Defining what is art has been discussed at least since Plato wrote in The Republic about the place of the artist in society. The importance of art to mankind has peculiarly modern implications since only in the past few hundred years has any need been felt to justify or explain art as a significant aspect of human experience.

Arts have changed over time and it is somewhat difficult to quantify exactly what is art. "Trends in social organization and theory, in religion, philosophy, and ethics, alter men's views about the functions and values of art and about the relative importance of past artists and their works. There is no final answer to the question what are the arts? or to the question what should the arts become?." Definitions of art range from a subjective experience of I know what I like to more profound ideas of art that make beauty comprehensible and capable of being perceived through the senses. Another

Today, we are experiencing an energy crisis interwoven with an architectural crisis. The buildings in our contemporary society in which we live and work, consume well over a third of all the energy used in the United States, and the construction of those same structures consumes over 15 per cent of all the energy used in manufacturing. This illustrates the energy wasting nature of our present day society in which the United States, with only 6 per cent of the world's population, used 35 per cent of the world's resources and its available energy. This clearly shows that in our society today, we need to make more efficient use of architecture to enhance our chances of improving our world of tomorrow. At present, we are on a course to disaster.

comprehensible form of the truth perceived by the artist in his experience of life." In a more general sense, there are three major visual arts, sculpture, painting, and architecture. Of these three arts, only architecture can be called practical in the generally accepted sense of the word. Architecture is the visual art that will be discussed in comparison with the environment. Land art is a form of architectural art that will also be discussed, since it is art that is intimately connected with the environment.

3. Lynden, Herbert, A New Language For Environment Design, New York University Press, New York, New York, 1972

6. Schwartz, Eugene, Overskill, The Decline of Technology in Modern Civilization, Quadrangle Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1971

definition makes art the form that results when ideas are expressed in such a way that they are addressed most directly to the emotions of the observer. Neither of these definitions is sufficiently comprehensive. A better definition states "art as the presentation in

7. Stein, Richard G., Architecture And Energy, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1972

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2113
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)