Re: Artists and Engineers

Michael Butler (mbutler@ocv1.ocv.com)
Tue, 29 Oct 1996 11:09:42 PST


>But a engineer's main goal is function whereas an artist's primary goal is
>form.

I could not disagree more.

This is a banal, commonplace trope, and unworthy of you.

Real, competent engineers appreciate elegance, simplicity, absurdity,
parallelism, reliability and a host of other qualitative characteristics which
are "good art" as they practice it.

Contrariwise, an artist's primary goal is function--an _illustrator_ or a
_designer_ may have form as his _stated_ objective, but the _function_ of
the work, as an interesting or worthwhile or just irritating form, must still
predominate if the work is to be successful. QED.

The Greeks had one word for art and technology. They may have been
mediocre experimentalists, but they got one thing right. :)

MMB, at but not for OCV