The definitive answer to "the difference between pornography and erotica" comes from Gloria Leonard (actress, publisher of High Society) goes like this
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gloria Leonard
The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting.
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-- which at a technical level is mostly true.
But more seriously, the intent is a part of it. Some stuff is just there to get you off. Other stuff is supposed to make you think; "art", in theory, is about something other than "are you gonna cum soon".
But to reduce it to a binary "is it art, or is it porn" misses all the shades of grey. If you think of something like the very explicit -- and legally obscene- site Insex, it was done "artfully", and there was something to it beyond the kinky sex.
So something can be about more than one thing.