Philo - Art, amusement, magic, craft, the technical theory of art, Collngwood, etc. PDF

Preview

Summary

Art, amusement, magic, craft, the technical theory of art, Collngwood, etc. ...

Description

Philosophy 210 

  

  





Is fountain a work of art? o Two answers  Yes. Works need not be things that are “made,” and need not offer aesthetic satisfactions. Fountain confirms these points  Maybe. Because works are typically made with the intention of giving aesthetic satisfactions, Fountain may nonetheless be worth admiring for the way it looks—or it may be a borderline instance of a work, at best. George Dickie Ted Cohen “Conceptual Art” o What a piece of art offers conceptually o A sight of contest  People disagree about it Shock of the New pg 76 Heartfield: Adolf o Gold coins Clive Bell’s View o “To associate are with politics is always a mistake”  It isn’t clear what “associate” means here o Two interpretations of B’s remark  Art should not represent political views  Art should not be evaluated in accordance with its success (or failure) in promoting political purposes  Which statement is more defensible? A proposal o Propaganda attempts to change people’s attitudes o Propaganda is successful to the extent that it achieves this purpose o Art is successful to the extent that it is imaginatively satisfying o Most people already have anti-Hitler attitudes.  We can enjoy Hartfield’s work apart from its practical purpose o So: Artistic success (even in Hartfield’s case) is not reducible to propagandistic success Art and politics: other reflections o If the political standpoint of a work is clearly tolerable, it is easy to see how artistic success does not equate to propagandistic success o But if the political standpoint is abhorrent, it is less easy.

o Indeed, there is often an inclination to suppose that the work is flawed as a work of art o Leni Riefenstahl Triumph of the Will RG Collingwood  Main work in the philosophy of art: Principles of Art  Also did important work in the philosophy of history  Why Collingwood now (after Dada)? o C is writing about the same time that some of the art we have been looking at was made o One of C’s preoccupations is the relationship between the arts and practical life o In his theory of art, C denies that the artist is a craftsman  Duchamp would concur o But there is less agreement between Duchamp and C than you might think at first  His view of art is often known as the Expression Theory of Aer o Also known as: the Croce-Collingwood theory of art o Benedetto Croce 1866-1952  The two Collingwood segments on the syllabus o First segment  Art vs amusement; art vs magic  The differences between art and craft, the creation of art and the role of imagination in its creation  Second segment  Expression and self-knowledge Art, amusement, and magic  Collingwood thinks that art differs from both amusement and magic  Amusement generates pleasurable emotions that are discharged in make-believe situations (or, as Collingwood says, the emotion is earthed [133])  The main discussion of amusement in N&R is found on 132-134  Examples of amusement o Hollywood movies

  

o Pornography o Detective stories o Bits of Shakespeare (for Elizabethan audiences, at least) Amusement poses a threat to psychological well-being Magic generates emotions that are channeled into a socially important cultural activity. (Or as Collingwood sometimes says, the emotion is “canalized.”) Very little on magic in N&R, but the remark about the bison painting and the wax figure of one’s enemy (133) is a reference

Magic is probably not what you think it is According to Collingwood, magic is neither: o Practiced only by primitive minds nor an unscientific strategy for manipulating natural phenomena (65)  Roles of hymns and ceremonies are magical  Music  Pg. 74 Art as Magic  Examples o Morale boosting patriotic music (a war dance equivalent) o Social rituals such as weddings and funerals  Although magic does not equal art, Collingwood has a much higher opinion of magic than amusement  However, art, amusement, and magic do have a common element o Each is concerned, in come way, with the realization of emotional states in people  Beautiful, agreeable, and good  Collingwood’s account of craft and artistic creation: 1. Craft: three essential characteristics 2. The “technical theory of art” 3. Three reasons for thinking that art does not equal craft 4. If art does not equal craft, then art = creation 5. Art: created merely inside the head? 1. Craft  C’s examples: cobbling, carpentering, weaving, agriculture, stock-breeding, horsebreaking, medicine, education, warfare (121)  Three important characteristics of craft: o Craft divides into means and ends o Craft has two stages: planning and execution  Plan must precede the implementation of the means used to execute it o Craft involves a transformation of some raw material into a finished product  The three characteristics all involve two things: two stages, phases, etc. 2. The “technical theory of art”  Does the artist practice a craft? o According to Collingwood, no  The technical theory of art = the view that art is a craft  The technical theory is an ancient doctrine o It has left “permanent traces on our own thought” (121)  It is the view that most people, especially economists and psychologists, tend to have about art  

