Art As Experience: Book Club #2 | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios

Summary

In the second edition of the book club series, The Art Assignment takes on John Dewey's dense philosophical work, "Art as Experience". Acknowledging its challenging and somewhat obsolete prose, the episode offers viewers a distilled version of Dewey's key ideas and interpretations to engage audiences without the burden of reading the book themselves. Dewey, a prominent figure in the field of American pragmatism and education, explores the concept that art transcends physical forms and should interweave with everyday life rather than being secluded to museums. This episode also questions Dewey's differentiation between art and non-art experiences, scrutinizing his somewhat idealistic expectations of art's societal and personal impact.

Highlights

• Dewey's book isn't meant to be power-read—it's a philosophical jaunt through the nature of art. 📚
• Art's real magic happens in the experience—not in just looking, but engaging and feeling it sweep over you. 🌟
• Museums? More like cold, dead halls of art according to Dewey—they separate art from the fabric of daily life. 🏛️
• Art embodies an intense experience: something profound where we say 'that was an experience!' 🎭
• The idealistic potential of art? It's more than paint and canvas; it could reshape perspectives and break prejudices. 🤝

Key Takeaways

• John Dewey, the brain behind modern education, delves into the philosophical depths of what art truly represents. 🎓
• Art is not just an object, but an experience that is alive through interaction and perception. 🖼️
• Museums might not be the ultimate homes for art—Dewey wants art to mingle more with everyday life! 🏛️
• The book emphasizes a blend of aesthetics and personal perception, bringing a fresh perspective to appreciating art. 🎨
• Dewey dreams big: art could be the key to demolishing social prejudices and uniting humanity in understanding. 🌐

Overview

This episode of The Art Assignment doesn't expect you to wade through John Dewey's daunting 1934 work, "Art as Experience". Instead, it cut through the 80-year-old prose to highlight core ideas and modern relevance. Dewey's philosophical journey reveals art as more than mere objects, asserting that its true life blossomed through personal experiences and interactions. This view challenges traditional gallery-bound settings, encouraging art to become an accessible, integral part of daily existence.

Exploring the realm of aesthetics versus functionality, the book club debates Dewey's exposition on art as an active rather than passive experience. The conversation wades through Dewey's notion that art's reception should be just as vibrant and critical as its creation, making the aesthetic experience a deeply personal engagement. These ideas encourage a second look at cultural consumption, questioning assumptions about what art's place in society truly is.

