Television Aesthetics by Nikos Metallinos

Author:Nikos Metallinos [Metallinos, Nikos]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781136686146
Google: 3l_-AQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-11-05T05:53:48+00:00

The Categories of the Arts

The vast development of the arts of Western civilization during the last 3,000 years makes the classification of the arts very difficult. Political movements, religious beliefs, scientific discoveries, traveling explorations, industrial developments, and information communication technology explosions have caused the development of a vast number of art forms that are as difficult to categorize as they are to define. Furthermore, the art classification task becomes even more difficult today due to the rapid developments of media technologies. This section provides a broad classification of the arts, distinguishes the various forms of popular arts, and briefly examines the visual communication media arts, specifically the various television genres.

A Broad Classification of the Arts. The discussion of the characteristics of the arts suggest that an art form is characterized by a threefold process: the act of creating the art form, the art of presenting it, and the art of responding to it. Although in some art forms like painting, theater, and music, this process can occur simultaneously, there are nevertheless three distinct stages that must be taken and three different agents involved in this process: the artist(s), the medium, and the receiver(s). Furthermore, it was stated that to consider an event or an object significantly artistic it must surpass the ordinary and provide uniqueness and significance in its message (content), in its medium (form), and for its audience (impact). Equally important (before any general classification of the arts is made), is to discuss their various functions, whether they are communicative, utilitarian, social, psychological, and so on.

On the basis of these parameters the arts fall into two major categories: fine arts and applied arts. Whereas fine arts such as architecture, painting, sculpture, poetry, music, theater, photography, and film have been defined as art created primarily as an aesthetic expression to be contemplated and enjoyed for its own sake, applied art such as decorative designs of manufactured items, advertising, commercial art, and plastic art is defined as utilitarian. It is used as an instrument for other activities (such as decoration), which remain subservient to the function of the objects, media, and events they promote. All popular commercial and industrial arts are applied arts. The significance of the applied artist’s version is limited to the media, the product, or the industrial needs it encompasses. Fine arts, on the other hand, are broader in the intellectual, emotional, and aesthetic scopes extending their significance to all three areas: their message, medium, and recipients.

It is, of course, obvious that the distinction between fine arts and applied arts remains a line that is difficult to draw. There are some applied art objects or events that occasionally meet the requirements of the fine arts and vice versa; the fine arts appeal to a small and elite public, whereas the applied arts appeal to a large, broader, and more general public.

The Popular Arts. The advent of mass media (or media of mass communication) such as newspapers, magazines, comic books, radio, and television created the phenomenon of a mass

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