(above: “Bored Ape” an NFT)
Art is Changing through NFTs, the Ethereum blockchain, and through art exhibitions within the Metaverse. What is next–the future is changing in real-time, all around us.
ARTS&FOOD® online is your answer. Our site focuses on Art, Food, and The Good Life, enhanced by all of the humanities. Our slogan is “GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE: BEAUTIFUL AND DELICIOUS!™” because the arts we enjoy and consume and the food we love and eat play a major part in the lives we create for ourselves. The Good Life is also covered– with information on Health, Success (the new world of online business), Love, and Happiness.
I want to get very academic for a moment.
The humanities are described as the study of the arts, beauty, and culture, all conceived by the human mind and are the main ingredients defining every past civilization. This “classification of study” goes back to the ancient Greeks, championed by Plato and Aristotle, who contrasted human creations (the humanities) with those they deemed to have been created by the divine.
Today the humanities are defined as THE ARTS vs THE TRADES (training for professions, especially the sciences: mathematics, physics, chemistry, and scientific research) which in Aristotle’s time were thought to be divinely ruled.
The basic humanities are: art, music, literature, dance, theater, and philosophy. Academics debate this point because their list is much longer, including the law, history, languages, sociology, and archaeology among others. Our publication’s focus is on creativity, one of the exclusively human skill sets that separate us from all other animals.
The arts can be a positive distraction for us in these times dominated by our worldwide nemesis, “The Covid Pandemic”. ARTS&FOOD® is dedicated to the humanities; great art, literature, music, dance, theater, etc., wonders and pleasures that along with the culinary arts help make life worth living.
Maybe I have watched too many sci-fi movies like “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, but the powerful forces of nature behind this persistent pandemic makes me wonder. Is Nature showing us, she’s in control, fighting back against our selfish abuse of this planet? If so my message to Nature is… “As bad as mankind’s inhumanity is to other men/women and our environment, please recognize our positive humanity as well.” Mankind has produced great works of joy through art—like Mozart’s music, Michelangelo’s art and architecture, Homer’s literature, Tchaikovsky’s ballet, Shakespeare’s theater-works, and all of the millions of “art makers” who have contributed creative works of beauty, for the betterment of our lives. The humanities, along with scientific progress, are mankind’s positive contributions. Continuing creation is the intended purpose for us to have been placed at the top of the animal kingdom and given this beautiful garden-of-Eden-like planet, as our home.
As long as Covid is with us, we must all be agile and adapt to each new situation as it presents itself, by innovating and overcoming the limitations. We have seen how video conference calls have kept business, education, and families connected over the past two years, and how so many businesses have made pivots to survive. The arts must also follow their lead and embrace new technologies that help the marketplace for creative works flourish during these times! Innovations like NFTs, ongoing blockchain art contracts, and the art exhibitions in the Metaverse erupting during this past year, coming at us fast and furiously. These new processes are making the future of the arts very exciting. It already seems like a whole new art world has been created.
With these disruptions and rapid changes in long-held institutions, we need to remember the adage—The more things change, the more they remain the same. People’s emotions and basic needs will never change, and new technologies must address our humanity in order to succeed.
Embracing “The Good Life” through the arts you love and your favorite foods will make this transition into the future, easier and more enjoyable. We can help, simply start by perusing our new Winter 2022 Issue of ARTS&FOOD®—Guide to the Good Life: Beautiful and Delicious!™
Until later,
Jack A. Atkinson
Editor of ARTS&FOOD®
Published by Jack Atkinson Studios, LLC
