Freedom to choose one’s own destiny is not always as free as it seems.

Full disclosure: I’m decisionally challenged. It took me 10 years to choose a college major, so why would choosing a simple research project be any less difficult? I’ve gone over ideas a hundred times in my mind and I still cannot settle on one.

The last time I updated this blog I had the idea to analyse images from Netflix. But further thought has led me to conclude that the conclusions I would draw from that data are not as profound or interesting, or possibly even as valid, as I initially surmised. Therefore, I’ve decided to abandon that idea.

Coming back around to my fascination with art, and in light of the fact that we will be learning in class how to analyse Twitter data, I considered looking at Twitter responses to determine an answer to the age-old question “what is art?” But what would my argument be?

Let’s see: I am studing Twitter responses to the question “what is art” in order to understand how art impacts people’s daily lives so that there is a greater understanding of the public appreciation and perception of art. Potentially this research could assist curators and social media professionals at galleries and museums to develop methods of outreach, educational tools, and programming for their spaces.

That sounds good right? I mean, it’s in line with my career goals and my interests. And I don’t think it sounds too basic. The question “what is art” has always fascinated me, since everyone always has a different answer. The results could be interesting.

So in this case, my argument would be: 1. Twitter users have few but varied interactions with art day-to-day. 2. Most Twitter users implementing the hashtag #art do so quite frequently. 3. Common users of the hashtag #art are artists peddling their work, or organizations with an agenda, not average users. 4. Complications would include representation of users who do not use the hashtag #art. 5. When people reference art on the internet, it is generally for promotional reasons, and not an expression of discovery or appreciation.

How this all relates to “what is art” is yet to be determined. Maybe the results won’t point me in that direction or maybe they will. I still have not learned about what information we can actually gather from Twitter… so that would actually be helpful before determining what my limitations are, as well as my ultimate argument. If I don’t know what’s possible, how can I try to understand it?