Nick - Everything Is Art

I'm sitting listening to fireworks going off outside of my window, and my reaction to them is always the same. I look at them in awe, and then I think about the person who put them together.

Fireworks are something I don't know how to make. And I'm guessing that's true for most people. But seeing the brilliant explosions makes me picture the person who does know how to make them. The person who meticulously arranged the ingredients in the right places so that the colors and shapes all align perfectly and detonate at just the right altitude. I've even seen fireworks that explode a second time, or do other cool tricks.

A while back, Roger Ebert famously claimed that video games cannot be art. To which I say, bullshit. Even his defense of the statement shows that they can be, and indeed are. But as Ebert argues with other critics, reviewers, and scholars, about what is and isn't art, all of them are missing the broader point.

Anything that someone does can become art. Dancers can evoke emotion, making them artists. There are electricians who could wire circuits with an intricacy and mastery that you and I couldn't understand. Scientists and athletes alike have refined their trades into a kind of art.

Everything is art.