When we create something, do we automatically get to call it art? Who gets to decide? If not art, then what? I went to a fantastic talk at Creative Mornings last week where the speaker, doctor and art curator David Candler, talked about the value of shock in art. He showed slides of powerful imagery and talked about what each piece had to offer to viewers and society as a whole. A lot of what he showed might have been considered offensive or controversial to many people, and at the very least was very moving. He argued that most of the art produced today is what he calls "neck up" art, meaning that it appeals to our sense of aesthetics, that it looks nice, but that it doesn't impact us on a visceral level. In his opinion, anything that doesn't evoke an emotional reaction—whether it's shock, anger, passion, disgust, or sadness—is not art. It's decoration.