Industrialization Created Art? Art Killed Life? Blogs Kill Life?

I know this is going back a bit, but this comment refers to the Scott McCloud discussion. Towards the end of class, we were talking a lot of about what art is. McCloud says, "Art, as I see it, is any human activity which doesn't grow out of either of our species' two basic instincts: survival and reproduction!" (164). This brought so much controversy because artists work to survive, and normal ways of survival, such as preparing food, have an art or technique to them. We gave tons of other great examples, too (like that unexpected one about the guy who cooked and ate his own fat, that was taken from him through liposuction, and called that art.)

So I was thinking about what art is and when it comes to exist. Work (or industry) and art seem diametrically opposed; one is necessary for survival, and the other isn't. But, based on my thoughts from my Metropolis class, I think that industrialization actually created art. Nature, a standard subject of art, wasn't strongly appreciated while we had to fight it so strongly for survival. But with the advent of trains (the symbol of industrialization), we didn't have to worry about bad roads or weather, nor did we as passengers have to even concentrate on navigating our journeys. Nature could be looked upon from afar and contemplated from behind the train's windows. People had to be distanced from nature to see its beauty.

I think this idea is weird: you have to separate yourself from something to preserve it in art. In a way, I think the blog does that for me with life. I live my life, which is full of great learning experiences, BUT I have to detach myself from my experiences to write about them, to preserve them, to make them "count" for my education. I think this is just another example of "death of the author"--putting aside your life to write about it. Does making art kill life? Do writing blogs kill life? Maybe a little. Robert Louis Stevenson says, "Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life." Do we flatten our experiences by trying to contain them in paper or on screen?