David Quigley In an essay published in 2009, Boris could play in a broader social context influenced the founding director John Groys makes the claim that “today art beyond the narrow realm of the art Andrew Rice, as well as the professors Learning to Live: education has no definite goal, no world. Josef Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Preliminary Notes method, no particular content that can Motherwell, John Cage, and the poets be taught, no tradition that can be Performing Pragmatism: Robert Creeley and Charles Olson. for a Program of Art transmitted to a new generation—which Art as Experience Unlike other trajectories of the critique Education for the is to say, it has too many.”69 While one On the first pages of Dewey’s Art as of the art object, the Deweyian tradition might agree with this diagnosis, one Experience from 1934, we read: did not deny the special status of art in 21st Century. immediately wonders how we should itself but rather resituated it within a Après John Dewey assess it. Are we to merely tacitly “By one of the ironic perversities that continuum of human experience. Dewey, acknowledge this situation or does this often attend the course of affairs, the as a thinker of egalitarianism and critique imply a call for change? Is this existence of the works of art upon which democracy, created a theory of art lack (or paradoxical overabundance) of the formation of an aesthetic theory based on the fundamental continuity goals, methods or content inherent to depends has become an obstruction of experience and practice, making the very essence of art education, or is to theory about them. For one reason: all socially constructed distinctions this a problem or historical impasse that these works are products that exist permanently open to renegotiation. we must overcome? At the conclusion of externally and physically. In common Likewise, in spite of his frequent the same paragraph, Groys offers an conception, the work of art is often reference to the English romantic writers idea that I would like to develop further identified with the building, book, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats, he and argue could serve as a goal for art painting, or statue in its existence was not a subjectivist. His philosophy and art education today: apart from human experience.”70 of art was rather framed within the pragmatist critique of an idealized “Ultimately, teaching art means teaching It is precisely this problematization of subject/object dualism. Consequently, life.” the art object in favor of a theory of art his notion of “experience” was based on as experience that defined an important the interrelationship of the subject and Beginning with this thought—that art has tradition of artistic practice and art object, where the “live creature” was something to do with teaching us how to education during the 20th century. In directly implicated in the world, and art live—I would like to propose that it is, in stressing the experiential quality of art, was understood as a conscious process fact, imperative that we reconsider the this tradition argued ‘from both sides’ of “interaction” that participated in and goals, methods and content of art bringing art practice closer to everyday constructed both personal experience education—especially as these could be life and at the same time valorizing and and social reality. While Dewey ulti- used to redefine our concept of public re-thinking all human activity: to think mately accepted (and in fact worked life. To do this I would like to return to art in terms of experience but also to with) the differences between art and the work of the philosopher John Dewey think experience in terms of art. other human activities, and likewise and to a historical trajectory that explic- between the fine arts and the useful or itly draws upon his theory of experiential Historically, John Dewey had a broad applied arts, the differences were a art. After briefly introducing this context, influence as a philosopher and writer on question of degree and not of kind. I will propose a list of goals, concepts artists between the 1920s and 1960s. and ideals for a program for 21st century More specifically, Dewey was on the Black Mountain College art education derived from Dewey that board of the relatively short-lived but With its numerous contributions to not only address the situation in art immensely influential Black Mountain the field of art, it is easy to overlook 142 schools, but also show what role art College, where his thought profoundly that Black Mountain College was not specifically conceived as an art school. It an immediate reaction to the complexity significance of works of art was first was rather a liberal arts school with art of the phenomenology of perception and and foremost what we do with them and at the center of its pedagogical philoso- an invitation to understand vision in what they do with us, looking at art as phy acting as a model for an underlying much broader terms: a specific kind of interaction between logic of practice and experience that the artist, a community of viewers moved between the humanities, manual “If we accept