What Is Art? An Approach to This Subjective Question

This article will cover the basic question about the nature of art, just what is it? Does art record beauty or truth? Does it imitate reality or does it express more than nature itself? Does it create fantasy? Does one need to be skilled to create art? French artist Marcel Duchamp’s “ready-made” series was neither the first nor the last time that supposed art would cause controversy and stir debate on what constitutes the criteria by which an object can be called “art.” As this is but a short article I can only touch on the definition of art, and hopefully not oversimplify it.All through the centuries art includes human agency. After all keep in mind that the word art is related to artificial, which means produced by humans. From the days of cave-dwelling prehistoric people art has been an integral part of our lives. Though we may need art to enhance the enjoyment and meaning in our lives, we do not use it to survive physically.The 11-12th century definition of art according to Oxford English Dictionary is: “Skill at doing anything as a result of knowledge and practice”. This means that the painter who embellished the Book of Kells would have the notion that an artist and craftsman were one and the same. It was not until the Age of Enlightenment, 1700-1800, where the attitude about art started to change. Art started to be considered as the use of skills to produce beauty. New standards of taste and elegance were introduced and the status of the artist was thus elevated.By the 19th century people started to embrace the idea that art was not just meant to please but to aspire towards perfection. While this was a clear reaffirmation of the importance of skill in the creation of beautiful works of art, ideals were also being established imbuing artists as prophetic conduits of new cultural concepts. This ideal is known as the Avant Garde movement in which the artist was considered a member of a sublime class with the power to shape the minds of people with their art. This added to the creative powers of artists to allow them their own answer to “What is art?” The artist was now allowed, even expected, to take liberties with established techniques, subjects and ideas of the role art plays.With the rise of democracy and the middle class art became accessible to more people and so those that had not much exposure before were learning of art and becoming patrons. Modernism in the later 19th century brought forth such movements as impressionism, expressionism and symbolism. The visual language of Modernism is a product of the industrial revolution. The urge to embrace the new realities and materials of the industrial age was a common urge of the masses and through literature, art and design these feelings were expressed. Much of the modernist movements have been attempts to adjust the mind of society at large to the industrial innovations taking place all around.In keeping with human nature there is present then and now a resistance to change and a tendency towards nostalgia and tradition. In visual arts there is a taste for classic decorative details, realism in painting, and a general preference for the elaborate. This is a stark contrast with the modernist simplicity and retreat from realism. The emphasis on form also resulted in attention to the materials used, and the visual qualities they offer.Since then many types of artistic expression previously deemed unconventional have entered into culture. This would explain why things are considered art even though artists’ intentions are very different and materials used are without any discernible expectations or limitations. What motivates artists could be any of the following: to beautify, express, illustrate, mediate, persuade, record, re-define reality and redefine art. And still yet there are those that make it just because they feel the urge to make art and the process makes them happy, a sort of self-therapy.Competing answers are typically given to the inquiry of “What is Art?”, indeed, as the title of this article announces forthright it is a subjective matter. There is disunity in the classes of artworks not to mention the differing concepts of Universal versus Western traditions and institutions. Answering the question of what makes art art is always flawed and incomplete due to such factors. However definitive responses stand on their own as earnest attempts to explain as much as possible and capture what unity that there is to capture.

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Key Steps In Developing New Workplace Health Policies

The direct commitment of senior management and the participation of employees in the development of workplace health policies are an essential prerequisite to the successful implementation of policies that are designed to address the real needs of the working community.The following main steps and/or activities should be considered in the development and implementation of workplace health management at the enterprise level:· Develop a short policy statement from the employer or senior executive that explicitly states senior management’s commitment to and acceptance of responsibility for the health management strategy within the company.· Educate managers and workers on the impact of environmental, occupational and lifestyle factors on their health and social well-being and on the economic situation and competing ability of the company to facilitate their participation in health management.· Determine the role of the medical, nursing, environmental and safety experts and other professionals needed to assist in the implementation of the health management strategy in the company.· Discuss economic appraisal of existing and projected outcomes to health, safety, and environmental health from the activities of the company.· Train staff in quality management principles and standards to be used for the workplace health management system. These are the same as those applied to quality assurance in the management of manufacturing, servicing or marketing operations.· Assure participation of management and employees in the development and implementation of workplace health management systems in the company.· Develop adequate tools for monitoring and evaluation of health, safety, social, economic and environmental outcomes to determine the impact on well-being of employees and competitiveness of the company.· Introduce systematic internal auditing and evaluation to be able to make necessary adjustments to the workplace health management system of the company.· External audit by a recognized certifying body, if necessary.Key steps in implementing workplace health PoliciesThe prerequisite for establishing good practice in workplace health management in companies is the conscious and creative support as well as the fullest possible participation of senior management, employees and their trade union representatives.They would co-operate in the development of the workplace health policy and in its implementation with the assistance of appropriate experts, e.g. from occupational health services, environmental health services or health promotion agencies, preferably from multidisciplinary preventive services. Quality management systems and internal and external auditing is believed to be supportive to the creation and maintenance of a healthy enterprise. Leading companies are increasingly integrating their health management and environment management into the overall corporate management system. The health and environment policy of the company determines targets, define processes, and assure financial and human resources necessary to act on the health determinants and improve social and physical environments in order to:

Create the greatest gain in health and working ability for the entire staff, and if possible, also for their families

Provide a safe and healthy working environment for employees while preserving the general environment and health of people living outside the premises

provide healthy and environmentally friendly products and services

ensure human rights of the entire staff
Coming up in the next chapter ” Key Benefits of Workplace Health Management

