Art/Design

What defines art? What defines design? I believe the answers to these two questions are extremely subjective. Already while discussing this matter in class we came upon several answers, many of which did not agree with another. On one hand we have Eames who very distinctly described design as "a plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose." To Eames, utility and usefulness were absolute requirements when distinguishing something as a design. When Sherin described what she believed art/design were, she had a specific list comprised of necessary elements that categorized something as design. This list included such elements as functionality, purpose, physicality, uniqueness, and skill. The elements that categorized something as art were very straightforward: shape, color, line, texture, value, and point. Already, after reading a few student responses to this, I have seen various perspectives that in some ways coincide with my own thoughts and in others, collide with them. Personally, I find it extremely difficult to come up with a specific locked-down list of traits that categorize something as art or design. as mentioned earlier, I find both to be extremely subjective. One person may find art in something that another does not. This also plays into the issue of time and the essential "shelf-life" of art. as mentioned earlier in class, if a simple household object like a coffee mug is placed on a pedestal with a spotlight on it with a plaque in an art exhibit, it may very well be considered art...at that moment. But what about when the exhibit is over, the lights go down, and the coffee mug is taken off that pedestal--is it still art? What about when it's taken off the pedestal, washed, taken home, and coffee is put inside of it? Does it not revert back to nothing more than a functional coffee mug? In my mind, art is all about one's own personal opinion. How can one tell another that what they are looking at- whether it be the painting of the mona lisa or a contemporary artist's exhibit- is or is not art? I do agree with some aspects of Eames and Sherin and the rest of the class' ideas on what typically/usually constitutes art and design, but think that these restrictions must be taken with a grain of salt and a lot of leeway. I read once that the differences between art and design lie not so much in how they look as in what they do: they have different purposes, they are made differently, are judged by different criteria and have different audiences.