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Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic
Chase decided the static would be a metaphor. afterall, isn't Chase allowed to be an artist and create for himself and not care what the audience thinks? so apparently you are deciding what is art and what isn't? isn't that the same thing here what people are saying?
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You're confused about the nature of metaphor. If it's detached from everything else in the episode, it's not metaphor -- it has to connect with something else to resonate in its alternate form. If he decided to run an hour of static (and HBO let him), it wouldn't be an episode of The Sopranos -- it would be an experiment, and it wouldn't generate nearly the kind of support the current finale does. It's not a matter of me deciding what is and isn't art -- it's about me applying the guiding criteria for art: a combination of voice and craft.
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Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic
you are confusing art with art form. the medium of tv - a story one watches - calls for a beginning, a middle and an end. there is art and silent beauty in a construction worker using a jackhammer on concrete, but that doesn't mean the construction worker is free to do as he pleases and take creative license to express himself without an obligation to others.
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This sounds nice, but it's not an accurate depiction of art. Remember: art is a combination of voice and craft. A jackhammering construction worker is engaging in a craft, and it can be beautiful to watch a craft done well. But his jackhammering does not exist because he is creating art -- he is engaging in craft, the end of which is not artistic in nature but purely functional (and we could get into the whole "but is functional craft art" discussion, but I'd prefer not to) and not meant to satisfy any of the aims of art (or almost none of them). Watching him, a viewer may be awed by the beauty of the craft, but the worker is not intentionally engaging in an artistic pursuit. Slow anything down on 16mm film and add a soundtrack and even a bowl of porridge can seem artistic. Everything is not art, though there is beauty in most things.
The "medium of TV" calls for no such thing. You're trying to tell me that variety shows, game shows, infomercials, sitcoms, network and cable dramas, shopping channels, and the whole gamut of other niche programming satisfies your theoretical rule of "beginning, middle, and end"? Speaking as an expert: not all narratives have structures that satisfy that mode in the way you're describing. Certainly The Sopranos finale doesn't offer the obvious b,m,e structure, and the disruption of that model is compelling to many of us who enjoyed the episode.
The construction worker doesn't have artistic license because he's not being paid to create art -- he's being paid to destroy concrete. Even if his technique for destroying concrete is more beautiful to watch than another man's, he will get canned if he isn't doing his job effectively. He is engaging in a craft, not an art -- and while a craft can elevated to the level of art (again: combination of voice and craft), in and of itself its aims are different than those of art.