Love your comic! Especially the "magic system", so I gotta ask: does any art count for "art is superpowers" in your setting? For example, what if someone is a performative artist? Or a writer, novelist, poet? Or a dancer? Or a fashion designer? Or a photographer?
Thanks for reading! Also thanks for this question, I love gushing about my ridiculous LORE
So in the BERET world there’s “Creative Energy” which is invisible magic that’s floating everywhere. Artists naturally collect this in their bodies and can use it to perform a kind of telekinesis that ONLY affects art supplies.
The advanced thing is the creation of a [Work] which is what happens when someone creates a PHYSICAL piece of Art. The creation of a [work] requires “intent” and “materials”. The Intent means you have to THINK you are making “art” for the special properties of a [Work] to occur. This rules out objects we might call “crafts” or purely utilitarian objects.
The art also has to create a physical object, or the Creative Energy this process attracts has nowhere to collect. When the [Work] is created, the author of the piece can use that concentrated CE to do all kinds of wacky stuff, from causing explosions to bringing statues to life.
This is why only art forms that create physical pieces count as “magic” in BERET world. This rules out several of your examples, but not all of them.
Writing/Poetry/Novels: normally doesn’t count, but if the writing is PRESENTED in a artistically novel way it can count (see Nevino’s Baroque Contract, writing presented on sheets of metal with flowery effects) Though Nevino has a very powerful work of art (The Royal Mandate) supporting him, allowing him to break the rules slightly.
Dancer/Performance Artist: doesn’t count as art unless it leaves a physical work. You could dance and splatter paint on something with your movement. Performance art could work if it creates a “piece”
Fashion Designer: totally counts. (I have a fashion designer character in future arcs...)
Photographer: BERET has limited early era photography, but they don’t count as [Works] since there’s no detailed physical labor involved in the creation of the image. You could use a photo IN a work though...
I don’t know if that made any sense but there ya go!
