On Collingwood....

I have to disagree with Collingwood as far as his theory on the difference between art and craft. According to Collingwood, craft is something that is preconceived to express a specific, preconceived emotion. Craft is something that involves technique and skill, in transforming raw materials into a finished product. We can easily differentiate between these raw materials and the finished product. Also, there is much planning involved when it comes to craft- planning is separate from execution and the more planning, generally the better the product will be. So Collingwood says that if the art has any of these qualities, they are in fact, not art but craft. I have to disagree with this, because I think that craft itself is an art- it is an intelligent design and each of the elements of craft (the planning, the technique of execution) are very intellectual and creative. The artist, say a carpenter, must design the plans for the table, experiment and figure out what techniques will work best for the look he wants the finished product to have. I think that the very idea of envisioning the final product and the emotion/look that you want it to have is one of the most important parts of art. I suppose it just comes down to different ways of approaching art- either art is a process, experimental and without boundaries, or it involves planning, technique and a preconceived outcome. Either way, I believe that both of these approaches fall under a very broad and inclusive category of ART.