Afterword: Why you shouldn’t care what ‘Art’ is

Written by Colin Wu

Firstly, I would like to thank the 82 Awareness team for providing a platform for me to share my opinions, the other speakers for their insightful speeches, and all who listened several weeks back.

As fun as the M.A.K.E. talk was, I left feeling I could have said certain things more articulately or raised better examples. Luckily, the other day I came across a relatable quote that summarises a certain point in my talk quite succinctly. It comes from the early 20th-century Polish writer and playwright Witold Gombrowicz - don’t worry I have no clue who this is also - and he says that:

Literary criticism is not the judging of one man by another (who gave you this right?) but the meeting of two personalities on absolutely equal terms. Therefore: do not judge. Simply describe your reactions. Never write about the author or the work, only about yourself in confrontation with the work or the author. You are allowed to write about yourself.

I’m sure there is much to agree or disagree with here. Regardless, I can see this being translatable to ‘art’ when thinking about what Nisa presented about artistic intentions, context, and power. This perspective can also compliment Duanran’s talk on Isaiah Berlin’s notion of ‘decency’ in social discourse and behaviour. Engaging this quote along with our seemingly disparate talks should leave one with plenty to think about and plenty to discover about your own concepts about the world.

Instead of providing a link for further reading, I encourage you all to take just a bit of time out of any day to discover some new art, philosophies, business models, social policies, or whatever it is that interests you. I am sure Nisa, Duanran, myself, and many others on your floors have something in mind they would want to share!

Hope you all learn something new and have a great day.