Some Methods for Approaching and Analyzing Artforms
I. The
aesthetic theory of John Dewey (Dewey, J. Art
as Experience, 1934)- the artform is a
product of human experience; as a form, it comprises both an act
of expression and an expressive object:
1. Having an Experience: "an experience" is a relational event in which a variety of successive events, discoveries and impressions are perceived as a unified and qualitative whole. One does not live in a frictionless vacuum-- an experience is a product of give and take, challenges faced and overcome. In an experience, the self becomes aware of itself in the context of life as lived.
2. The Act of Expression: the act is a creative response to an experience; if an experience is the "com-pressing" of many quantities into a qualitative whole, the act is an "ex-pressing" of that unity. As experience is grounded in the turmoil of give and take, resistance and flow, so also the act is significant because of obstacles surmounted and means employed. Without the creative tension of conflict, there is neither experience nor act.
3. The Expressive Object: the art object is not simply a "thing" that can be analyzed by universal principles. At the same time, it is not simply a sounding board for one's "feelings" (or for how one imagines the artist felt). The former isolates the object from experience, while the latter isolates experience from the object. Both object and experience must be embraced as interpenetrating facets of one another. The art object has local habitation in our lives as lived. It celebrates experience by reorganizing it and "re-presenting" it.
II. The
aesthetic theory of Susanne Langer (Langer, S. Feeling
and Form, 1953)- the artform is a symbol
that expresses human feeling through its "primary
illusion:"
1. Pictures (drawing, painting, printmaking, photography): Virtual Planal Space
2. Sculpture: Virtual Kinetic Volume (external)
3. Music: Virtual Time
4. Theatre: Virtual Experience (external / expressive)
also: Virtual Time
5. Film: Virtual Experience (external / expressive)
also: Virtual Time and Virtual Space
6. Dance: Virtual Power
7. Architecture: Virtual Kinetic Volume (internal)
8. Literature: Virtual Experience (internal / contemplative)
History
Mythos (subjective experience, but "true" within the framework of one's cultural worldview)
Logos (objective "truth," but limited to the perspective of the chronicler)