The routes: Art Vs. Craft

A forum for general discussion of the game: Open to all punters


User avatar
Charmant
Posts: 564
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 4:00 pm

Re: The routes: Art Vs. Craft

Post by Charmant »

SpunkySix wrote:My Philosophy of Art class has been talking a lot about expressionism, and the distinction between art and craft. Basically, the idea is that while craft is designed to make you feel a certain way, art allows you to come to your own conclusions and express unique, individuated emotions along with the original artist in a collaboration of sorts.

I feel like this can make for some interesting discussion here, since it touches on things we've already talked about, but it gives us new terminology to better explain our positions to each other. Specifically, Lilly's route has seemingly been criticized at times for being too much like craft, and Shizune's route often takes heat for being art without enough formal structure to hold it up properly, along with Rin's. The other two routes seem to be up for more intense debate, seeing as they tend to be viewed as more of a middle ground from what I gather.

What do you think of this? Which routes are art, which are craft, and in the end, does it really even matter to you?
Which are art? All of them. Which are craft? All of them.

Every route is designed with certain ideas and themes which will lead to certain thoughts and feelings. Craft.
Every route possesses the capacity to lead to things other than what was specifically designed. Art.

Picture a tram track running through otherwise isolated land. On one side is forest. On the other, a beach.
The track, that's craft. The beach and the forest to either side are art.
The craft will lead to a specifically planned point. But it will generally pass adjacent to or through art to reach that point.

If the beach and forest weren't there, the tram wouldn't be there - because there are no sights to see.
If the track wasn't there, the beach and forest would go unseen, unappreciated, unexplored.
Yet craft can exist without art - the tram will function just as well in a mechanical sense even if traveling through a wasteland.
And art can exist without craft - whether seen or not, the beach and the forest will be there.
But both suffer greatly for the subtraction.

Those paintings of red squares on white fields are art - but no craft. They suffer for it. Yet some enjoy the art regardless.
A building composed solely of big gray square of hollow concrete is craft - but no art. It also suffers yet it functions nonetheless.
Both fulfill their functions but both also draw far more negative reception for what they lack.

Shizune's route is mostly art. Lilly's route is (according to many, I do disagree) mostly craft. But Shizune's route is still good art and Lilly's route is still good craft (opinions may vary), respectively. You may criticize Shizune's route for being too unstructured but it has invited discussions time and again amongst advocate and critic alike, as art should. You may criticize Lilly's route for being too formulaic and planned but it still brings out the intended feelings often even in its critics, as craft should.
Post Reply