Art and the evolvement of culture. The altering capacity of institutional critique
(2013) Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies VIII conference: Sign evolution on multiple time scales, 2013/05/29- Abstract
- Creativity is a principal force of cognitive and communicational genesis that causes alteration of established rules and concepts (Heine/Kuteva 2007) and transgression of cultural borders (Lotman 1990). Artistic activity is normally taken for granted as creative, despite the fact that much artistic intention, is not necessarily aspiring to make any radical change of the circumstances in which it is communicated. Still, the role of art in societies can be claimed to be of radical importance for human development. Art may historically, and indeed in several archaeological and anthropological perspectives, be seen as a shared cognitive resource and a projection surface for the self-conceiving of cultures. Thus, its representational capacity... (More)
- Creativity is a principal force of cognitive and communicational genesis that causes alteration of established rules and concepts (Heine/Kuteva 2007) and transgression of cultural borders (Lotman 1990). Artistic activity is normally taken for granted as creative, despite the fact that much artistic intention, is not necessarily aspiring to make any radical change of the circumstances in which it is communicated. Still, the role of art in societies can be claimed to be of radical importance for human development. Art may historically, and indeed in several archaeological and anthropological perspectives, be seen as a shared cognitive resource and a projection surface for the self-conceiving of cultures. Thus, its representational capacity influences stabilisation as well as alteration of societies and their borders. Art has even been described as “a major factor in evolving the cognitive domains in the long history of the human species” (Donald 2006), and in this perspective art is to be regarded as an important “trigger” in evolutionary change, belonging in several stages of development.
If art in general has these evolutionary and extensional qualities, what then could be said about the self-questioning agency of critical art, sometimes labelled “institutional critique”, i.e. art that beyond depiction or beauty aims at exposing the fundaments upon which it itself is collected, maintained, symbolized, economized? Through examples from contemporary critical art, it will here be discussed to what extent these activities alter their own culture. In view of the examples, creativity will be regarded – in order to distinguish it from mere problem-solving, and refinement of discipline – as a radically open-ended intention that may alter the comprehension of its own immediate context as well as of the context in a broad cultural meaning.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/761663bb-ff47-4d2e-a164-da0ac304d192
- author
- Sandin, Gunnar LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013-05-29
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- conference name
- Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies VIII conference: Sign evolution on multiple time scales, 2013/05/29
- conference location
- Aarhus, Denmark
- conference dates
- 2013-05-29 - 2013-05-31
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 761663bb-ff47-4d2e-a164-da0ac304d192
- date added to LUP
- 2017-03-16 22:16:39
- date last changed
- 2021-05-26 12:43:56
@misc{761663bb-ff47-4d2e-a164-da0ac304d192,
abstract = {{Creativity is a principal force of cognitive and communicational genesis that causes alteration of established rules and concepts (Heine/Kuteva 2007) and transgression of cultural borders (Lotman 1990). Artistic activity is normally taken for granted as creative, despite the fact that much artistic intention, is not necessarily aspiring to make any radical change of the circumstances in which it is communicated. Still, the role of art in societies can be claimed to be of radical importance for human development. Art may historically, and indeed in several archaeological and anthropological perspectives, be seen as a shared cognitive resource and a projection surface for the self-conceiving of cultures. Thus, its representational capacity influences stabilisation as well as alteration of societies and their borders. Art has even been described as “a major factor in evolving the cognitive domains in the long history of the human species” (Donald 2006), and in this perspective art is to be regarded as an important “trigger” in evolutionary change, belonging in several stages of development.<br/><br/>If art in general has these evolutionary and extensional qualities, what then could be said about the self-questioning agency of critical art, sometimes labelled “institutional critique”, i.e. art that beyond depiction or beauty aims at exposing the fundaments upon which it itself is collected, maintained, symbolized, economized? Through examples from contemporary critical art, it will here be discussed to what extent these activities alter their own culture. In view of the examples, creativity will be regarded – in order to distinguish it from mere problem-solving, and refinement of discipline – as a radically open-ended intention that may alter the comprehension of its own immediate context as well as of the context in a broad cultural meaning.<br/>}},
author = {{Sandin, Gunnar}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
title = {{Art and the evolvement of culture. The altering capacity of institutional critique}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/56186646/SandinAbstractNASS8.doc}},
year = {{2013}},
}