Subjectivity is dynamic...

Art forms of the past were really considered elitist. Bach did not compose for the masses, neither did Beethoven. It was always for patrons, aristocrats, and royalty. Now we have a sort of democratic version of that, which is to say that the audience is so splintered in its interests.

-David Cronenberg 

Have I ever felt that art is purely subjective?  Well, prior to beginning courses at Pratt Institute this past September, I always did.  I thought people always "liked" something for the weirdest of reasons, or more so they didn't have a reason.  In my two years working as an interior designer, I would ask why a client doesn't want any shade of the color red anywhere inside their office.  "We just don't," they would often say in similar situations.  Arguing with them beyond this point seemed asinine, they had made up their mind, everyone really is a critic it seemed.

But what gave them the right to reject my expertise and education?  At that time, I wouldn't have been able to reflect on the precise reason.  After reading Rudolf Arnheim's Art and Visual Perception though, I can better gather some insight into the rejection based on their perspective.  Their subjectivity could be developed from so many factors up until that point in their life that I could only hope to find the needle in a pile of needles.  And it is because as a designer I am selling my abilities to nearly anyone who will pay, I am to a certain degree, at their mercy.

An argument like this would seek to devalue design that is actually "good", but in reality it further reinforces that good design will always stand far and away from the unresolved.  But subjectivity, perspective, these things are an important part of working in art and design, much to either my good fortune or hindrance.