 Yet, for all of that, it is a “vulgar error” (122)  NB: although art is not a craft, amusement and magic are crafts 3. Three reasons for thinking that art does not equal craft  Means and ends: artists do not engage in merely instrumental activities (by using e.g. “tools, machines, fuel”) in order to make their art  In arguing for this claim, Collingwood takes the poet to be representative of artists generally  Collingwood’s first argument (122): 1. If the poet uses means, we should be able to identify them 2. But any actions the poet performs are either preparatory to the writing (getting out a paper and pen, etc.) or else “comic” (tapping the floor, getting drunk, etc.) 3. Since “sheer labor” (labor without any means) can make a poem, a poet is not a craftsman  Collingwood’s second argument (123) 1. If poetry were a craft, then a poem that produces a different reaction from what the poet aimed at must be a failure 2. But a poem that doesn’t realize its maker’s end is not necessarily a failure 3. So, poetry is not a craft  Plan and execution: artists do not necessarily have a planned work in mind, prior to the execution of the work  Concession: o Having a plan is a permissible characteristic of art, and the greatest and most serious works of art may always contain an element of planning (123,124)  But: o It is quite possible for an artist to make a work without a plan. An artist can correct the work simply as he goes along or can find that he has done something unpremeditatedly  Examples: o A sculptor who finds that the clay has become a dancer o A poet who spontaneously alters his verses while on a walk  Raw material and finished product: artists do not transform raw materials into new things (by imposing a new form on them)  C argues for this claim indirectly, again treating the poet as representative 1. If raw materials are converted into finished products, the materials can be enumerated in advance (i.e. before the product is finished) 2. A poet (who converted raw material) would be able to count the words needed prior to the act of composition 3. But, poets don’t use such a procedure 4. Hence, the poet does not convert raw material

4. If art ≠ craft, then art = creation o Definition: o To create X is to make X consciously and voluntarily, but not by any specialized form of skill (and always “out of nothing”) o Original meaning of “create”: to generate or make offspring o Examples of creative activities o Parents creating children o Drunken men creating noises o Dance clubs creating nuisances o Secret diplomacy creating international distrust o Increased advertisement creating increased product demand o “Somebody or other” creating the English navy or the Fascist state o Artists creating art o Creations can occur inside the head or outside the head o If inside: two extra stages of the making process are possible: publishing and execution o If outside: no extra stages are possible o Example: the plan for a bridge (created in the mind) 5. Art: created merely inside the head? o Many readers have thought Collingwood thought so, on the basis of such passages as these: o “But a work of art may be completely created when it has been created as a thing whose only place is in the artist’s mind” (145). o “If the making of a tune is an instance of imaginative creation, a tune is an imaginary thing. And the same applies to a poem or a painting or any other work of art” (150). o Some art—the composing of tunes—can be created in the artist’s/composer’s mind o All art involves the exercise of imagination o Two words 1. “Imaginary” a. Not real b. Made up c. Having no existence, except in somebody’s mind 2. “Imaginative” a. Creative b. Requiring a creative mental faculty c. Related to perception (being able to see things/see creatively)  Hearing (sounds)

o No imagination  Listening (to music) o Imagination  All art involves the exercise of imagination o Imagination = the ability to perceive more in a sense impression than the sense impression alone reveals  Some art—the composing of tunes—can be created in the artist’s mind Has it been shown that art can’t be craft? o It depends on what we mean by “craft” o Yes: if the essential mark of craft consists in the craftsman’s having a preconceived idea of what the intended result of the craftsman’s action will be o C has this conception of craft: o Foreknowledge is absolutely indispensable to craft: Moreover, this foreknowledge is not vague but precise (119). o No: if the essential mark of a craft consists in the craftsman’s exercising a bodily skill o This second conception may capture more of our ordinary thinking about craft than the first conception does o C’s “craftsman” seems to be closer to what we call a “technician” o Pg. 122 Has it been shown that sheet labor can produce art? o Recall: sheer labor = labor without any means o Again, it depends on what we mean by “means” o The means could be: o Merely instrumental equipment, or… o Extensions of the body (or even the body itself) o Since this distinction may be hard to grasp, consider the difference between o A turntable (when used to listen to recorded music) o A turntable (when used by a DJ for “scratching”) o Used the first way, a turntable is like a telephone or a radio o Used the second way, a turntable is like a guitar or a piano o Can an artist labor without means? o Yes: the artist can work without mere instruments o No: the artist cannot work without a medium Chap 3 Painters: o French o Georges Seurat o Claue Monet

o Henri Matisse o Pierre Bonnard o American o Helen Frankenhaler o Morris Louis o Richard Diebenkorn Paper #2 o Don’t use “objective” or “subjective” o The focus of the paper is to distinguish between beautiful and agreeable o Pay attention to Kant’s examples o Talk about Kant and Bullough Pg 122 (SotN) o Fete champetre o Impressionism Some characteristics of the art in chap 3 o Sensuous colors o Increasing abstraction o Content that invites concentrated or absorbed contemplation o Know pg 121, 124,129 Walter Pater Some characteristics of music o Music typically has a structure that depends on repetition (with variation) o Music has a structure that is defined in a wholly internal way, by means of the relationship between different notes (as well as rests, moments of silence, etc.) o Music typically does not represent things in the way that a painting does Themes of impressionism 1. Provides a momentary experience or fleeting “impression” of a scene a. Like “visual haiku”  Impermanence as a fundamental tenet of human experience  Questions our belief that there is a “truth” of “thing-in-itself” rather than only isolated perceptions of “things-in-themselves” 2. Behavior of light and its variations as valuable/beautiful a. Monet’s haystacks or water lilies b. Light/time/nature informs all human perception? c. The external world “impresses” itself on us; we are not the sole creators of our perception  Impressionism: trace 3. Subject and background often blended together

a. Often there is no particular object as the focal point b. Light (understood as time or change) as focus? c. Contra classical compositional style in which main subject is clearly the focus...