Art & Everything Else

Welcome to our new dialogue podcast. Your hosts are the philosopher Dr Sean Power and art theory graduate and curator Leila Johnston. In this first episode, we discuss the value of art and artists. Some of the questions we think about in this episode: * Are artists like doctors or school teachers, producing something of value and importance that contributes to the smooth running of society? * Does the 'background' art we find in hotels and new property developments have a value, beyond a kind of 'serving suggestion' of what art might be? * Is it OK to police art, and offer support to some sorts of artists, but not others? * How are we distinguishing between art we like and art we don't?

In this episode, we discuss the relationship between art, time and memory. We discuss art's potential to depict time and mortality, with reference to Poussin's 'Dance to the Music of Time' and 'Et in Arcadia Ego' and others. Here are some of the questions we think about in this episode: * How have creative thinkers dealt with the idea of something before the beginning of time? * Why is it important that art can survive the test of time? Is there a truly ephemeral art that's also valuable and effective? * Is it possible or desirable to create an art piece that is designed not to be remembered, or is forgetting a kind of tyranny?   Your hosts are the philosopher Dr Sean Power and art theory graduate and curator Leila Johnston.  

In this episode, we discuss art's broader social value, and interrogate private ownership. Here are some of the questions we think about in this episode: * Do we have any right to privately own and keep art which has value on a social level? * Is the value of art somehow 'uneven' – varying according to context?  * How does the value of art change if it's truly democratised? * What kind of art should be made public? Your hosts are the philosopher Dr Sean Power and art theory graduate and curator Leila Johnston.