education as life and as and the sounds, actions and materials labor and the fine and applied arts.71 preparation for life, we must relate all of expression. When Black Mountain College opened in school work, including work in art, as 1933, it only had 21 students and four closely as possible to modern problems. Theater Piece No 1 faculty members, although it eventually […] In short, our art instruction attempts It is appropriate that we do not know grew to be slightly larger. Still, over its 24 first to teach the student to see in the what actually happened during the event years, fewer than 1200 students studied widest sense: to open his eyes to the that has since been heralded as the first at Black Mountain College (roughly the phenomena about him and, most intermedia “Happening.” We do not same number who studied at Bauhaus).72 important of all, to open his eyes to his know the specific date (the year yes, However, as numerous publications and own living, being, and doing.”74 1952), whether an actual score existed exhibitions since its closing attest, Black (perhaps still tucked away in some North Mountain College was, along with the Learning to see. Learning to create art. Carolinian attic)—we do not even Bauhaus, one of the most influential art Learning to live. This is pedagogy in really know its name, and the various education projects of the 20th critical existential terms. Learning to see recollections about what actually tran- century—and John Dewey’s philosophy for Albers meant learning what it means spired often differ in some important was at the core of its mission. to be alive. details. Theater Piece No. 1, sometimes also referred to as “The Untitled Event at Josef Albers and the Vorkurs Après John Cage Black Mountain College,” nonetheless First developed together with László John Cage and the countless artists remains at a nodal point in the history of Moholy-Nagy following Johannes Itten at influenced by him, Fluxus, multiple 20th century art.75 Set in the dining hall the Bauhaus from 1923 to 1933, then projects of experimental and “expanded” of the College, John Cage stood atop a at Black Mountain College until 1949 cinema, theatre, dance and performance ladder and held a lecture (‘interrupted’ and at Yale from 1950-1958, Josef during the second half of the 20th sporadically by silence),76 with Robert Albers’s Vorkurs has continued to be a century began with the assumption Rauschenberg’s paintings (The White reference for art pedagogy in the 20th that artworks themselves are secondary Paintings) hanging above the audience, century. Albers based his course on to the experience of making or partici- Mary C. Richards (translator of Artaud’s studies and experiments that were pating in the making of art. In the The Theater and Its Double, now known intended to make artists learn “to see tradition of John Dewey, art was seen for her philosophy of pottery) and the directly” through heightening immediate as being neither purely physical nor poet Charles Olson reading various awareness and shedding one’s visual representational (what is portrayed) pieces of poetry, Merce Cunningham and other perceptual habits. But what is nor as merely subjective, but rather as dancing (together with unnamed often underappreciated is that Albers part of a process of making, reflecting dancers) amidst the audience (there is understood this process of “learning to and interacting within a field of common mention of a barking dog following him), see” in terms that went well beyond the experience and the physical world. In David Tudor playing prepared piano and concerns of design or the visual arts.73 this tradition, it was not a question of Rauschenberg playing Edith Piaf records Not merely an exercise in gaining artistic neglecting the artwork entirely, what on an old-fashioned record player proficiency, these experiments were both was important was to stress that the (although there is disagreement about 145 what records he actually played)—each In spite of Cage’s insistence on chance not admit his influence. But the fact is participant acted at assigned times but and indeterminacy (or, one might claim, there, that those groups formed after his doing whatever they wanted. There was because of it), the event emerges as a visits.”79 a slide projector showing abstract colors discrete moment, a uniquely demarcated and photographs (of trees?) and a movie point in time, a delineated interaction Après John Cage was the title of the first projector showing various films. All of the with the material and social world Fluxus event in Germany, June 9, 1962 sources agree on one thing: There were expressed in art—a way of giving form to in Wuppertal, (organized by George coffee cups on the audience‘s seats that the fragmentary activities and passing Maciunas) but could also be thought of were filled with coffee at the end of the of time in which actions would otherwise in the millennial spirit of traditional performance. not in themselves lead to completion. historiography: After Dewey, after Cage, Above all, Theater Piece No 1 was a after Allan Kaprow, after Fluxus, after Using chance operations, but also lesson on understanding the