Coming into the beginning of the semester, I was dreading this class. In high school and even before that, I never had been able to get an A in an art class. Even more importantly, I never truly understood art’s purpose. Right in the beginning of the semester this was clarified for me, art could be anything that I wanted it to be. Art did not have to only be things like John Singer Sargent’s “Madame X”.
I was intrigued to learn this because I do not resonate with traditional art. What I think of when I think of art is motorsports, whether it be drifting, circuit racing, drag racing, or even aerial acrobatics. I find the melding of man and machine to be truly beautiful. My go-to example of this melding is drifting, here’s a great clip of it. Watch the run starting at the three minute mark.
In competition drifting, you are scored on style. The scoring is completely subjective, just like art is. The driver who looks the best on his run, wins. These drivers wrestle, and I mean WRESTLE with 1000+HP cars, trying to keep them as sideways as possible, while coming within inches of each other, sometimes giving a friendly tap. This is what I resonate with. The few times I have driven my car in snow I was able to get it sideways and see what it feels like to drift in a controlled environment. Driving sideways is all about finesse and balance, no madder how many times I practice it on a simulator, it still feels like a totally new experience for me every time I do it. When you get it just right it is immensely gratifying and it makes me smile every time.
Ultimately, when I combine my own experiences with what we have experienced in class, I am able to come up with a statement that encompasses my mood toward art: Each person has their own type of art, and that type of art makes them happy. I love motorsports and some people love traditional portraits, there is something for everyone!
Brandon, I was really interested to read about how you find art within your passion of racing. I always viewed racing as a sport, but you bring up a good point, that the technical skill and finesse needed in racing and specifically drifting make it into an art. Each driver in drifting has a vision of what he wants his car to look like and by creating that vision, he is indeed making art. You bring up an interesting point how practicing the art in a simulator and doing it are two completely different things. I think that the simulator is the equivalent of scales in music; they both help you develop the skills necessary to create the art, yet it is still up to the artist to actually create the art.
Brandon, I was really interested to read about how you find art within your passion of racing. I always viewed racing as a sport, but you bring up a good point, that the technical skill and finesse needed in racing and specifically drifting make it into an art. Each driver in drifting has a vision of what he wants his car to look like and by creating that vision, he is indeed making art. You bring up an interesting point how practicing the art in a simulator and doing it are two completely different things. I think that the simulator is the equivalent of scales in music; they both help you develop the skills necessary to create the art, yet it is still up to the artist to actually create the art.
I appreciate how you were able to find an artistic view point through a passion that isn’t considered a “fine art”. I agree with you in that art is unique to each person. There virtually no limitation on what can be considered art and what can considered to not be art. And so if your passion is cars, and if you feel conviction from watching the style of cars driving, then there is no reason why that shouldn’t be constituted as art. The driving video that you posted is a creative process in which the drivers use their skills to move in a certain way in order to achieve some sort of impression. That very much seems like art to me.