Transactionalism, or The Role of the Beholder
Redefines art in terms of its relationship with the beholder. This is externally clear in the case of interactive art, but what of the more subtle relationships that are not seen? Cultural shifts in taste, receptionist aesthetics (in which the work of art is defined as such through the aesthetic experience of the viewer), experience of beauty/sublimity in nature (which Kant found as the only justification for teleology), the importance of criticism, even the esoteric 'completion' of the work through its being beheld (John Dewey and even Martin Buber) like in literature, and more. Artists tend to see the work as something solidly expressing them; transactionalism subverts this concept and challenges them to think about their work in terms of reception.
Postmodernism did not end Modernism but was in fact an aspect of it (it even semantically defined itself in relationship to modernism: post-such). What ended was not Modernism per se but the broad-sweeping metanaratives. In the void, interestingly, is the overiding assumption of the superiority or inferiority of thought itself. Like two opposing phalanxes, some artists side with art full of thoughts to the point of being purely conceptual whereas others prefer an intuitive, imaginative artistic expression. Yet thought itself is little understood, least of all by people who produce mountains of it. I suggest a discussion of what Nietzsche characterized as the Socratic influence on Greek tragedy as a possible angle in understanding this tension.
I gave this as a lecture late last semester there. It could be a repeat for some students.
Art and Spirituality
Today, anything can qualify as a work of art. Yet, the artist who stands out is the one who consciously seeks to elaborate a personal aesthetic that also transcends their limited selfhood. This is the spiritual in art, a topic certainly not in fashion to discuss. Religion was a terrible yoke on art for most of its history; hence there is reluctance to revisit this topic. What constitutes the spiritual? Topics may include the difference between the Greek, Medieval, and contemporary spirit; the Kantian elevation of aesthetic experience until its greatest expression in Schiller's letters, the Maritaine school of Thomasian aesthetics and the Medieval concept of the Splendoring; Kandinsky and the Rudolf Steiner school, and more. It is a broad topic, really too much for a single lecture, but we can pick a few key topics here.
Many forms of what we may call a Realist approach to the arts begin with an idea or image for the artist within their mind which is then subsequently rendered outwardly. Process art is a mode of creating in which the discovery takes place while the work is being executed. In order for this mode of creating to be successful, there are multiple features that an artist may wish to learn about that should or could take place.
Art and Moral Transformation
Political art seeks to make a social transformation through its content and the strong mode of its delivery. Art which strives for the Beautiful seeks to act upon the viewer's moral character through elevated contemplation. Both are ultimately valid approaches and find their grounding throughout the history of art and philosophy. Both are also in fundamental contradiction to each other.
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