Art Vs Science: 5 Reasons Blogging Is An Art Form
By Matt Jones on Feb 13, 2008 in Creative Blogging
Defining the difference between art and science is very difficult and is a bit of an art form in itself. I often think of it as a difference in viewing or creating information. Qualitative vs quantitative. Numbers, formulas and theories verses words, images and music.
Side Of Sauce concludes that, “Science is about right and wrong and finding the truth, art is about winning the popular vote“. (emphasis is mine).
Building a successful blog involves the use of lots of different skills, some of which could be called science (e.g. traffic stats analysis), but ultimately it is about winning the popular vote.
Photography by
jepoirrier
5 Reasons Blogging Is An Art form
1. Blogging is never finished or perfect. Just like art there are always imperfections and by definition an active blog can not be “completed”.
2. Blogging is propaganda. Blogging is not about bettering the world or giving people what they need; it’s about giving people what they think they want. This is Persuasion of the masses also known as politics.
3. Some people will never be able to blog, no matter how much you teach them. This is because blogging involves being able to express the creative part of the brain. Some people just can’t do that, in just the same way I’ll never be able to become a mathematician or a “real” programmer. They see blogging as being “too pointless”. After all if it doesn’t involve any number crunching it must just be something stupid people do, right?
4. Blogging relies on inspiration. Sure, news blogs just cover the news, but that is journalism really. With science there is always a problem that needs solving. With blogging you actually have to have that “idea” moment before writing a post.
5. A large part of blogging success is left down to chance. Science is all about eliminating chance by planning. This is true for blogging as well but there are so many factors that cannot be planned for in blogging. For example bloggers can practice good Search Engine Optimization, but as long as Google is in charge we will never know the precise success formula.
I really want to know what everyone else thinks about this. If you could do a degree in blogging would be a science or arts degree? Let me know in the comments, or write a post about it yourself and I’ll link to you in part 2.
Coming up I will put forward 5 Compelling Reasons Blogging Is A Science. Subscribe the the RSS to get part 2 of the Art Vs Science series. Which will prevail?
Technorati Tags: art, science, theories, Blogging
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You could say that each of your five reasons could apply equally to science and not just art.
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Interesting.
What about number 2? True science isn’t propaganda.
And number 5
The definition of science is “knowledge attained through experimentation”. Experimentation is, “A test or procedure carried out under controlled conditions to determine the validity of a hypothesis or make a discovery”. So for science to find the truth (and be successful) chance has to be eliminated. It does not with art or blogging because success is not determined by the truth being found. Success in blogging is subjective.
I agree, but..everyone is able to speak , sign read..better or worse, but evryone can do it! The same with blogging..dont need to say, that is something special..
True everyone can blog badly, but to be successful takes more than following a ridged set of rules.
I don’t think someone can be bad at blogging. They might not have the great polish of the ‘pros,’ but I find that you can always learn something from a blog. So I if go out of a blog with more than what I came in with, the person is successful b/c they taught me something. So get out there and blog!