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7 November, 2007

Who's it for?

In a (long) interview with Ridley Scott for the Guardian, Stephen Moss says:

Film can aspire to be art but, equally, art must show awareness of its audience.

An artist who wishes to be popular does indeed need some level of market awareness, but I strongly disagree that art must by definition be audience-orientated. Art may be partially defined as 'that which inspires an intellectual/emotional reaction', but it's not necessary for the artist to preempt or define the reaction nor, therefore, who will experience that reaction.

Posted by Ministry at 14:36 | 87 words
Comments

Okay, I'm not usually so pedantic, but this is one of my pet peeves. "Orientated" is not a word! The verb is "to orient", so the past tense is "oriented". "Orientated" is a bastardized back-construction from the noun form "orientation". Rant over. Thank you.

Posted by Jon. at November 7, 2007 04:41 PM

According to the OED:
"It really doesn't matter: it's a matter of personal taste.
Orientated is currently preferred use in general British use. Oriented is prevalent in technical use, and in the US."

I'd certainly never knowingly use 'oriented'. That sounds as if it means 'despatched to the Far East'. ;)

Posted by NRT at November 7, 2007 05:10 PM
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