[testermelon]

Whether it is possible to find pure-economic or pure-societal art is not relevant. And we can't dismiss the existence of these two dimensions, which you can also call "consumption mode" or "purpose".

In (my) definition, art is everything a human make or do that is capable of evoking emotional reaction from another human. So it follows that IMO, art's value is primarily societal in nature. The economic value comes afterwards.

The economic value of art mainly harnessed by people that want to evoke feelings in other people, those in entertainment industry like movie producers, game directors are an example of this. And this is where the push to make art-making labor cheaper mostly come from.

The societal value mainly comes in two forms. 1) Capturing the world around us for a record, and 2) as a medium for communication in emotional or subconscious level. This value is seperate from the economical one, and I think is the most important one.