Jeanine Chiu: What is Art?

Affect (n)

• Psychology. feeling or emotion.
• Psychiatry. an expressed or observed emotional response: Restricted, flat, or blunted affect may be a symptom of mental illness, especially schizophrenia.
• Obsolete. affection; passion; sensation; inclination; inward disposition or feeling

I believe that the ability to induce affect is what makes a work a piece of art. Art is produced within a context and in response to an artist's environment, whether by complementing or challenging it, and as such, is designed to produce a certain affect within the viewer; a skyscraper is intended to inspire awe , while the bold colours of abstract expressionism overwhelm, and the subversive art of graffiti ask us to question our every day surroundings (see above images). Art is not necessarily created with political intention, but it does have intent in that it aims to affect the viewer.

[Top: Rothko; Centre: Banksy, on the Wall in Palestine; Bottom: Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building]