The evolution of art. Where is art going? In what sense does art progress? What is progression in art? Start by simplistically defining art as a reflection of the times. Thus, art principally progresses with cultural and technological progression. Culture progresses the message in art, while technology progresses the media by which art is made to deliver its message.

Culture => What?
Tech => How?

Reflection implies communication. Thus, art is principally a form of communication. Art, then, communicates to that which created what it reflects, which is, in this case, what it reflects, or culture, using the tools that it created to reflect itself, which is, in this case, technology. Therefore, given that art is created by the creators of its reflection, art is principally a form of self-reflection and, moreover, self-awareness.

The effectiveness of art, then, is its ability to reflect its state of self-awareness. And it stands to reason, since art is its own entity within culture, that progression is only as reflective as it is effective, which involves the element of education. Art can only reflect what its creator knows how to reflect and art cannot reflect what its creator has not learned to see.

Considering that culture and technology always change, progression is not always aligned with effectiveness in art and it may happen that art loses effectiveness if culture does not require education to use the technology that formerly served the purpose of increasing effectiveness. And if effectiveness diminishes, so must self-reflection and the communicability of art.

So, where is art going? In my opinion, art is going away, because culture chooses not to educate itself, and education diminishes because culture chooses not to see itself. Culture no longer wants art and it no longer understands how to use technology to progress culture.

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