Cooking and Art

Something I have always wondered was whether cooking was considered an art form, or just the way it is displayed? Many call cooking "the art of cooking", but when art is talked about, cooking is rarely mentioned. 

My thoughts are it is the process to get to a final art form. So cooking itself may not be art, but the final product is. Just like painting is not art necessarily, but the final picture is.

What do you guys think though?

Is this art?

Or is this?

Response to Brycen

Brycen asked on his blog:

Will a clear cut line ever be drawn on what is art and what is not; without regard to aesthetics, or will works of art just become more and more ridiculous and simplistic as time goes on?

I don't think a clear line can every be drawn; what can be hopefully defined is what categories to include. The biggest one is it has to be man-made, and usually with the intention of art. 

Brycen used an example of a man gathering a bunch of sticks from a tree, dropping them on the floor and calling that art, as a way to exemplify how ridiculous art can be sometimes. 

If we take the general definition of art, however, than this intention will in fact be art. This brings us back to the question of whether or not opinion of observers makes something art or not. I don't think that this can ever be the case simply because there are too many opinions in the world to make a concrete decision such as this.

And so Brycen, I don't think art will ever be truly defined, unfortunately, as long as there are the millions of different opinions in the world.

My question to you though is: is this really such a bad thing?

Immitation

The topic this week has been imitation being the basis for art. To me, it makes sense that art, at least in paintings or sculptures, is an imitation of something. However, does this mean that everything imitated is art? Does that mean mocking someone can be considered an art form? And what of music? What is music imitating?

It was said that art is an imitation of an imitation of an idea or a "form". Where do these ideas and "forms" come from, though? This may be a lot of questions to ask at one time, but sometimes asking questions is more important than making statements; questioning is more important than acceptance.

I understand Plato's reasoning on imitation, but as Alex was saying in class, I believe that not all art forms are an imitation of an imitation, but the imitation of the idea. I think is is especially true when it comes to music, because I believe music is more an expression of emotion than anything, and even if it is imitating emotion, that emotion is the original form.

Maybe Plato's thinkings and ideas are more prudent to his time and less relevant to ours?