# What art is

Art is any expression of the human condition. To that end, all art is a [creation](creations.md), even if it was [grown](plants.md) or created via automation [technology](technology.md).

The consumption and expression of art is a critical component of living [the good life](people-goodlife.md). Without it, we tend to flounder in our connection with [meaning](meaning.md).

[God](theology-god.md) has created art within nature, and that represents itself in how we find inherent [beauty](values-quality.md) in many naturally-occurring things. All our derived works are pulled straight from nature.

APPLICATION: To create beautiful art, consult nature. To create ugly art (such as a [post-modern expression](philosophy.md)), consult something abstracted from nature like [technology](technology.md) or [man's sin](theology-sins.md).

## Art culture

Since the capturing of art is perpetually working within the realm of [The Unknown](unknown.md), the [culture](people-culture.md) of artists is composed of equally adventurous and [unhinged](mind-neurodivergence.md) individuals.

APPLICATION: Artists, by their [personality](people-personality.md), aren't very efficient workers, so never expect reliable work from them.

## Evoking feelings

The entire purpose of art is to evoke a [feeling](mind-feelings.md), and most people intuitively perceive the [quality](values-quality.md) of a piece of art by several criteria:

1. How effectively a feeling was evoked.
2. The range of feelings that have been sufficiently evoked.
3. How well those feelings have captured an experience to make it seem [real](reality.md).

This is far harder than it sounds. It requires several conditions:

1. The creator is intimately in touch with their own feelings.
2. The creator has skill in some form of media to express those feelings.
3. The creator remembers their audience enough that they avoid over-expressing feelings in a way that muddles the intended message.

Further, the audience must believe that the created work took significant effort (e.g., not through [automation technology](technology.md)).

- However, the work doesn't have to *be* a significant effort (e.g., a highly talented individual). It simply must look difficult to the person consuming the performance.

## Primitives

It's only natural, in the flow of evoking feelings, that some media and [genres](art-genres.md) will have some set standards that always work to evoke an experience.

Those standards often create tropes that represent repeatedly throughout that type of work.

These primitives expand into increasingly advanced forms of [media](art-media.md).

The [genre](art-genres.md) contributes heavily to the desired and expected style.

### Tropes

Animation

- Bright and vibrant contrasting colors unless it's an intentionally dismal setting
- Even with lifelike animation, everything is vastly exaggerated

Stage

- All emotional expressions are accompanied by flagrant body language

Film

- The 1-hour mark defines the most memorable part of the film, irrespective of the rest of the film's length

Games

- Make the player character either incredibly uninteresting (for the player to act out their preferred behaviors) or set to be a few major possible roles (to reflect the general decisions of the player)