machine or art?

Brushing off our hangovers and sore feet, our final stop was Volta, one of Art Basel's satellite art fairs. On the top of my wish list were Julius Pop's news output device (if you look carefully the red dots make up letters of a news story) and Yarsal and Kublitz's vending machine where plates and cups fell to the floor in a brilliant crash when selected and bought. A little noisy but would look great in the corner of my sitting room. 

One may question whether these objects were actually art. Or are they just machines like many objects around us we use every day? If one was moved by the way a toaster toasted a slice of bread, is that art too? 

Traditionally art was used to refer to any skill or mastery. Today art is defined as having to be made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as as the mind by transmitting emotions and ideas. So the toaster unfortunately is not art, unless its used like our friend Toast Girl in Japan.