Hi EdwardI do want to reply briefly to some of the points you make but it's
late now and that will need to wait until tomorrow or the weekend. I *do* want
to say right now however how touched & grateful I am that you took the trouble
to read the piece in such detail especially given the tech related difficulties
( and the attrition rate of patients thereby occasioned!) thanks!warmest
wishesmichael
From: Edward Picot via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org>
To: netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org
Cc: Edward Picot <julian.les...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2018 8:07 PM
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] on art and knowledge
Michael,
Infuriatingly, I can access the full article if I click the link while I'm at
work, but I can only access the precis if I click it at home. This didn't stop
me reading it - when I was supposed to be getting on with something else - and
I'll draw a veil over the question of how many patients are now dead as a
result, when they ought to be still alive. But the worst thing is that my
comments will have to be based on how I remember your article, because I don't
have the actual text in front of me. From what I remember, you did rather a
good job of demolishing other people's ideas about what might constitute the
'value' of art, but I was a little bit more suspicious when you came to your
own ideas on the same subject. As I remember these came down to (a) the best
art is the art which provokes in us the widest/most intense range of
interpretations/reactions, and (b) art teaches us how to live. Both of these
sound a bit like F R Leavis to me - in fact there was a whole school of
literary criticism, particularly based in Cambridge, which was founded on the
ideas that the best literature teaches us how to experience life more fully,
distinguish and understand our own ideas, emotions and aesthetic responses more
scrupulously, and thereby become more fully aware and morally capable people.
This was used as an argument in favour of (a) doing literary studies at
University level, and in fact making the study of literature (and by
implication art more generally) into one of the most important University
departments; and (b) preserving a canon of the 'best' literature and trying to
make sure that it was routinely taught in schools. In other words it was a very
'highbrow' argument; only the best literature could have the sought-after
uplifting effect; so in the end it came down to 'Reading Shakespeare can make
you a better person, but reading Longfellow can't', and then down to arguments
about who deserved to be in the canon and who didn't. Henry James and Jane
Austen - in (because they're ironic and morally scrupulous). Dickens - out (too
much of a showman, too sentimental - until Leavis had a change of heart and
suddenly decided 'Hard Times' was a grownup novel). T S Eliot in, Milton out.
Dante better than Milton. John Donne better than Spencer. And so forth.
Then along came Structuralism and said, 'Actually, we only find value in art
because we've been trained to do so; an image means one thing if you see it in
a museum and something entirely different if you see it on the front of
somebody's T-shirt; the whole thing, the whole act of interpretation, our whole
response to art, is a cultural construct, and the context in which we do our
viewing/reading/listening is everything; it's probably more important than the
work of art itself'. Which I don't entirely buy, but it had the effect, in
about the 1970s, of knocking down the whole 'art makes you a better person'
edifice.
Basically I think I shy away from any attempt to define what art does for us.
I do think it can make us better people - or at least it can enrich our lives
by giving us experiences we wouldn't have had otherwise. I do also think that
some art is better than other art, and the breadth and depth and range of its
effect have got something to do with how you would calibrate the differences.
In other words, if I had to put my money anywhere, I might put it somewhere
very close to where you've put yours. But I don't like to see any of this
written down as a formula, because it always seems to come out wrong. I'm a
great believer in responding to individual works of art on a case-by-case
basis. And I'm also a believer, as someone who tries to be creative himself, in
just trying to make the stuff that feels right, without worrying too much about
philosophical justifications.
Edward
On 25/09/18 23:08, Michael Szpakowski wrote:
> Hi Edward -that link should take you into a screen readable version.> The
> way the thing is licensed means that's all I can send unless> people get the
> hard copy when it's out ( not sure when)... Mail me> personally if you still
> can't get into it... ( & thanks for> looking!) cheers m.> > >
> ------------------------- *From:* Edward Picot via NetBehaviour>
> <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> *To:*>
> netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org *Cc:* Edward Picot>
> <julian.les...@gmail.com> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 25, 2018 6:02> PM
> *Subject:* Re: [NetBehaviour] on art and knowledge> > Michael,> > I can't
> get into the full text! Do you need a login or something?> > Edward> > > On
> 25/09/18 11:46, Michael Szpakowski wrote:>> Hi folks I have a piece on this
> topic coming up in a forthcoming>> issue of the International Journal of Art
> and Design Education. >> They've posted a public 'read-only' copy of it
> here: >> https://rdcu.be/7BPg>> >> comments, responses, disagreements,
> whatever most welcome! cheers >> m.>> >> >>
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