What is art?

At present I'm at little bit discordant with myself in terms of my own notion of art. In light of recent discussions it's time to talk about the art term inasmuch as art is discussible objectively.

In general I have a very classical understanding of art. For a long time I was of the opinion that photography, cinematography and music don't necessarily have something to do with art but are disciplines where the senses and technology are the most important factors. But recently my attitudes have changed slightly when I was wathing myself closely by pursuing my passion of photography. I realized that it's much more than just modifying the technical settings and waiting for the right moment to push the button. It's more about perceiving situations and rendering or reflecting them by a medium. Actually it's quite similar to painting because the great painters like Van Gogh, Monet, Lowry, Schiele and Klimt just wanted to capture their experiences in paintings. Perhaps they would have used cameras instead of brush and easel if they would have had such enabling technology we are blessed (and sometimes cursed) with.

The beautiful thing about art is that it's very individual. That implicates that the way the artist sees his work always differs from the way the contemplator perceives it. And that's a quite interesting thought. Against this background it's fully legitimate to define photography as art for myself. And to define cinematography as something else than art for myself.

I came to this comprehension in the last few days when I watched the 'Local Artist Program' in the course of the 'Crossing Europe 2009' film festival in Linz and a few days later 'Låt den rätte komma in - Let the Right One In' in Vienna. At the end of the 'Local Artist Program', which consistet of about ten or twelve filmlets, I felt like sitting in an evil brainwash program and was pretty lucky when the lights turned on again. And during 'Let the Right One In', a swedish vampire mystery/drama, I constantly asked myself for a deeper sense or some artistic demandingly aspect of this film, all in vain.