Cynthia Freeland's But Is It Art?

In the book, “But is it art?”, Cynthia Freeland takes a philosophical approach to allow the reader to understand why people decide to create art. In the beginning of the book, Freeland starts by explaining that some artists use scare tactics to promote their art. She mentions that using bodily fluid such as in Andres Serrano’s artwork is intended not to be controversial, but are not provided with a context for the public to often understand and appreciate (Freeland 2001: 7). Some artists feel the best way to express themselves is with blood or urine and some object that can be combined and presented to the public, as a way to get closer to the ideology behind the object. Women decided to create art not to only express themselves, but to let …show more content…
In the book “Theatre: a very short introduction” Carlson introduces the thought of theater as an art. Theater is commonly represented in art as actual events that take place in human life, or fantasy and dramatic ideas that are presented in an audience. The most relatable and earliest tradition of theater is improvisation, created to attract the audience’s attention and make them happy (Carlson 2014: 54). In most situations of daily life, people are not granted a script, it is just a repetition of improvisation throughout different conversations and actions. This is the main reason why improvisation is so important as artwork in theater, people relate and remember the performance they saw if they feel it was more spontaneous and reflective of their own lives. Because theater is so dependent on the audience, human figures are necessary in any form of theater through speech in order to truly tell their story (Carlson 2014: 72). Theater draws to the general public in a performance that other art forms can’t reach, as it is the closest way for emotions to be reached and is quick to instill an appreciation for human art …show more content…
Turkish music is often described as “rural”, especially turku, which is folk music presented in the Turkish music and has certain regulations on the contents of the songs (Bates 2011: 3). Another style of music in Turkey is usul, which has various rhythmic variations that allow it to be considered “urban” with the inclusion of dramatic tension and musical time (Bates 2011: 51). Multiple arrangements in Turkey included government ensembles, traditional music from the Black Sea, the Alevi genre, and Turkish poetry. Turkish musical arrangements incorporate the traditional instruments in folk-dance style songs, while Alevi music began to include foreign instruments (Bates 2011: 85). The arrangements of music allow Turkish artists to remain creative in urban music since most of their culture prefers the artful forms of traditional music (Bates 2011: 73). However, a large portion of Turkish music is regulated so that the context must not have religious statements or must be translated from languages such as Kurdish to ensure that the only songs are performed in the accepted language of Turkish (Bates 2011: 80 & 91). Music in Turkey might always be developing, but it never strays too far from its traditional