Week 10. Comments on Hyde, Lewis. 1999, "Introduction", The Gift: imagination and the erotic life of property, Vintage, London, pp. xi-xiii

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Hyde, Lewis. 1999, The Gift: imagination and the erotic life of property, Vintage, London, pp. 48 – 53

The readings are essentially about how art is a gift that an artist is blessed with. And with this power, one can use it for good or evil (in layman’s terms). Effectively what I mean, is that one can make a work of “art” which sells for a lot and this designer can roll in the money, or make some real art which people can enjoy because of its unique qualities. Real art is as I would like to define, is art which really comes from the heart and the soul of a designer. Something which lasts and has a pleasant and strange feel to it and is not made to get people all excited and wanting to pull out their wallets.

The first reading made sense to me and I have a slightly compromised perspective. I do believe great designers make enormous amounts of money, but I do not know how good they feel about their work. Ideally, I would always want to make something I can sit back and be proud of. A piece of work which is a new challenging experience. Hyde portrays to us that our so called “art” works will probably be treated like keepsakes. And money is secondary. I disagree to his stance. I believe money is important, but then at the same time so is creating “art”. I do not see the reason why one cannot sell their piece of work, and at the same time be pleased with the passion you put into it.

The second reading was a bit too far fetched and unreal for my liking. Apart from the fact that the analogy is somewhere in fairyland and elves do exist, I find it hard to believe that ones talent can be somehow be uplifted by more than one party. I mean, if one has a gift, what the point of hoping something magical will happen to help you. Maybe I merely misread the text, but to what I can gather, the second reading has not related to me and is illogical to me as a designer.