Languages of Art

I read this book for a graduate seminar on the philosophy of art. In Nelson Goodmanfs book gLanguages of Art,h art is the subject of his philosophical inquiry, this diagram is a look at all the different features that show up. Artist Work-----------History Audience « Art world Creativity Normalcy This is just a straightforward examination of those things that go into the meaning of art. Then you have history to show that whatever is being displayed in this complex, which is not a complicated, organized whole, but a set of factors that inter relate with each other. Then you add history to ask who are the artists, what are the works, who is the audience, what is the art world and that will change over time. So, what is the meaning of art? Well there are different ways that art will have meaning in different periods and in different ways. All these factors have content in history. All are factors in art. The idea of creativity and normalcy is a factor in art too, because we would tend to think in some basic way. The whole point about art is that it is something creative. It is something that is special, and even if it were a readymade, the setting of it would prompt a special insight into this ordinary object. Therefore, something about art is creative, and by creative, we mean something special, something new, something out of the ordinary. Thus, normalcy and creativity are kind of in tension with each other and he adds that they are in tension because that is a fact too. If there is a notion that there is something, wrong with normalcy, that is a ridiculous thing to say. First of all, where would the avant-garde be without normalcy for one thing. Because the whole point of the avant-garde is to be at odds with normalcy. Without normalcy, you canft have shock of the new. It is a negative relation, but it is still a relation. Normalcy doesnft have to be boring, just common ways of thinking and understanding that are a setting for a community. No human being could become a human being without the forces of normalcy in their lives. No human could grow into an avant-garde artist if they were not raised in normalcy under certain patterns and expectations. The only truly absolutely creative person is a person who is insane. And we define insanity as someone who can make no contact with us, they are on wavelength and there can be no communication. There could never be a philosophical proposal that normally is something unfortunate because that could not be, there canft be any culture, community, or development of a human being without some set of norms, some ways of behaving. People develop norms. There are ranges of creativity. Important works of art go against tradition. Creativity doesnft have to break boundaries like the avant-garde it could be like Mozart who worked within normal conventions of art. Tension between creativity and normalcy over time brings new normalcy. Creativity establishes new norms and way

Languages of Art enables a person to review the deep structure of aesthetics through symbolic diagram. Goodman presents/offers a model of aesthetic production based on a flow from microperceptions into the macroperception of affect. He allows one to review the product of aesthetic direction through symbolic structure based on folds.