I generally consider art to be an expression of ideas. A craft is an expression of skill.
Further "These are arts that have no audience, other than practitioners of the art itself. Another word for a craft is a hobby." This is patently false. Perhaps the archetypal craft is basket-weaving. It's a hobby for some, but for others (especially in certain regions) it's a profession. The "audience" is anyone that wants a basket. Perhaps some of that audience can appreciate the difference between a good basket and a bad one. That does not require that they be a practitioner of basket-weaving themselves.
In fact, of the terms art and craft, the latter is the one that is reasonably well defined. Things only get fuzzy when you get into whether or not a craft is art. Not because of the fuzzy definition of a craft, but because of the fuzzy definition of art.
> Perhaps some of that audience can appreciate the difference between a good basket and a bad one. That does not require that they be a practitioner of basket-weaving themselves.
This is actually pretty close to how I personally define a "professional": A professional is someone whose work can only be judged by other professionals of the same domain.
Obvious failure modes are exempted. Anyone can tell you about a bad bridge after it has failed. But it would take a bridge engineer to tell you that before it fails.
> Anyone can tell you about a bad bridge after it has failed. But it would take a bridge engineer to tell you that before it fails.
Right, especially since bridge engineers don't produce bridges, but rather produce designs for bridges, the quality of which can only be judged by other bridge engineers.
I generally consider art to be an expression of ideas. A craft is an expression of skill.
What about artforms that might not necessarily express an idea as such, but instead try to instil a mood or feeling?
A normal viewer will look at, say, a David Lynch film and feel a sense of unease. Someone with a deeper interest in film will feel that sense of unease and know the tricks David Lynch uses to achieve that effect.
I've always seen the difference as 'craft' ends up with a device whose function is orthogonal to its art. That is, something functional whose function isn't 'to be looked at/experienced'.
I generally consider art to be an expression of ideas. A craft is an expression of skill.
Further "These are arts that have no audience, other than practitioners of the art itself. Another word for a craft is a hobby." This is patently false. Perhaps the archetypal craft is basket-weaving. It's a hobby for some, but for others (especially in certain regions) it's a profession. The "audience" is anyone that wants a basket. Perhaps some of that audience can appreciate the difference between a good basket and a bad one. That does not require that they be a practitioner of basket-weaving themselves.
In fact, of the terms art and craft, the latter is the one that is reasonably well defined. Things only get fuzzy when you get into whether or not a craft is art. Not because of the fuzzy definition of a craft, but because of the fuzzy definition of art.