What is this? [Evangelion Girlfriend of Steel?]

[Onideus_Mad_Hatter]

Again, I suggest you reconsider your definitions, though not to say you have to.

It seems you're more fascinated with technical/mechanical/structural achievements as opposed to creative ones. Doesn't that sort of go more into a technical realm rather than artistic?

Myself, I do like technical achievements, but I don't lump them together with art. Art is based on adequacy, not perfection.

Personally, again, nothing personal - but your view of art slightly offends me

I think it offends you because you acknowledge that it's true one level or another, but you don't WANT to see it that way.

True creativity *IS* fueled by technical achievement. Although I think harmony and symetry of design would be a better way of saying it. But it does go both ways. There's absolute perfection and then there's perfection in chaos. Usually art exists in one form and it's chaotic and then through the course of time perfection in design is found within the chaos. For instance if you were to compare an amateur heavy metal guitarist to an experienced one. The experienced one has found ways to derive harmony and continuity from the chaos of just banging on the instrument.

Basically what you seem to be upset by is the fact that I'm talking about perfection like it's a set mathematical formula and I'm really not. In a lot of cases "good" art is taking chaos and finding a way to derive harmony out of it. NGE simply isn't "good" art though. It takes chaos and basically just leaves it there without doing anything with it. So much so that, as I said, most people either just hate it, or they start consiously or subconsiously trying to see things in it that aren't actually there because they're TRYING to find a harmony within the chaos. And usually if they've enough imagination they can do it, but only be seeing things that aren't really there in it's true form.

[Otohiko]

No, I'm not saying technical mastery is useless. I'm saying that it alone is useless.

I don't speak from just dumbheaded personal convictions.

I know and have seen technically perfect or near-perfect artists (particularly musicians and painters) who can create the most complex patterns which fail to tell me anything of value at all.

At the same time, I've seen artists of all sorts create a great deal of resonance with a stroke or two.

It doesn't offend me because it's all true, though it is true to a limited extend. It offends me because my experience is direct proof to the contrary, and because in my experience, good art that honors sufficiency has produced enough resonance to consider it personally valuable and even sacred.