Quote Originally Posted by manacsa
If someone intentionally makes a technically bad photo, prints it, frames, and hangs it on a wall WITH the intent to share/exploit the photo with others then it only takes one other person on this planet to sincerely like it......to make it art. IMO.
You don't understand the nature of art. There is a difference between scribbling and writing, stories and literature, noise and music, self expression and communication, talking and public speaking, painting and art, and picture taking and photography.
The difference is in the quality of the work and the fact that it communicates something to a majority of viewers or listeners if it is truly art.

Anyone can put paint on a canvas but how they do it and inter-related with that, whether they communicate something to a majority of viewers by means of the finished product, determines whether it is art or not. Anyone can press the shutter button, but pressing the shutter button alone does not make the person a photographer or the product an artistic photo.

Quote Originally Posted by manacsa
I'm pretty sure that the best of the best art will have admirers and dislikers.

"Universal appeal" is probably unattainable. "General appeal" is probably a better word to characterize art that that gets over 50% approval from the audience that looks at it..
To repeat my point, everyone may have their own view of particular art but when it comes to high quality work, there is a genuine consensus that it IS in fact art. Historically, some people at the time did not like the Beatles music but almost everyone recognized that it was music whether they liked it or not. Everyone who looked at the photos of Yosuf Karsh or Boris Spremo would recognize them as artistic whether they liked them or not.

Quote Originally Posted by manacsa
Art can not be bound by rules or it can not evolve.
Art is not bound by rules but it is based on them, since rules create a more objective set of criteria for determining the nature of art. The same holds true for music, literature, film, video, or any other form of creativity.

Ronnoco