially more valuable than one with a low degree of Tension, because the problem it (putatively) solves is a more difficult one. An artwork with a high degree of Tension is generally described in ordinary language as “creative,” and we describe an artist’s command over the Tension in the artwork as their “creativity.”
   
   
   The Tension of an artwork is formed by the diversity of the elements that create it. The more distinctly different the elements composing the artwork, the higher the Tension. For example, a representational painting, such as this one of a fish, has a certain base-level Tension simply because the materials that compose it (the paint on the canvas) are distinctly different from the subject (a fish). If the fish in the painting were playing a piano, the Tension would grow accordingly, because of the presence of an additional conceptual element, with no obvious correspondence to the material or the primary subject.
   
   One approach to maximizing Tension is increasing the diversity of elements included in the artwork. However, the actual number of elements is secondary to how well the artist captures the full essence of each element. This is particularly important for elements that are present conceptually rather than physically. An example of an artwork given more Tension by including more elements, is Outkast's “Hey Ya”, which includes an overall perspective based in hip-hop, a British-Invasion-era pop sensibility, absurdist pop-culture references (“Polaroid picture”), and a section where a hip-hop style call-and-response abruptly gives way to a church-by-the-way-of-funk-music mini-sermon.
   
   An artwork with extremely high degrees of Tension is generally described as “difficult”, “challenging”, “disturbing”, “unsettling,” or “distressing,” whereas one with unusually low degrees of Tension will be described as “tepid”, “unoriginal”, “boring”, “inconsequential”, or “forgettable”. Artworks with high degrees of Tension are experienced as more exciting, and they inspire more passionate reactions, both positive and negative, from their audiences. Without Tension, there is no challenge to be overcome within the artwork, and so it becomes useless as a problem-solving model.
   
   Any artwork with high Tension, but little else can be described as hypertense (a good example is the kind of Japanese Anime with monsters and the flashing lights). This is an unstable, inefficient state, as the lack of Consonance leads to a great deal of internal conflict. Artworks with this quality are percieved as ugly, garish and disturbing. They tend to have a numbing or a desensitizing effect on the audience.
   (Smooth Criminal...Hey Ya!......)

2. Consonance

   Consonance is a measure of how well the elements in an artwork match up with each other. The more those elements work together or harmonize, the more Consonant the artwork. An artwork with a high degree of Consonance is potentially more valuable than one with a low degree of Consonance because it presents as a more complete or effective solution to the problem it solves.
   
   An artwork with a high degree of Consonance is described in ordinary language as “pretty” or “attractive.” The Consonance of an artwork is chiefly a function of the artist’s technical expertise and training, and so we often describe it as “craft” or “craftsmanship”. Typically, craft includes a mastery of styles and conventions, a developed sense of perception, an education in the great works of the field, and an attention to the technical details. For example,although Pablo Picasso is best known for his seemingly free-form cubist pictures, his more realist work reveals him as a master of the technicalities of his craft.
   
   Consonances are relationships or alignments between the elements of an object. The stronger those relationships, the higher the object’s overall Consonance. In general Consonance affects the audiences immediate reaction to an artwork. Artworks with high degrees of Consonance are generally described with terms such as “harmonious”, whereas those with low degrees of Consonance are described as “ugly,” “artless” or “amateurish”. Artworks with high degrees of Consonance are experienced as more positive and inviting, and they inspire more uniform reactions from their audiences. The Consonance of the artwork serves as an advertisement for its success as model for solving problems.
   
   In the above example, if the fish is painted in an ultrarealistic fashion it will create one kind of Consonance --a visual consonance between the painting and its subject. However, the establishment of one consonance can mean the destruction of another. A realistic painting of the fish has no clear consonance between the materials used and the final product, whereas a less realistic version of the same painting (utilizing visible brushstrokes or blobs of paint) might be more consonant with the materials, although at the price of being less visually consonant.
   An artwork with a lot of Consonance, but little Tension or other artistic qualities might be described as hyperconsonant. Such artworks are produced by artists with a high degree of craft, but little artistry or creativity. Artworks with this quality are perceived as mechanical, overproduced or uninteresting. The effect they produce on the audience is a period of initial appeal, followed by distaste. A good example is the boy-band hits of the early 2000's, or the work of Thomas Kinkade.

3. Verity

   Verity is the most elusive quality of art, and in some ways the most important. It measures the depth of the observation and the respectfulness of the replication of the elements that compose a given work of art. An artwork with a high degree of Verity is potentially more valuable than one with a low degree of Verity because it solves its problems in a way that is more truthful. This is important because a truthful solution is an efficient solution, whereas an untruthful solution is no real solution at all. The Verity of the artwork is what provides the real benefits, because it is the truthfulness of the artwork considered as a whole that defines the model we follow in creating our own consonances.
   
   An artwork with a high degree of Verity is generally described in ordinary language as "beautiful", "powerful" or "seminal", while an artist's ability to work with high degrees of Verity is often described as his or her "artistry." This is the hardest quality to measure, as well as the most foundational and the most difficult to develop. It generally increases with age and life experience, and can be heightened by periods of personal trauma. For example, when the late Johnny Cash covered the NIN song “Hurt,” his simply arranged rendition revealed a previously unglimpsed depth of emotion in the lyrics. Another example is found in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Less Traveled”, where the words have the sound of true conversational speech, despite also possessing strict meter and rhyme.
   
   Artworks without Verity are described as “fake” or “false”, and those who produce them are described as “hacks”. Artworks with a high degree of Verity are experienced as more important, and the reactions they provoke are more life-altering and consequential. A subject with only Verity, and little Tension or Consonance might be called hyperpure, and will be percieved, if at all, by the audience as elusive, confusing, abstract or abstruse. A good example of this is Plato’s concept of Virtue.

4. Quality Analyses

   
   (Analysis...Analysis......)