It’s easy to get deep into the weeds arguing over if something is art or not. Is a craft like knitting Art? Is a performance like professional wrestling Art? It’s not really possible to nail down, except to say that pretty much everything is Art, in a way. Seems to me that art is just the byproduct of human imagination. And it’s easy to get hung up on the byproduct, imagining that it’s the product, when it’s really just the commodity.
Think about how movies are made: the creative collaborators have a certain story in mind, and they try to capture it by acting out scenes in front of cameras and then cutting that footage together into a finished product. But the product is not the same as the creative act. If the editor had chosen a few different takes, the product would be slightly different, but the creative process was the same. Putting on a play, you get a slightly different performance every night. Putting on an improv show, you get a completely different performance every night. But the creative impulse, the harnessing of the imagination as a means of expression, that remains the same.
Our lives are richer when we use our imagination more, when we find ways to express ourselves more. Whether there is a product or an audience involved is beside the point. In the end, arguing over whether something is Art is like arguing over whether a hot dog is a sandwich. What matters is freeing yourself from strict rules and definitions and allowing your imagination free rein to play.