Reading Due: Freeland, Intro and Chapters 1 & 2

But is it art?
Freeland talks about rituals in chapter one. She also talks about the shock value of blood, and give the example of "Ron Athey who is HIV positive, and cut a fellow performer on stage, and then hung blood-soaked paper towels over the audience, creating a panic." She talks about how the use of blood is controversial and "does not forge meaningful associations." Why is our society so fearful of blood? Is it the fear of disease? the color? the fact that it comes from inside a human body?
She then goes on to talk about the term aesthetics, and how it is a greek word meaning sensation or perception. So is the aesthetic experience simply just evoking a feeling from viewing something? She mentions Kant, and his view as the account of beauty and our reponse to it.
In Chapter two, she discusses great philosophers like Aristotle and Euripides. And goes on to discuss Versailles and Kant, how there are classical allusions everywhere in Versailles and France. She goes on to discuss Andy Warhol's brillo boxes and how Danto objected to them and thought they should not be accepted in the art world. This is intersting because Andy Warhol is one of the great artists of his time, and his recognizable images make him memorable.Danto said that the boxes were well made but did not want to endorse any particular piece of art.

So I find myself coming back to the same question,
Who is the one to decide that a piece of art is worthy for the art world?
and
What makes a piece good, or bad?