Materiality as the Basis for the Aesthetic Experience In Contemporary Art

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Mills, Christina Murdoch
Copyright Year	2009
Abstract	A number of historical philosophical theories relate to materiality in contemporary art and the role of art objects as an extension of ontology, or the study of the nature of being. The Kantian idea of the " aesthetic experience " is the point of departure, tracing philosophical discourse of how art functions via its materiality through the writings of Jacques Maritain to the post-modern considerations of David Hickey and Arthur Danto. The research for this thesis focuses on how contemporary art, in all its various forms, functions via art's material qualities or materiality. The objective is to ascertain the significance of materiality in contemporary art within the notion of temporal proximity and to establish the importance of the physical experience of works of art irregardless of whether the artwork manifests as an object, as in the case of painting, or as an experience as in performance art. The aim is to establish the fundamental relationship between the viewer and the work of art as it originates from material experience in all its manifestations. Considerations of materiality can be universally applied in the aesthetic assessment of diverse contemporary art forms that range from traditional, low-tech media to conceptual, ephemeral works. Examples here include works by Richard Materiality, as an aesthetic concept, has evolved out of formalism's interest in the purely visual aspects of art and structuralism's interest in context and communication. Following on the heels of Post-Modern theoretical discourse which acknowledges the relative nature of truth, materiality provides a theoretical approach that is time and situation-based. It is a means for understanding the wide scope of contemporary art production the function of contemporary art in the digital age. Materiality in works of art extends beyond the simple fact of physical matter to broadly encompass all relevant information related to the work's physical existence; the work's production date and provenance, its history and condition, the artist's personal history as it pertains to the origin of the work and the work's place in the canon of art history are all relevant to the aesthetic experience. The artwork's physicality, those aspects that can be sensed and verified by viewers, is a first consideration; physicality impacts content and, subsequently, meaning. Another aspect of materiality as a theory is that art locates viewers within their corporeal selves by engaging the senses; such experiences are, naturally, unique and individual to each viewer. The aesthetic experience is evoked …
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Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article