pkalHere

That is needlessly reductive. Architecture is considered an applied art, as is fashion and interior design. I'm glad you brought up the concept of consensus and experience. The audience is the other half of the work. There are many people, myself included, who believe that a piece of art is a collaborative effort between the artist and the viewer. An author may write a book, but it's not complete until it's actually read and interpreted. Once you get your hands on, say, a copy of the Bible, it becomes more than just a bunch of ink on paper because of the experiences and unique perception of the world that you carry with you. The fact that many people can read it, analyze it, discuss it, and continue to find new things to discuss and interpret it is the reason why the book has lasted so long (well, one of the reasons). Ditto for Shakespeare and Neon Genesis. It's really best to get rid of the idea of "the message" in art because as tempting as it might be to believe there's some kind of puzzle or meaning that you just need to uncover, it diminishes your ability to create the other half of the art.

You can't really toss out a "here's a topic, discuss" without giving an discussion starter. And you did that, it's just that your starter was about your presentation and not your thoughts on hentai as art. Seriously, posting that would have been a good way to get this thread on track. Anyway, a lot of the argument in this thread seems to be based around conflating fine art and applied art (or crafts). Fine art is art which emphasizes aesthetic experience and meaning, placing form before function. Applied art (and crafts) are the opposite, function comes first and foremost and aesthetic/meaning are secondary. The line between them is blurry. A painting or print can be used in advertising, which is certainly applied art, whereas a sculpture made from welding rusted car parts together would likely fall into the realm of fine art. Clearly the medium doesn't define what is "fine art" and what isn't. Film and photography certainly straddle that line. The reason I bring this up is because we can now focus our attention on pornography which can be filmed, written, drawn, rendered, etc. What line would pornography need to cross in order to be considered fine art? I argue that it can't. If it's pornography, it's created specifically for the purpose of getting people off. There was a >$1 million porn parody of Pirates of the Caribbean made a couple of years ago (come to think of it, close to a decade); it had a plot, actors actually acting as well as fucking, a musical score, costumes, etc. None of those things elevate it from being "a really expensive porn film". The real question you should be asking is "What is Pornography?"

Because you haven't given us any context for your story. You keep saying "I explained it in the presentation" but you haven't actually posted your presentation, your notes, your essays on the subject, or anything that might lead us to believe that you actually explained it well. Right now the thread is roasting you because you haven't given us anything substantial to work with and so our imaginations are going wild working on the one piece of information you've given. You're in the best place with people who are most receptive to discussing "hentai as art", and yet you chose to have that discussion in school and not here?