Week 04 - Debates on Free Will (Spring 2024) PDF

Debates on Free Will, Subjecthood and Artistic Production Week 03 FA 171- INTRODUCTION TO ART, DESIGN AND CULTURE I Staniszewski, M.A. Believing is Seeing Chapter 2 – “Art...

Debates on Free Will, Subjecthood and Artistic Production Week 03 FA 171- INTRODUCTION TO ART, DESIGN AND CULTURE I Staniszewski, M.A. Believing is Seeing Chapter 2 – “Art and the Modern Subject” (p. 101-110) Chapter 4 – “Aesthetics: The Theory of Art” (p. 119-124) Audio Visual Materials What caused the French Revolution? - Tom Mullaney Art and the Modern Subject End of 18th Century: 1776: American Revolution 1789: French Revolution Capitalism + Liberal Democratic State Monarch x Freedom At the same time, development of Art Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People The Individual’s humanity  Reasons Several years of poor grain harvests, rising food prices State’s bankruptcy due to French participation in American Revolutionary War Loss of France's colonial possessions The growing commercial dominance of Great Britain King Louis XVI was in practice often indecisive and known to back down when faced with strong opposition. "The Third Estate carrying the Clergy and the Nobility on its back" The rise of Enlightenment ideals. Change in Social Hierarchy & Restructuring of Subjecthood: Monarchy began to disappear. Liberal Democracy came. Citizen with inalienable rights. (set of human rights that cannot be transferred from one person to another) The Tennis Court Oath, 1789 Citizens participate in the government/ruling of their country. = Collectivity These rights were for only white people Change in Social Hierarchy & Restructuring of Subjecthood Restructuring of Subjecthood: Individuals are now citizens with “free will” Before 1789 French Revolution: everyone was born to a specific rank within Social hierarchy The church at the top The nobles in the middle and the rest at the bottom. Change in individuals’: -Identity -Humanity -Relation with the world “People under the Old Regime,” Restructuring of Subjecthood: Humanism: A system of beliefs and standards concerned with the needs of man, and not with religious principles - it is secular. Citizen: A person who is member of a country, and who has the right to vote.  Emblem of Modern Subjecthood: ART In Liberal Democracy & Capitalism: individuals have two rights: property & contract Reasons: Artist has full authority over his work. Not ordered by church or monarchy. = free will The creator of Art is the individual artist = genius Circulation of artwork in the free market provides its meaning and value What caused the French Revolution? - Tom Mullaney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBn7iWzrKoI What makes these protests of July 1789 so strikingly modern? They are influenced by other revolutions of the 18th century. By the american revolution and other european revolutions, they knew what freedom means, what equality means. It is a political protest SYMBOL TRANSFORMATION Headless Royal Statue: Even today transforming symbols of power through modification and destruction is still a provocative form of protest Bastille Jail: The ultimate symbol of royal despotism The revolutionaries turned the symbol of cruelty into an emblem of freedom by demolishing it ICONOCLASM, VANDALISM Iconoclasm: Any destruction of images Vandalism: Destruction of property belonging to other people Iconoclasm: Across Paris, teams of sculptors began removing the symbols of the hated oppression of the ancient regime and religious symbols. 1566 Calvinist Iconoclastic Riot, Frans Hogenberg Material Transformation of Symbols When Louis XV statue is taken down, national assembly say the debris be taken to the forge, melted down to create cannons to fire on the armies of kings, a material transformation of the statue. Church bells: During the revolution they were all pulled down, but one... To turn them into coins, each bearing the symbol of the republic. Who owns the right to make meaning in public space with symbols? SIGNATURE Mark of authorship Shows identity Is guarantee of authenticity. SIGNATURE The aesthetic and commercial value of signature in our culture – the economic value of signature/artwork. SIGNATURE OF PROPERTY In graffiti, the “Tag’’ or signature = Image Defacement of (public) property A grass-roots street art Creative art of minority & youth groups in urban life. For giving a voice to those who do not have any property. Visual component of hip-hop and rap culture. David Hammons an African-American, conceptual installation artist who makes social commentary, primarily on racial themes Purpose: to show the fluidity between street life and fine art material: recycled materials Examines: African-American identities. subject: Basketball is black men’s only option Higher Goals, 1983 for success. Questions: What makes protests of July 1789 so strikingly modern? Who owns the right to make meaning in public space with symbols? Can there be a standard of taste? What do you think makes a work of art propaganda? Aesthetics: Theory of Art Aesthetics: theoretical counterpart to Art. Alexander Baumgarten, in 1735: coined “aesthetics” as a new science. Immanuel Kant, in 1790: Philosophy of the beautiful = Aesthetics. According to Kant (German philosopher), true “aesthetic taste” is a pure, disinterested pleasure in which we only contemplate an object. Aesthetic experience is a “harmonious free play” of our imagination and our Immanuel Kant understanding. Aesthetics: Theory of Art Pure beauty is in nature & in Art. Beauty created by God is nature. Beauty created by men is Art. To produce Art, one must be genius. To assess Art, one must have taste. “There is no science of the beautiful, but only a critique of it". Properties of Art: Originality Exemplary Art is not governed by rules nor science. One is born with genius. The modern Artist (a genius) is free from the constraints of politics, patrons and society = free will. Taste Kant said: taste reflects a universal consensus: “Common Sense’’. Today: taste is not an ideal, it distinguishes class. Pierre Bourdieu: “Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier.’ -Taste is not natural but cultural, it is produced. -Consumption of Art indicates social & economical differences; shows you have a class Michelangelo, David Comparison: Meanings of beauty, genius and taste in antiquity and modernity In Antiquity: Beauty = moral good. Medieval/Renaissance : beauty was not autonomous; beauty= moral beauty, personal beauty, etc. The term genius exists. In Modernity: Beauty = an autonomous quality, aesthetics. Genius exists with free will, freed from the authority of monarchy and church.