Why Make Art During Calamity?

Question:

During times of calamity, why make art?

Why make photos? Drawings? Illustrations? Videos? Music? Poems? Writings? Why make anything?

My thought

Art can be seen in a very general way. We can think of art as ars— the Latin word for art. But art in this sense is thought of as technique, approach, craft. How to put things together, and how to JOIN things together.

So the “art” of poetry should be better thought of as the technique of poetry — how one puts together words and ideas to make a great poem. Ars Poetica from Horace does that exactly — he informs us how to to join together words and ideas to make a powerful poem.

Tekhne

Tekhne in Ancient Greek — tetk (in Proto Indo European) refers to create, produce, cut, cut, etc.

Thus if we think of the modern notion of art, perhaps we should better replace with the notion of art as something you’ve created.

Once again — art isn’t some “artistically godlike inspired [creative]” painting, epic poem, thing. Art is simply a creation — anything you create is an artwork.

Also — we should perhaps think of art more of a means or a technique, than some demigodlike power to make an insanely realistic painting or depiction of something.

What’s a calamity?

Calamity — kelh — to beat or break. So metaphorically when we experience a calamity, we are getting beaten by the cruelty of life. But, it is within our power whether we allow ourselves to become mentally broken. Also — ask yourself: