Relationships between visual information and visual art:

Is visual art a specialized kind of information,
which can be manipulated using the tools of formation science?
What are the defining informational characteristics
of visual art, if this is the case?

Or does visual information act as the raw material of art, the essence which combines with media and action to yeild expression? Do the traditional divisions of information as a raw material support this idea of art-making?

How often does a piece of pure information become valued as art?
What are the steps leading to this valuation?
How would we define “pure”?

Does art ever “decay” away from cultural artifact into raw information, losing whatever artistic meaning was previously associated with it? What causes this decay?

Are there layers of meaning which visual art must have to contain value?
Can the same thing be said of visual information?