Brutkey

sodiboo :pride_heart:
@sodiboo@gaysex.cloud

Is engineering art?

like, undoubtedly, there are engineers who make art with those skills. take Mark Rober, and e.g. his autonomous piano. there's no practical purpose to that; it's just cool and enjoyable. that's art.

I'm not trying to say engineers can't be artists. most are both. but is engineering distinct from art? or is it an artform?

by "engineering" I really mean here any kind of "means to an end" creation where the creation itself or the act of creation is not the actual reward.

for instance, most people just need a house to live in. so an architect designs the building and builders build it. an architect "draws" blueprints, but it's their job, and there's a clear purpose. drawing is usually considered an artform, but not all drawing is art. drawing a grid to align stuff on a wall also isn't necessarily art. I would say both of these are forms of engineering.

I would broadly classify most forms of creation into "engineering", which is usually to create a tool that is used for a purpose ("tool" also very broadly defined: a house is a tool that you live in), or "not engineering", something created for the inherent sake of it, that wasn't "necessary" for another purpose, but just enjoyable in and of itself.

another example, is in programming: if you are working a 9-to-5 job building a frontend for your sparkling water web store, you are building a "tool". that is engineering, you are paid to create a product to a specification. the website is just a means to an end, with the ends being sparkling water. users want to buy sparkling water from you.

on the other hand, game development is usually done for the sake of creating the game. users want to play the game, the actual thing you are working on, that is inherently enjoyable. this is less "engineering" to me. this is created for the sake of creation.

and with those examples, it might be tempting to call the "not engineering" disciplines "art". but this is a label that feels weird to assign precisely. it basically excludes the entire field of "building houses" from being art. which I feel like it totally can be.

but I'm not sure what else to call the "not engineering" disciplines. it feels like that's what art is. but I want engineering to also be art.

I'm not confused about the boundaries of this division between "engineering" and not. it feels pretty clear and intuitive to me. i just need help placing the label or "art" into this world view.

is it all art, or is engineering distinct from art?

is engineering art?