interrela- George Maciunas, after Dick Higgins, composition and even the choreography tionship between perception and after Wolf Vostell, after George Brecht, of everyday life, Theater Piece No 1 construction that underlines both art after Ay-o, after Carolee Schneemann, was as much a ritualized philosophical and experience. after Shigeko Kubota, after Nam June reflection as it was a performance, with Paik, after Robert Filliou, after Robert the conditions of experience given a Between 1957–59, after his work at Watts, after Daniel Spoerri, after structure from which they could be Black Mountain College, John Cage held Geoffrey Hendricks…after Henry Flynt: perceived and appreciated. In Dewey’s a series of highly influential composition terms, one could say that the piece was classes at the New School for Social THE POINT IS NOT GOOD ART about having an experience (in the Research that have come to be thought --FULFILLMENT IN FANTASY-- singular), which Dewey distinguished of as the “beginning point” for a number BUT A NEW MODE OF LIFE from the everyday flow of less clearly of different artistic positions and move- WHICH ALLOWS FULFILLMENT distinguishable experiences (in the ments.78 Classwork was based on IN ACTUAL LIFE. plural). Having “an experience” implies experiments with chance operations SENSIBILITY WHICH IS “demarcation” and “fulfillment” and was while participants were encouraged to NOT SUPPORTED very close to what Dewey understood as work in different media and in different BY THE MODE OF LIFE art: formats—with discussions following the IS MERE ESCAPE.80 students’ presentations. “A piece of work is finished in a way Après, après, après … art making and that is satisfactory; a problem receives Shortly before his death in 1978, while art education as experience, art under- its solution; a game is played through; talking about one of his famous histori- stood as a practice related to reflecting a situation, whether that of eating a cal charts, George Maciunas described and learning about oneself, through meal, playing a game of chess, carrying the influence of John Cage: “Now for this exploring and celebrating the immediate on a conversation, writing a book, or chart I chose style rather than location conditions of life: where silence, noise, taking part in a political campaign, is because the style is so unlocalized and harmony, line, color, form, movement, so rounded out that its close is a mainly because of the travels of John words become specific demarcations in consummation and not a cessation. Cage. So you could call the whole chart time and space out of an otherwise Such an experience is a whole and like ‘travels of John’ like you could say unnoticed and uncelebrated flow of carries with it its own individualizing ‘travels of St. Paul,’ you know? Wherever events. Art as a process of becoming quality and self-sufficiency. It is an John Cage went, he left a little John aware of the shape, sound and smells of 146 experience.”77 Cage group, which some admit, some do people around us, theirs and our placement in space, our movements, Kaprow’s studies of the “process of teaching practice moved between etc. celebrating this empirical fact interaction in an environment” were not genres and modes of expression, where in a mixture of technique, philosophical only artistic statements, they were also irony, humor, existential awareness and reflection and critical pedagogy, we learn guidelines for exploring and constructing philosophical reflection (and reverie) to pay attention to the manifold the conditions of life. comingle. conditions of the possibility of this experience—philosophically in In Robert Filliou’s Teaching and In her book Fluxus Experience, which analysis and joyously in art.81 Learning as Performing Arts we find closely follows the line passing from a similar approach that develops out John Dewey to Fluxus artists, Hannah Pedagogy and the Avant-Garde: of a growing consciousness about the Higgins describes this mixture of art Allan Kaprow, Robert Filliou and philosophical and broad educational practice and pedagogical project as “Fluxus Experience” implications of new techniques promoting “experiential learning, but In the introduction to Allan Kaprow’s developing in the arts: also interdisciplinary exploration, self- collected writings, the editor Jeff Kelley directed study, collective work, and the paints a picture of Allan Kaprow reading “The purpose of this study is to show non-hierarchical exchange of ideas. Dewey’s Art as Experience. Kaprow “the how some of the problems inherent in Finally, by fostering such freedom, young, ambitious artist and philosophy teaching and learning can be solved—or it avoids the homogenizing influence of graduate student” who “penciled in his let’s say eased—through an application formal institutions of learning and art thoughts as he read” underlining that of the participation techniques academies.”85 “Fluxus experience” “art is not separate from experience... developed by artists in such fields as: places experimentation at the center of what is an authentic experience?... happenings, events, action poetry, an egalitarian educational philosophy. environment