i dont get it. whats the point? im in a 3d design class and i can seem to wrap my head around it. why? swinging a bath tub from a celing or filling a room with fuzzy stuff and playing bird noises is just kind of pointless? am i the only one that thinks this? can someone explain it to me because im lost. maybe this is why no one takes artists seriously. maybe im just missing something but i cant sit in that class for one minute longer and pretend to understand/care

Isn't it about visualising what you want to create in 3D ?
And a matter of the specific thing you're looking at ?
I mean, not even people who like performance art or installations will like everything out there (ok, maybe even they exist too).

I'd say it's visually materialising thoughts, feelings, ideas, stories, concepts, playing with spatiality, the senses/physical sensuality/philosophical sensuality/spiritual sensuality etc, looking at things from different or new angles... sometimes you have to know the concepts behind the thing you are looking at to get a thoughtprocess going or you could end up thinking: "A piece of white wood nailed to the floor, oh great!", which you could still end up thinking, but I think those things are probably essential to understanding.

Of course, some things are just shit and/or one just doesn't relate.

There are some great conceptual/performance artists out there, some are students, even...Don't let your experience in your art class tarnish the possibilities of actually enjoying that facet of artmaking.

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The fresh heartbreak was, in a sense, like being in a foreign country; everything seemed alien, brilliant and glinting. It was as if I’d been flayed, so that even the air hurt. When you’re that unhappy, any glimmer of beauty or consolation feels like running into an old friend abroad, or seeing mountaintops through smog. Maybe we mistakenly think we want “happiness,” which we tend to picture in very vague, soft-focus terms, when what we really crave is the harder-edged intensity of experience.

I always really liked the idea of installation art.

Um, there's my two pennies..

yeah i see your point... but unless you are comunicating your thoughts with your viewer its not about your viewer its about you. you dont have to be overt in your comunication. there is some amazing stuff out there. when its good its really good, when its bad its really bad. i think i was just in a bad mood