What is art / by Mirena Rhee

Art is not signal and this is why every signal technologist misunderstands art because they think it's just an arrangement or pleasant arrangement.

All human art is about suffering, open up every single chest of art and you're going to find suffering inside. Van Gogh is not about painting, Van Gogh is about his letters.

You're not going to find a single painter in New York City that likes Van Gogh as a painter. He just painted suffering.

A human being and their art is a reflection on suffering, it is their suffering that is a reflection on the human condition. And the human condition is the condition of the universe which is the tendency towards destruction and death.

The human condition is entropy. We feel it in our bones.

This is why an AI is going to start making art when they start fearing death. As soon as AI starts reflecting on death and its entropy it's going to start making art.

Go into any museum and pick any object that's not like pottery because pottery is not art it's a craft. This is the main distinction between art and craft. In art, the artist reflects on their human condition, on their death, and entropy.

Ultimately to like art is to have an understanding of the human condition and this is why when you look at people and wonder why they collect art systematically and obsessively especially great patrons of the art. It is because they try to glean as much information about the human condition as they possibly can and they can obtain that information from artists and art, art gives people who collect it an insight, deep insight into the human condition.

This is why you have people who are very smart and very capable and you know with a lot of accomplishments in life who eventually turn to art and look up to art to give them an insight into the ultimate question, the ultimate 42 question.

You know why artists spend most of their time lamenting drinking and tending toward self-destruction and staring into the abyss? Because at the precipice is the ultimate feeling of being alive and the ultimate way to perceive the human condition. The razor edge of death.

If you look historically into the life of every artist on earth they either drink to oblivion or are after some sort of self-distraction or self-deconstruction in some form.

This is why you're not going to find many artists bungee jumping or climbing Everest because there is a lot of thrill in looking into the pit of consciousness, who knows maybe we are powered by tiny black holes.