Dewey's aspirations for art's societal roles are both ambitious and romantic. He envisions art as a means to elevate human understanding, remove societal barriers, and promote empathy across differences. This grand view sparks discussions about art's actual influence versus its potential, inviting viewers to ponder how much art contributes to human connection and societal progress, even if the experience of reading about it was one they wouldn't wish to repeat.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The chapter titled 'Introduction' begins with the host acknowledging the challenge of reading John Dewey's book 'Art as Experience'. They humorously admit that the book is quite difficult to get through, noting that they personally managed to read only about 20 pages before deciding that most of the book club members would not complete it. Instead of the traditional book club meeting where all participants are expected to read the book, the host offers a summary approach, emphasizing the enjoyment and ease of simply discussing the main ideas without the pressure of reading the entire text.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Background on John Dewey John Dewey was a pivotal philosopher in American pragmatism, particularly influential in education. His work was foundational to the development of public schools in the United States. The text being referred to was published in 1934, marking it as progressive for its time, though contemporary perspectives may have shifted on some aspects of his work.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Main Ideas from 'Art as Experience' The text discusses the distractions faced by the reader due to the constant use of the term 'man' instead of a more inclusive language like 'human' or 'woman'. This usage is deemed distracting and outdated by the narrator.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Art in Everyday Life The chapter "Art in Everyday Life" discusses the concept that art becomes true art through interaction and experience rather than simply existing as objects. Art is not just a standalone piece, but an intensified experience when people engage with it by observing, discussing, and surrounding it.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Dewey's Philosophy on Art The chapter discusses Dewey's views on how art has been separated from everyday life, making it inaccessible to regular people. Dewey blames imperialism, war, and capitalism for this separation, suggesting that they have taken art out of communities and confined it to museums, which diminishes its value and relevance.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Aesthetic vs. Artistic Experience The chapter discusses John Dewey's perspective on art, stating that historically, art was an integral part of life and did not need justification to be considered important. Dewey finds it unsurprising that many people today are not interested in art. The chapter also raises a question about distinguishing between art experiences and non-art experiences, noting that Dewey does not provide a clear answer.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Critique of Dewey's Views The chapter 'Critique of Dewey's Views' discusses the nature of art experiences, challenging Dewey's assertion that an art experience is a unified and closed experience. The critique suggests that many art forms acknowledge the fragmented and open-ended nature of experiences. Additionally, it highlights that not all closed experiences are artistic, using the example of watching a soccer match. The chapter concludes by appreciating the openness in Dewey's philosophy.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Art as Integrated in Life The chapter explores the integration of various art forms such as music and dance into everyday life, without compartmentalizing them into separate entities. The author discusses the pervasive presence of aesthetics, emphasizing its importance throughout the narrative.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Conclusion and Future Content Suggestions In this final chapter, the author revisits the concept of 'aesthetic' and challenges the reader to reconsider any negative associations they might have with the term. The chapter explains that the aesthetic is an integral part of experience, rather than an outsider ('no Intruder in experience from without'). The discussion includes examining the term in the context of being 'appreciative, perceiving, and enjoying,' thereby focusing on the consumer's perspective rather than the producer's. The closing thoughts suggest that something only truly exists once it has been shared or consumed, tying back to previous insights shared in the text.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Call for Audience Engagement In the chapter titled 'Call for Audience Engagement', the discussion revolves around the distinction between the aesthetic and the artistic. The aesthetic is about the appreciation or reception of art, focused on what is pleasing, interesting, or valuable to the consumer. On the other hand, the artistic is about the production of art itself. The chapter highlights that being receptive to art, referred to as 'receptivity', does not equate to being passive. Even engaging with a book is an active form of participation, contrary to the notion of 'lean back' entertainment.

