Hi Cynthia,
Cynthia Freeland said:
"These are tools or mediums but there is also a whole complex cultural
context out there, the "artworld."
I think this is an important point and has been my greatest crtiticism
of most of the research about the cognitive role in aesthesis.
Cognitive science has major implications for the appreciation of
specific types of imagery and perceptual organization in all mediums,
which means that it could have a lot to offer artists if we learned
how to apply some of those findings. But researchers make a terrible
mistake when they do not consider the ways that cultural and
historical factors factor into the mix. On the other side, it is
absolutely ridiculous when extremist postmodern relativists deny the
existence of factors that are embedded in our shared cognitive
architecture which have an important role in framing the nature of
art. The either or arguments of nature vs. nurture, or
sociobioligists vs. postmodern relativists are marred by their
polemic. Art is the dynamic entwining of both.
Cynthia said:
"I am hearing a lot of complaints about critics. I'd like to urge
that we not generalize about either artists or critics."
This is fair enough. Not all critics are in agreement with one another
on any point, so qualifiers like "some" or "many" would be more apt.
Nevertheless, I think that the artworld is in a state of
dissasociation from the the world we occupy and most artists I know
have been unhappy about it for a long time. I'm sure there are
critics who will be part of the solution, but the most prominent of
them have had a devastating effect on the vitality of art.
Cynthia went on to say:
"I'd cite Arthur Danto as a case in point, a prominent philosopher and
critic, someone who writes clearly and is not on the po-mo bandwagon."
What? Mr. "art ended the day I decided it was over" himself? Danto
may not be a French intellectual, but he's as postmodern as they come
in my book. Heck, he is the wagon. If his posthistorical spiel isn't
jargonistic rhetoric, nothing is. I agree, he's an excellent writer
with an admirable knowledge of the history of art (and science). I'll
even agree that he occasionally makes insightful and informed
observations and his work is much less abstruse then most, but he is
also a shining example of unbridled hubris ("end of art" nonsense) and
a bizarre agenda to exalt the critical process over the creative.
Cynthia also said:
"It would be easy for me as a philosopher and sometimes critic to make
gross generalizations about artists: artists are anti-intellectual,
they are slaves to the ideology of expressing themselves even when
they have nothing to express, they seem to learn or know little about
art history even in their own field, they only know their own art form
and not any others (dancers do not know about visual art, musicians do
not know about painting, etc. etc.). I repeat, I *could* say all this
and sometimes am tempted to--"
I think you just did. As an artist, I'm not too surprised that artists
resent crtics, it only seems natural to resent the people who have so
much power over one's livelyhood. I'm always a little more surprised
at the near-universal misgivings that most critics seem to have about
artists. Perhaps there is something to them, but as an artist, I'm not
entirely convinced. I've no doubt that the aforementioned grievances
could be applied to many of the greatest artist in history.
Cynthia concluded:
"Yet this view has been roundly attacked by a prominent cognitive
scientist working in the field, Gregory Currie. "
I missed Gregory Currie's book _ Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy, and
Cognitive Science _. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I'm
familiar with a paper that he wrote called _ Art, the Mind and the
Brain _ but it's been a while.
My memory is less then perfect, but I'm pretty sure he's a philosopher
rather then a cognitive scientist. Or is he both?
Best wishes, Glenn English
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