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How to Rank Higher in Google Local Business Listings

Google offers a free business listing to small businesses at the top of most local search results pages. Local Google Advertising is what we’re after when we talk about Google’s local business listing center. Anatomy of a Google search result page:o Listings on the right side bar are paid advertisements, often called “sponsored links”
o The main body of a search result page are called the “organic” or “natural” search listings
o At the very top in a colored text box are also paid advertisements, sponsored links
o Above the organic listings are “Google Local Business Listings”This wiki deals with only with the Local Business ListingsYou will notice a map associated with each listing, this is because Google used the existing infrastructure of Google Maps to implement the free business listings. It’s generally thought that Google offered this free service, and gave its location on a search result page prominence above the organic listings because of the popularity of Google’s AdWords program.AdWords is a PPC (pay per click) advertising system where keywords and keyword phrases are bid on in an auction like system. The immense popularity of AdWords priced smaller Mom n Pop stores out of the market due to the ever escalating costs of certain keywords. Google became fearful that it’s search platform would be return search results of the “rich and famous” thus reflecting only what the rich and powerful wanted seen on Google search results.How does Google determine which website should rank higher than another?Google uses a computer program algorithm based on hundreds of factors as the vast size of the internet precludes any human capability of keeping the listings accurate or current. That algorithm is a closely guarded trade secret within Google. Search Engine Optimization Consultants learn what Google apparently likes and doesn’t like from the observable behavior of search results.Google Places IS GooglemapsGoogle Maps algorithm is different from the algorithm that anoints one site over another. It’s also slower to update. If your customers leave glowing reviews of your product or service on the link provided your site will climb in rank. You are permitted up to 10 photos of your product or service, use as many of those slots as possible. Fill out as much information about your business as space allotted provides, being verbose is better than being succinct when it comes to Google Local Business ListingsMany small businesses get leads and interested inquiries from a local business listing even if they don’t have a website URL. Still other small businesses find it unnecessary to have their company listed anywhere other than the top local business listings. If your listing falls in ranking or is bumped out of it’s spot by a newcomer and you find your company losing sales because of it, you may want to outsource your rankings management to a local search engine optimization firm.The fees involved for a local business listing may be less than the fees for improving your company website’s organic listing.What Determines Rank?Ever wonder why your companies listing in Google does OK in the main body of Google’s search results page but is not in the top 10 of those pesky Google Local Business Listings?Ultimately what you want is to be found in BOTH sets of listings, the net effect of which would be to drive home in your prospective customers Mind’s Eye that Google apparently thinks pretty highly of your company if Google is displaying YOUR company listing in the Local Business Listings and in the Organic Search Rankings.Well, people’s perception and Google’s reality are far, far apart.Google didn’t *pick* you to be #1 and your competitor to be #11A computer program picked you over the hapless fella you compete with. A person did not visit your site, take notes, compare notes, make a decision, hear the belly aching and whining of the poor fool who got bumped off of his front page listed by a website that ranked better than his…nope, an algorithm picked you over them.Think about it… there are what? a Gazillion webpages already indexed in Google? And how many tens of thousands of new webpages being created as we speak? Some of those tens of thousands are being “generated” by a “bot”.There is no way on God’s Green Earth a staff of humans could possibly keep up with that kind of volume. An algorithm did it. The robot that scours the Internet (in the SEO industry we call that “spidering”) is titled GoogleBot. GoogleBot Can’t Really *Read*GoogleBot can NOT read… but it CAN countGooglebot counts the words on your webpage, it counts the keywords and keyword phrases you use in your copy. Is y0ur company website a little light on copy? Too bad for you.It matters little to Googlebot if the fancy flash graphic and dramatic digital photos depicting your most important product are… well the damn thing can’t decipher a photo! but it CAN read text.What ever makes your photos good, better or best and likewise your competitors photos crappy is subjective. Art is subjective, math is not.Either the keywords are on your webpage (Prominently placed at the top of the page I hope) or the keywords are not.He who has the most keywords (elegantly, tactfully and deftly constructed with proper enough grammar for the spell-checking-programmed Googlebot to index) Wins that coveted top spot!But… the Google Local Business Listings are a different story. The algorithm that runs it is different.What Google is looking for and rewards when it sees it for the organic search results page (the body of the page) is one thing. What Googlebot is looking to see in the Free Local Google Advertising Listings is quite another.I’m not about to reveal the entire loophole in a “Google Secrets Revealed” post, not even for a hefty $1000 fee for an eBook (I’d do it for that price if it were ticket sales to a seminar and I got a couple dozen of you to buy $1000 tickets to eagerly learn how I do what it is I do) (that’s in the works by the way)No, I’m not telling, not the whole thing but I will give you a hint, and I’m giving said hint in the form of my own Maryland search engine optimization results. This is not theory.This is not alleged. What follows is battle tested!I’m competing against the best of the best, the top guys and gals in Maryland: other SEO professionals. Link building technicians like me:)If your customers leave glowing reviews… and they leave them USING a Gmail account, and that Gmail account is associated with a Google Profile, and the person leaving the review has a picture or avatar uploaded to that Google Profile… Your Google local business listing will climb in ranking.There are things you can do to improve your rankingMany of you know you have to do something, you’re reading this to research if there’s anything you can do to “make the phone ring” in this challenging economy. More than a few of you will learn that you know you want to do something about SEO (search engine optimization) but simply don’t have the time… and you’ll hire me to get YOUR company website dominating the local Google search results!

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