Art and truth

Types of truth -

Correspondent truth - 
Proposition matching upto what we know through human senses. Claiming something is true because we saw it, for example.
Coherence - 
Relating the truth to whats logical - fitting it with what we know to make sense. 
Consensus -
The majority of people believing something is true, therefore following this. 
Pragmatic - 
The truth is whatever we say it is - whatever suits or works for us. 

Is art true to reality?
Art is something that can take many forms, this includes painting and drawing itself,  photography, music, performing, etc. It can be seen as a way to express one's feelings, whether this be true to reality or not is the contradicting question. Some may feel that art is a distraction from reality, meaning that any art created has intentions behind it and tells various stories. Personally, I feel that art is true to reality, considering art is created by said artist, and this artist may have been inspired. Any inspiration has come from real-life situations as they are also human, therefore there is some actual reality involved in the creating process.

Is art a true likeness?
Considering you can be as abstract as desired within art, there is no right answer. People love being right, though if you cannot be right or wrong, it defeats the whole purpose, which could suggest that everyone is right, or none are wrong. This attribute, as well as others, is positive. It seems that there are a majority of positive connotations about art, others may include the fact that it is used as a good distraction from a society that is troubled and negative. The question is also arose - if art wasn't around, would things be the same and would it change people's moods?

Does art show the truth / is art artificial?
Art can or cannot show the truth, depending on the artist's intention. If one is trying to portray the truth, there may be visible symbols that reflect this and link to real-life political/social things. Though in demonstration of the DADA movement (in terms of drawing/painting art) it has been used as a distraction from reality, therefore going against the truth and creating a whole new world. In terms of being an artifice, art is something creative that is made by people with different skills and mindsets. It makes it artificial, it being something that is not solid truth, but is another way to reflect something truthfully, or even changing people's perspectives and convincing them to see the truth.

Pablo Picasso - "Art is the lie that reveals the truth"
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter who made a huge impact on the art world. I feel he quoted the following words to describe the effect that art can have as mentioned previously, by changing people's perspectives. Art is not something real itself, yet its abstract freedom and no rule agenda means it can portray the truth in any way.

How does truth exist in -

Politics - Do politicians tell the truth? 
We, as the public, have minimal knowledge and control over what happens behind closed doors, this being in British politics and worldly politics. Though a democracy, we do not fully know if the government or said prime minister/mayor is telling the whole truth. This being for our own good, or as part of future plans that the government has themselves, linking Pragmatic truth theorised by William James, being that the truth is what works best in situation.  Gathering information from news sites and knowing what is going on in parliament is something we have a right to in the U.K and something we receive  - whether we know what is true or not is not in our hands.

Social -
Truth, propaganda and fake news are increasingly popular subjects in the modern age, considering the use of the internet as a news source and social media has become the norm. We as the public do not always know what news to believe - for example, seeing a screenshot of an article from Instagram but having no solid truth, in comparison to watching television news on BBC. Organisations such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, etc. have proved to be reliable most of the time, however in other forms of media such as websites and online articles, we do not truly know and have to check attributes such as the date of publishing, images, and if the author is a real person. Word of mouth can also contribute to the telling of truth, if something is told incorrectly or gets passed down as a story, details can change and be twisted, therefore also manipulating the truth.

How does society measure the value of truth?
Mainstream society may follow whatever they see, and what the biggest news / stories in general are in a consensus manner. Whether they value their time on social media enough to prove everything they see is their decision, and analytically shows us whether they are passive or active as an audience member. Society may value the truth where it affects them, protesting for equal rights may be an example, ensuring what's being said is truthful and being distributed in a truthful way.

Technology - 
In linkage to social, there are developing social media sites as well as technologies to accompany. Film itself can also be seen as something that is evolving including technology, through the use of new cameras with higher resolutions and quality, to special effects editing and VFX, that require new editing software's. Animations and 3D stop motions to new iPhone's with more cameras and IOS software makes it difficult for the new generation to back away and is something that seems to continuously grow into the future. This links to the idea of editing in truth and having virtual worlds. The more editing is done and more other 3-6D worlds created, the more the truth in technology seems to expand. It can be said that technology is now creating its own truth.

Does technology preserve the truth or manipulate it?
Personally, I feel that technology manipulates the truth, but can be helpful in certain situations. Evolving on a huge scale means dramatic changes, creating effects and visual elements that are not true. This would be manipulation, however, technology in places such as science labs may have helped scientists and geographers using high tech, new software, and equipment to measure things such as volcanic activity, or side effects of new viruses and checking whether a patent is able to recover. if there's a cure, etc.

Truth in media -

Documentary journalism -
Documentary filmmaking may commonly be used to expose a story in moving image form, which can be done in an observational, participatory or expository way. Whichever the filmmaker feels is most appropriate for said subject, letting the audience in and exposing the truth to them. Journalistic documentation therefore may take the form of a documentary.


Print journalism - 
Involving more still images and photography, print journalism includes the editorial aspects of creating a magazine, newspaper, poster, book, etc. and how this is distributed / printed for the audience eye. In comparison to documentary journalism, print journalism can be seen as more truthfully manipulating, considering the many ways it can be done. For example, printing misleading headlines with false dates, and editing photographs on software's like Photoshop, removing certain blemishes from ones face, for example, or making something seem more vibrant than it is. A scandal like this is Fyre Festival, demonstrating the practise of false advertising.

Radio journalism -
Considering radio programmes are live, it may make it more difficult for false information and lying, however, one must also consider that it is the unknown for the audience - having less to see, no visual headline, photographs, etc. would make it difficult to judge whether the news or story is truthful.  All would be similar to other journalists who would gather research, conducting primary research, interviews, etc, with a different distribution. Listening to the radio as a news source may be most reliable for some.

Convergent journalism - 
Convergence in media is the crossover of two mediums, for example, a website and photography coming together to promote a business. This is in contribution to 'New Media,' beginning in web 2.0. Convergence journalism may be more truthful or reliable than others when thinking about journalism, considering there are more than one sources used, with more information distributed not only in one way.

Truth - Knife crime
Knife crime and other social issues and truth around this may depend mostly on word of mouth and who had seen what, linking to the correspondent truth. Reasoning's as to why authorities would question any witnesses, depending on if they'd seen/ heard anything that will help put together the truth of the event. With an increasing amount of knife crime, especially in London, manipulating the truth can cause huge social issues, and possible long term economic issues.

Truth - The environment 
Within my previous projects, I have explored the topic of environment, attempting to highlight issues such as climate change, global water/ food and energy consumption inequality, recycling, etc. In doing so, I have identified that there is an evident issue - one that most in society agree with (Extinction Rebellion, Green Party e.g) and that others may disagree with. Linking to types of truth, one may say the truth about the environment is Coherent, as glaciers melting and high rising sea temperatures are examples of evidence that would prove climatic damage.

Truth - Prejudice 
Personally, I feel that one cannot have an opinion unless they have undertaken the activity or said thing, therefore cannot judge whether something is true or not. Having an opinion not based on any experience and labelling something as true, therefore, may be hard to believe by others, considering there is no personal connection, therefore no primary / second nature information - then having to use secondary resources, linking to the theory of Consensus truth.