The appreciation of contemporary conceptual art . . . depends not on immediately recognizable skill, but on how the work is situated in today’s intellectual zeitgeist.

(Bring your mouse to the quote above to read The New York Times article.)

On September 25 and 26, you were exposed to the best New York City has to offer: opera at the Met and dance at City Center. How did this explosion of High Culture affect you? Did you become a better person . . . or had the apex of your character perfection been reached years ago?

Nehru once avowed: “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.”

A more cynical stance was taken by Simone Weil, a philosopher suffering from sinusitis: “Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors, who when their turn comes, will manufacture professors.”

What’s your definition?

Sigmund Freud avowed:
“One can’t express aggression and sexual drive directly, as it is prohibited in the society, so these desires get sublimated in telling “jokes.” If you look at jokes, they are either about somebody getting hurt, or they have sexual connotations.”

Marvin Minsky, a pioneer of artificial intelligece, added:
“There are not only general social prohibitions. There are also things your mother told you not to do – like stick your finger into your eye. So when you tell a story about something stupid, you attack the rules of common sense in a safe and socially acceptable manner.”

Do you agree? Did your presentation in class fall into either of these categories?