I would say writing - every other genre uses an outside agent to some degree, as in rock paint or somesuch. Writing is purely from within and in my humble opinion that makes it the most engaging and challanging art to do well, but thats

Being a self proclaimed writer, it's habit for me to say writing, however I'm going to go with directing films, because people can be very uncooperative and frustrating. You can't make a bad actor better, you can only fire him and audition new ones, which can take a ridiculous amount of time. There are many other difficulties with film making, as well. It takes a lot of patience and talent. If your good, that is. My 8 year old sister can pick up a camera and shoot her stuffed animals having a tea party. With writing, you have (arguable) control over the people in your head who are being uncooperative and frustrating.

I am a visual artist. Yet I see each art form as equal to all others. I wish I could make music, but I don't have that talent. Or the ability to act, or tell stories. I think the most overlooked and yet most important and used form of art is cooking. When it comes to the culinary arts, I scribble a lot! All designing, invention and creation are art. All performance, whether music, acting speaking or leading are art. Teaching is an art if done well. It is one we should be more appreciative of.

This is really a provocative question, isn't it? I really treasure all questions requiring more than a little deep personal thought. 'Thinking' is, indeed, a very good thing. These kinds of inquiries touch the moments that become one of the better elements here in AnswerBag. In our ability to share, we observe, perceive, conceive and maybe even understand our human characteristics: our 'what,' 'when,' 'where,''how,' and the 'why' human beings choose to do the things we do. This kind of question encourages a broad treatment. A personal familiarity with any specific art form and the challenges to learn, create and provide within it over a lifetime would, it seems to me, provide a certain bias toward rewarding a specific form the moniker of 'highest.' Other less subjective people, unfamiliar with its concrete, time-consuming and stringent requirements, could easily fail to perceive the literal depth of practice and production needed to have it publicly demonstrated and acclaimed. However, that said, most of us can IMAGINE the inimitable creative persistence of an individual to produce that which 'touches.' And that is my point. Without the very real and very human ability to access emotion, and the continual intelligence to apply it in whatever manner applicable to ones life, no art has 'purpose.' And because all art has commonality to and with our human condition, the ingredients 'to touch another' is more than easily rapt in all art forms. There is no contest regarding 'highest level.' Furthermore, that which 'touches' is more than any singular form itself, is it not? When Art touches, it marries to even a singular member of our human race. It has the capacity to birth movement in all peoples, all cultures, through all manner of feelings and thinking, all manner of sensations. Also, the original question implies an inclusion of total physical sense, the ability to access all art, yes? But, if I am deaf, I may not hear the words but feel them through the pulse of the dancers on the floor? On this level, sound is not nearly as important an art as my ability to perceive it through other sensations of being. That said, the PRODUCTION of 'sound' is important. Demonstrated for others, felt by others: this is art. If I cannot see a sculpture, may I touch its shape? I may not smell the Art of Food in the culinary practices, but I may certainly entertain texture as a sighted and physical form, may I not? You see then, human senses are a large part of art. Without them, none of it would 'mean' anything, would it? So, once again. In my view the ART of ones emotional involvement to art, the ability to allow its access within, our decisions to allow it to provoke sensation, whatever those may be harmlessly, and to develop the intelligent use of it is ... OUR highest level.