Art As Experience: Book Club #2 | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] okay folks I was about 20 pages into our current book club read John Dewey's art is experience when I realized that very few of you were actually going to read this book yeah because it is impenetrable so we're not going to pretend that you actually read this instead this is going to be the most awesome kind of book club where we read the books and tell you what's important with no pressure for you to read it at all I I did not read it actually I I read I read about 20 Pages well I
• 00:30 - 01:00 [Music] did so let's start out with a little context about John Dey yeah so John Dewey was a philosopher who was extremely important in the school of American pragmatism and he was tremendously important particularly in education like part of the reason that you go to public school is John Dewey and you must remember that this was published in 1934 which was quite a long time ago a lot has changed it was really Progressive at the time but now there's some stuff that you have to Lo like the
• 01:00 - 01:30 constant use of man when he means human is very distracting to me because in almost every sentence of the book he he talks about the nature of man or the will of man or whatever and I just want to be like or woman so we're going to spare you a close reading of this book and instead we're going to talk about some quotes and some big Ideas yeah because there are actually really interesting ideas inside of this book it's just that they're disguised by like 80-year-old dead cold Pros I'm sorry I really did not like this book so Dewey's biggest idea in this book is Art Is Not Just the thing itself yeah there's a
• 01:30 - 02:00 quote about this the actual work of art is what the product does with and in experience so what he's basically saying is a sculpture alone in a gallery isn't really artwork it's artwork when people go in and they walk around it and they talk about it and they experience it and he also goes on to describe like art not being an object but kind of an intensified experience another big idea that I think is really interesting that's in the book is that uh art should not be remitted to a separate realm like when art is put into the world of
• 02:00 - 02:30 museums and Galleries and seen as separate from like regular life and regular people it's bad both for art and for people right and he blames this on a lot of different things like imperialism and sort of the loot of war and capitalism and all of these things that have served to remove art from Life take it out of our communities and kind of box it up and put it in these cold dead museums so Dewey's arguing that when you take these things out of life out of their context they become less
• 02:30 - 03:00 interesting and so for Dewey he's not at all surprised that people most people aren't that interested in art and I think that that's a really fascinating thing to think about and it used to be that you didn't have to convince people that art was important at least according to Dewey because art was just part of life when it was masks when it was looking at the fire and seeing the shapes that would develop nobody questioned whether that was important one of the things I can't really understand is like what the difference between art experiences and non-art experiences is he doesn't totally answer
• 03:00 - 03:30 that but in general he says that an art experience is an experience like you say like well that was an experience and it's something that has sort of unity and closure and I don't necessarily believe that I think there's a lot of good art that kind of acknowledges the fractured and open-endedness of experience I I also uh have some closed experiences that are definitely not art like watching Liverpool play West Brom so one of the great things about Dewey's philosophy is that it's completely open
• 03:30 - 04:00 to all of the Arts he talks a lot about music he talks about dance he talks about all these different Realms and he doesn't sort of delineate them into different worlds and I think that's sort of an important and really Progressive approach so you're saying that he could think of Liverpool as art sure so Sarah during the 20 pages of this book that I read um I would estimate that the word aesthetic was used perhaps 400,000 times no not that manyger but he does talk about it here and he talks about it I think in a
• 04:00 - 04:30 really redeeming way that should make you reconsider your aversion to the word aesthetic um but he says that the aesthetic is no Intruder in experience from without I'm reading that quote in context and I still don't understand what it means what what does that mean well he says that the word aesthetic refers as he's already noted to experience as appreciative perceiving and enjoying it denotes the consumers rather than the producers standpoint so this goes back to that idea of like not really exist existing till it's out in
• 04:30 - 05:00 the world that the aesthetic is sort of as opposed to like the artistic for him artistic is about production and the aesthetic is about um appreciating or taking in the art so the aesthetic is about me and uh like what's pleasing or interesting or valuable to me as a a consumer of art that's exactly right and he says also that receptivity is not passivity even a book is not lean back entertainment as we like to call it like it invol your participation even if
• 05:00 - 05:30 you're not like physically moving but you're thinking you're interpreting you're sort of filtering it through your own experience and so art requires people to be receptive and that is not the same as being passive that's good I like you're right I like that but then there's also all the stuff in the book about how like art is the greatest thing that man always man never woman can do and like it's the end goal of manhood itself and I I just don't know that I I I buy that like there's the quote art is the living and the concrete proof that
• 05:30 - 06:00 man is capable of restoring consciously and thus on the plane of meaning the union of sense need impulse and action characteristic of the live creature it's a little much for me yeah it's it's seductive and I I want to believe it but I just don't it's like it's too perfect he goes on to say that the moral function of art itself is to remove Prejudice do away with the scales that keep the eye from seeing tear away the veils due to want and custom perfect the power to perceive I mean that's very
• 06:00 - 06:30 beautiful I hope that art can do that yeah art when it's amazing I think does do that I mean I want art to do that I want art to sort of make us all realize that we are human and we do have things in common but we also don't in a lot of ways experi are so varied that it it's hard to be that optimistic yeah I want art to reflect the diversity of experience and the ways in which we are different as well as the ways in which we're the same yeah and I think a
• 06:30 - 07:00 powerful part of this theory is that he says that art art is important it's a part of our life it shapes us and that it's not removed it's not a separate thing but it's just integrated yeah I think too often we see art as like over here and math is over here and what he's saying is that art is part of Being Human an important part and also uh a part that you can't get rid of even if you wanted to oh boy was reading this book an experience yeah uh one that I
• 07:00 - 07:30 don't particularly want to repeat speaking of which Sarah I I really found the ideas in this interesting but it was presented to me in a totally inaccessible way which made me think that maybe if you could make uh videos for me about this kind of stuff it would be helpful like for instance why I should uh like or be interested in a particular artist's work like say Andy Warhol I could do that yeah I think that would be great okay let's try that next time never read this again [Music]
• 07:30 - 08:00 on the off chance that you did read this book let us know what you thought of it you are my hero uh and even if you didn't let us know what you think of Dewey's ideas thanks for watching [Music] [Music]