Of course - there's definitely good and bad and inbetween. For
me, it's not a field I ever felt qualified to judge. Here's what
moves me with art: You made that. I know you made that because
you told me. Because you made that and we're friends, I'm
emotionally invested in giving it a thorough look at and
appreciation for your talent and creativity. If somebody else
made that that I did not know, I don't know how I would judge
it. In fact, I don't know if I _could_ judge it. Music I could
probably judge. Writing I could probably judge. But art is
something I don't do well at judging. When I ran a Minecraft
server (which was a creative server) for 2 years, thousands and
thousands of kids, teens and adults built creations on there out
of virtual materials. They had free access to anything
non-destructive to build with. And so they would spend hours and
days, weeks and months on these creations. Massive buildings.
Pixel art, whatever they chose. No restrictions outside of the
technical restrictions of the medium. Sometimes they'd ask me to
judge in a contest. I'd always refuse. I couldn't do it. Not for
ethical reasons. Not because it wouldn't be fair. It's because I
don't know how much heart someone put into something. I don't
know how much thought or effort it took. I don't know how much
they care. Those are the metrics that I go with. It's not really
a choice; it's just how I see things. == Indeed. Of course
societies always pop up with their own rules and guidelines for
what's good and bad and people trust and follow their opinions
and judgements on things. There's a place for all of that I
think smile emoticon
