Art Lovers discussion

Why is art found in human societies? What basic needs does it meet?

We've had this question before 7 years ago and it did elicit some good discussion. It is an interesting topic. I will start with a post from one blogger found on the Yahoo! homepage.

""Abraham Maslow, later in his career, added "aesthetics" to his hierarchy of basic human needs. So, as they used to say in Walter Pater's time, "art for art's sake"--it serves as its own need.

Then, there's the notion that human beings are the most sentient of all living things, and we spend a lot of energy in self-expression. We define our place in space and time through vivid imagination and communication. As social animals, it's important for us to receive those messages as well as to send them.

Art seems to tap into our emotions through rhythmic patterns that evoke important events in our lives. The interplay of stable and precarious elements (harmony-dissonance; climax-denouement; symmetry-imbalance) emerges from the artist's memory (probably subconsciously) of important moments in life, and the audience relates to the work as it speaks to their own subconscious recognition of those patterns in their own lives.

And finally, it sometimes meets the basic need of survival--for many, it's an income. As Mickey Spillane noted, he'd never have written a single Mike Hammer novel if it weren't for the money." "

How would you answer these questions?

Alright, so we haven’t started any discussion here yet and I’m not sure, and maybe neither are you, how to go about beginning.

I’m going to embark on a detour for a minute. Yes, we are discussing art overall, but above in the comment speaking of humans as social beings needing to communicate, to be heard, for some reason I thought of today’s social media.

Let me begin by saying, I absolutely loathe Facebook. I don’t take part in any other social media (besides Goodreads) but I do have a FB account which I check maybe once every couple of weeks. I keep it basically to stay in contact with those family or long-time friends with whom I’d otherwise have no communication. I rarely post anything and rarely read the updates.

But there is always news about how it can be good and bad for each individual. Yes, we as humans like to be heard. There are those people who post every. single. step. they take during the day. And how many people post random things just to elicit reactions, or ‘likes’ or ‘hearts’ or comments. How many people post selfies all the time? We want to be seen!

The down side of it is many people post all the great things happening in their life. They post their most beautiful glamour shot, their most exotic recent vacation, the lottery ticket that won, etc. and here I am sitting at home alone on a Friday night wondering when I’m going to get a life! Haha but in the news that’s what it’s talking about. Social media like FB can be destructive for ones self-esteem. Ones outside social life. It can distort one’s view of the real world!

In your opinion, how is art SO much of a better way of expression, a way to be seen and heard?