Might seem really generic an argument but you'd be surprised how many arguments I've seen that revolved around the question of what art is.

So what is art? What qualifications does something have to reach before you deem it artistic? What's the difference between art and entertainment? Is there even a difference?

All these questions and more, coming straight from Obdurate. To be continued.

i think art is liek that fancy smancy stuf hangin in teh mooseums and stuff lyke that...i dont think art is vury impotrant

I think of art as a creative means of expression. If you express yourself with paintings, drawings, sculptures, books, stories, poems, movies, comic books, or anything else you entertain people with art. I don't consider all entertainment art, but I would say most of it is. You can entertain people by slipping on a banana peel or falling off of a skateboard but I wouldn't say that's art. On the other hand, not all art entertains. Some people might draw great landscapes and portraits but if they do not show these to anyone it cannot be entertainment.

Um, yeah, all I can say is that art is expression. Whether it be paintings, sculptures, music, drama... a lot of things can be considered artistic, which is the case with me. I find quite a lot of things artistic.

I'm one of those people who looks at most things as art. If you want it to be art, it is. So yes, throwing a rock is artistic on some level to me. Doesn't mean I have to like it, but I could make the case that most things are art (maybe everything, I don't know).

One mans art another mans trash?

I think photography, since that now seems pertinent with the last post, is a dying form of art. You meet the odd "Photography Major" at an independent liberal arts college, but you don't see as many "professional photographers" around who just do it out of a love for photography as art. I know a professional photographer, but he's more of, I'll say, a chronicler -- he takes pictures at weddings and events and puts them together in DVDs or presentations. Which I suppose is another form of art, not to discriminate.

Even something as simple as a group of drunks taking numerous identical-looking pictures of each other at whatever dive bar they happen to be at constitutes art, in my eyes. It's almost a form of "outsider" art, non-conventional art. The simplest things can be beautiful. Just ask the kid from American Beauty about his plastic bag, or Tolkein about the phrase "cellar door".

There wasn't any real debate in this thread. I'm surprised.

So just to hopefully get something going... are games art?

Video Games? I think they are art because developers use their imaginations and design something that people can interact with and be entertained by.

Well I meant any type of game, like board games or video games, etc.

I just wanna say, I don't disagree that games are art but I'm about to play devils advocate here.
Does the fact you can interact cheapen the artistic merit? What I mean is... if you get a game where 90% of it is shooting something or solving puzzles, is that still art?