What Art Does: Using Philosophy of Technology to Talk about Art

What Art Does: Using Philosophy of Technology to Talk about Art - Hardcover

$153.90
$153.90
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What Art Does: Using Philosophy of Technology to Talk about Art
  • What Art Does: Using Philosophy of Technology to Talk about Art
What Art Does: Using Philosophy of Technology to Talk about Art - Hardcover

What Art Does: Using Philosophy of Technology to Talk about Art - Hardcover

by Ryan Mitchell Wittingslow
$153.90
$153.90

Book Overview

by Ryan Mitchell Wittingslow (Author)

We derive a great deal of cognitive pleasure from asking what artworks mean. And yet, despite the seriousness with which we approach these questions, they all too often rely on theories of art that fail to adequately explain how art conveys meaning.

This book proposes a new theory. In contrast to more conventional definitions of art, What Art Does defends the claim that artworks constitute a class of tool. Like other tools, artworks are objects that have functions and that furnish affordances. However, thanks to the particular social and material facts that underpin the creation of artworks, the functions that artworks have and the affordances they furnish are special.

It is thanks to these special functions and affordances that artworks obtain their privileged character and status. Because artworks do things that other tools cannot, we take artworks to be meaning-making objects with something to say.

Author Biography

Ryan Wittingslow is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Groningen, a Humboldt research fellow at TU Darmstadt, and a research affiliate in Media Studies at the University of Sydney. Most of his research sits at the meeting ground between aesthetics, philosophy of design, philosophy of technology, and political philosophy.

Number of Pages: 136
Dimensions: 0.44 x 9 x 6 IN
Publication Date: October 15, 2023
ISBN9781538167328
Author Ryan Mitchell Wittingslow
PublisherRowman & Littlefield Publishers
GenreArts and Philosophy
FormatHardcover
PublishedOctober 2023
LanguageENG- English
Pages136
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Art Nonfiction Philosophy

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