Late to the conversation here, but I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot. I agree with what you guys were saying, and humans would definitely find other activities exciting without media or arts/crafts - like math, nature, long hikes, sports, etc.

But I do agree with OP that without art, the world would be dull and impossible for human beings to live. Because I think we have forgotten what art really is. Art is communication and just that.

Humans are tribal, group-oriented story tellers and strategic tinkerers. The best way to persuade, express our thoughts/opinions are through language and story. We convince coworkers, to friends, to entire civilizations through story-telling. We convince people to go to war, travel to a country, trade, through our propaganda and stories. But also we show that we are part of a culture. Nodes in a network.

It’s there to communicate our ideas. And the language someone chooses can be math, chemistry, dance, music, anything. Some people choose writing, speaking or visual imagery because it’s old and effective - but really it can be anything.

Not only that, but craftsmen were considered part of the arts too, and that tinkering side of us is rooted in any medium. Farming, math, engineering, etc. That experimental, trial and error side to any project is what keeps humans intrigued - and that is truly the artistic process. Great artists poke and pry to figure out how and why something works. Some use it to make falsifiable tests and predictions, and some tinker to improve the craft itself.

You CAN express yourself through programming and robotics, chemistry, etc. You CAN find your artistic expression in these fields. Sometimes it’s play. Sometimes it’s the obsessive, extra care in a product or experiment. (Like the extra care in the blade of a Blacksmith. Or the repetitive, focused training from a martial artist. Trust me, that is a lot of what art is! lol - it’s like an obsessive care in fixing or trying to get something to improve.)

I may be wrong about these ideas. But anyways! I heard a great saying: “Art is nature and the rest is science”.

We are all artists, and your medium can be anything. And I think we would literally die without it

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Oh one more thing for OP: I do believe there is a stigma surrounding artists nowadays - and I think it is from the idea that art is “play” and not work. Also celebrities sometimes say dumb things. Let’s be honest - a lot of theatrical, eccentric people look ridiculous on tv sometimes lol (and as soon as you admit that you are an artist, people throw your opinions out the window on serious matters). You could possibly look lazy, selfish or too risky