Art as a Social System

Art as a Social System

Author: Niklas Luhmann

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9780804739078

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This is the definitive analysis of art as a social and perceptual system by Germany's leading social theorist of the late 20th century. It combines three decades of research in the social sciences, phenomenology, evolutionary biology, cybernetics, and information theory with an intimate knowledge of art history, literature, aesthetics, and contemporary literary theory.


A Restless Art

A Restless Art

Author: François Matarasso

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 9781903080207

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From the contents:00I. Participatory art now01. The normalisation of participatory art 0II. What is participatory art?02. Concepts03. Defnitions04. The intentions of participatory art 05. The art of participatory art 06. The ethics of participatory art 0III. Where does participatory art come from?07. Making history 08. Deep roots 09. Community art and the cultural revolution (1968 to 1988) 010. Participatory art and appropriation (1988 to 2008).


Concerning Stephen Willats and the Social Function of Art

Concerning Stephen Willats and the Social Function of Art

Author: Sharon Irish

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1350197610

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This book on Stephen Willats pulls together key strands of his practice and threads them through histories of British cybernetics, experimental art, and urban design. For Willats, a cluster of concepts about control and feedback within living and machine systems (cybernetics) offered a new means to make art relevant. For decades, Willats has built relationships through art with people in tower blocks, underground clubs, middle-class enclaves, and warehouses on the Isle of Dogs, to investigate their current conditions and future possibilities. Sharon Irish's study demonstrates the power of Willats's multi-media art to catalyze communication among participants and to upend ideas about “audience” and “art.” Here, Irish argues that it is artists like Willats who are now the instigators of social transformation.


The Aesthetic Function of Art

The Aesthetic Function of Art

Author: Gary Iseminger

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-09-05

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1501727303

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How can we understand art and its impact? Gary Iseminger argues that the function of the practice of art and the informal institution of the artworld is to promote aesthetic communication. He concludes that the fundamental criteria for evaluating a work of art as a work of art are aesthetic. After considering other practices and institutions that have aesthetic dimensions and other things that the practice of art does, Iseminger suggests that art is better at promoting aesthetic communication than other practices are and that art is better at promoting aesthetic communication than it is at anything else. Iseminger bases his work on a distinction often blurred in contemporary aesthetics, between art as a set of products"works of art"and art as an informal institution and social practice—the artworld. Focusing initially on the function of the artworld rather than the function of works of art, he blends elements from two of the most currently influential philosophical approaches to art, George Dickie's institutional theory and Monroe Beardsley's aesthetic theory, and provides a new foundation for a traditional account of what makes good art.


The Social Impact of the Arts

The Social Impact of the Arts

Author: Eleonora Belfiore

Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan

Published: 2008-09-16

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13:

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An intellectual history of contrasting ideas around the power of the arts to bring about personal and societal change - for better and worse. A fascinating account of the value and functions of the arts in society, in both the private sphere of individual emotions and self-development and public sphere of politics and social distinction.


The Utopian Function of Art and Literature

The Utopian Function of Art and Literature

Author: Ernst Bloch

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1989-03-06

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 9780262521390

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Essays in aesthetics by the philosopher Ernst Bloch that belong to the tradition of cultural criticism represented by Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin. The aesthetic essays of the philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885–1977) belong to the rich tradition of cultural criticism represented by Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin. Bloch was a significant creative source for these thinkers, and his impact is nowhere more evident than in writings on art. Bloch was fascinated with art as a reflection of both social realities and human dreams. Whether he is discussing architecture or detective novels, the theme that drives his work is always the same—the striving for "something better," for a "homeland" that is more socially aware, more humane, more just. The book opens with an illuminating discussion between Bloch and Adorno on the meaning of utopia; then follow twelve essays written between 1930 and 1973 on topics such as aesthetic theory, genres such as music, painting, theater, film, opera, poetry, and the novel, and perhaps most important, popular culture in the form of fairy tales, detective stories, and dime novels. The MIT Press has previously published Ernst Bloch's Natural Law and Human Dignity and his magnum opus, The Principle of Hope. The Utopian Function of Art and Literature is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.


Art as Therapy

Art as Therapy

Author: Alain Botton

Publisher: Phaidon Press

Published: 2016-10-24

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780714872780

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Two authorities on popular culture reveal the ways in which art can enhance mood and enrich lives - now available in paperback This passionate, thought-provoking, often funny, and always-accessible book proposes a new way of looking at art, suggesting that it can be useful, relevant, and therapeutic. Through practical examples, the world-renowned authors argue that certain great works of art have clues as to how to manage the tensions and confusions of modern life. Chapters on love, nature, money, and politics show how art can help with many common difficulties, from forging good relationships to coming to terms with mortality.


What Is the Evidence on the Role of the Arts in Improving Health and Well-Being

What Is the Evidence on the Role of the Arts in Improving Health and Well-Being

Author: Daisy Fancourt

Publisher:

Published: 2019-06

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 9789289054553

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Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and well-being, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the WHO European Region and further afield. This report synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan. The reviewed evidence included study designs such as uncontrolled pilot studies, case studies, small-scale cross-sectional surveys, nationally representative longitudinal cohort studies, community-wide ethnographies and randomized controlled trials from diverse disciplines. The beneficial impact of the arts could be furthered through acknowledging and acting on the growing evidence base; promoting arts engagement at the individual, local and national levels; and supporting cross-sectoral collaboration.


Concerning Stephen Willats and the Social Function of Art

Concerning Stephen Willats and the Social Function of Art

Author: Sharon Irish

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-02-11

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1350197629

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List of figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: new functions for art practice in society -- A cybernetics primer Cybernetics goes social A social practice primer Chapter overview -- 1. The Omni-Directional Artist -- Heuristic tools on the move Control Magazine Homeostat diagrams Cooperative decision-making: Visual Meta Language Simulation Pedagogical processes Man from the Twenty-First Century -- 2. Modelling the Social -- Cognition Control Centre for Behavioural Art Constructing social resources and social models West London Social Resource Project Social modelling in Edinburgh Meta Filter Art and social function -- 3. Mutually Bound -- Of concept frames From a Coded World A 'new reality'? Willats in east London Sorting Out Other People's Lives Inside an Ocean Art for Whom? -- 4. The Art of Sociotechnical Systems -- Toward a 'depleted, disillusioned new reality' The Ideological Tower Vertical Living Brentford Towers Art creating society: curating the Oxford Symposium and the Mosaic Series Personal Islands -- 5. Creativity in Self-Organization -- Participatory reception Working within a defined context Defined context, social practice, and the multi-homeostat problem Living with practical realities Do-It-Yourself (DIY) aesthetics 'Objects of Creative Release' Back to the Wasteland -- 6. Open-Ended Urban Systems -- Middlesbrough and The Transformer Marble Arch to Oxford Circus, London: Freezone Simulation in Sheffield South London: changing everything A pivot in scale: data streams Oxford community data stream Data stream portrait of London -- Conclusion: On Giving Up and Compromise -- Feedback and multiple futures Open systems and participation Thinking with cybernetics Compromise not compliance -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index.