InnerWorkings Blogs

How do you define a work of art? That may seem like an easy question - just visit Michelangelo’s David in Florence, or view Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ in Dublin. Read the first few chapters of Joyce’s modernist masterpiece Ulysses or explore a collection of Dorothea Lange’s incredible photography. That is real art and it’s unmistakable, you might say.

I wouldn’t argue (well, clearly I chose the above examples). But I’ve been thinking about a broader definition of art this week that includes pure craftsmanship or absolute skill in a particular domain. For example, would it be fair to say that Roger Federer’s liquid motion topspin backhand is a thing of beauty, truly artful in its own way? Certainly it is a master stroke that he has perfected over the years to devastating effect on his opponents. People often speak of Federer as an artist on the tennis court, a true genius and absolute master of form and technique - OK, so he was beaten in the semi-finals of the Australian Open last week, but even the greatest artists are fallible after all!

Think about some of your favorite buildings in the world - for example, when I look at the Flatiron building in New York I think of a masterful work of art. Certainly I consider it to be a dazzling feat of pure engineering skill; it’s an example of artistic and architectural harmony that I wouldn’t hesitate to call art.

What about software development as art, in that case? We’re not talking about oil on canvas, carved stone, or words on a page — but can programming reach the level of art? What distinguishes truly brilliant software from yet another mundane application shipped 2 years late and bloated with unnecessarily complex features? Certainly I think you can find art in simplicity throughout the software world. Reading Joseph Cooney’s blog, I was stunned to discover that 37 Signals created their ta-da list product with just 579 lines of Ruby code in 2005! Is creativity, innovation, and simplicity in programming enough to justify the label of “art”?

If this subject interests you, I’d also suggest taking a look at John Littler’s excellent article on Art and Computer Programming. John highlights this very germane quote from none other than Einstein himself:

“After a certain level of technological skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in aesthetic plasticity and form. The greater scientists are artists as well.”

Several people have referred me to The Art of Computer Programming volume by Donald Knuth, so perhaps I’ll find some answers there. It’s always refreshing to find new examples of craftsmanship and pure skill in any creative domain. Perhaps we are too restrictive and old fashioned in our definition of what qualifies as art and the role that science and art play in that world (and vice versa). On that note, we all have our favorite applications that solve a troublesome problem with artful simplicity and effectiveness. Care to suggest a few from your experience? I’d really like to hear about software that moves you.

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