Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site unc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!mcnc!unc!wfi From: wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) Newsgroups: net.music,net.music.classical Subject: Re: Progress, the Arts, Razor Blades and Bull Message-ID: <164@unc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 12:43:37 EST Article-I.D.: unc.164 Posted: Tue Mar 5 12:43:37 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 8-Mar-85 03:51:43 EST References: <8347@brl-tgr.ARPA> <109@spar.UUCP>Reply-To: wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill Lines: 30 Xref: watmath net.music:6391 net.music.classical:965 Summary: > ... Arts are made by people > using tools and the tools improve. What if Leonardo had available > the paints we have today. That doesn't make our painters Leonardos, > but given equal talent (almost never happens - or hasn't happened yet) > more can be done by the artist with the better tools. What exactly does this mean? Do you mean that today's paints would have made DaVinci a 'better' artist, a more prolific artist, or what? Does this mean Shakespeare, Pope, Shelley, Wordsworth, Pound, Eliot, etc. would have been 'better' writers if they'd had word processors? > What if a Leonardo or a Titian could work in the present audio-visual arts? Then we'd have a Leonardo or a Titian working in the present audio-visual arts. So? > Furthermore, I assert that the works of Leonardo (practically a > modern) are in every way superior to those of "Ugh, the Nut" well > known neanderthal artist of the middle period... Why? Because 'Ugh' used charcoal and clays, and Leonardo had the benefit of advanced tools? Check out the accomplishments of the Neolithic artists at Lascaux (sp?) if you want to see what can be accomplished with 'primitive' tools. Art is a product of the human *brain* (or 'mind', if you will); if a great artist has only unshaped rocks to work with, s/he'll produce great art with unshaped rocks. W. F. Ingogly University of North Carolina