is a process of interaction.” environments, visual poetry, films, Following in the pragmatist tradition, the street performances, non-instrumental artist does not work according to fixed Jeff Kelley continued: music, games, correspondences, etc.”84 principles, he/she works towards them, in the hope of drawing conclusions “With these and other scribbles, Teaching and Learning as Performing relevant for further practical action. Art Kaprow grounds himself in Arts includes interviews with Allan becomes a concentrated practice of American pragmatism and forecasts Kaprow, John Cage and Joseph Beuys. interaction and improvisation in a direct the themes of his career.”82 It could be thought of as a textbook for response to the situation at hand—both a radical pragmatist philosophy (or from a social and practical task-based In Kaprow’s Manifesto from perhaps an anthropology) of art as standpoint. 1966 we read: education (and education as art). Filliou began with the most basic and obvious Here in the avant-garde interpretation of “Now, as art becomes less art, it takes human activities, and then transposed Dewey, after having (once polemically, on philosophy‘s early role as a critique them into different intellectual and now pragmatically, and then once again of life. […] Precisely because art can be emotional contexts. The lecture- polemically) equated art and life, the confused with life, it forces attention performance Teaching and Learning formalisms of identity and experience upon the aim of its ambiguities, to As Performing Arts Part II: Travelin’ can be attacked as one would attack the ‘reveal’ experience.”83 Light - It’s a Dance, Really (1979) made formalisms of art. At times remarkably while shaving himself or before that simple, clear and to the point, at others Whispered History of Art (1963) are struggling with unexpected contingencies good examples of how his art and and complexities, working through these 149 artistic and existential questions—we which, if explored in all of their complex- science as well as in art “blocks the might begin to create different strategies ity, should lead us to an understanding road to the inquiry by which things are of art education that could be imple- of our place in the present social organi- found out.”87 Art freed from any definite mented in a wide variety of contexts, in zation and even in history (here, unlike framework is methodologically and high schools, vocational schools, art Hegelian inspired philosophies, it is philosophically framed as a pursuit, schools and universities—and through important to remember that pragmatist in this case, a provisional proposition, this begin working on redefining the agency is not limited to world-historical a proposed answer to the question conditions of contemporary experience. figures). In this way the goal of “learning “what is art?” One can easily imagine by doing” is not only learning how to John Cage reading Dewey’s essay on Preliminary Notes for a Program of do something but rather the ‘who, what, Peirce: Art Education for the 21st Century: where, when, why’ we do something. Après Dewey An example based on gardening from “Fallibilism is also more than a neces- Democracy and Education from 1916 sary postulate of method. It has definite 1. Learning by Doing (expanded) (translated into German in 1930): philosophical implications. It points to One of the common phrases used the continuity of all things in nature. to describe Dewey’s educational “Gardening, for example, need not be ‘The principle of continuity is the philosophy is “learning by doing.” But taught either for the sake of preparing principle of fallibilism objectified.’ It this should not be understood in the future gardeners, or as an agreeable signifies that as our knowledge swims in sense of gaining a skill through actual way of passing time. It affords an ave- a continuum of indeterminacy, so things practice: Dewey’s “learning by doing” nue of approach to knowledge of the themselves swim in continua; there are was not a theory of how to best place farming and horticulture have had no exact breaks and divisions such as gain practical skills. For Dewey the in the history of the race and which they would make exact knowledge possible. philosophy of learning by doing was a occupy in present social organization.”86 Only the idea of fallibilism opens the process of learning about broad social, mind to the observation of the merging political and philosophical questions 2. Art and (the Institutionalization of) edges, the fluidity of all things.”88 through working out very immediate Fallibilism problems related to practice (much There is a trajectory of art in the 20th It is important to remember that this is like the philosophical notion of century based on fallibilism, on the idea not an invitation to relativism, nor pure “pragmatism,” “learning by doing” is that all claims of knowledge, all alleged skepticism, but rather working with the too often understood in merely opera- truths should be subject to scrutiny. knowledge of provisional truths (the tional or instrumental terms). Even though one might seek definitive nihilists and skeptics have stopped knowledge, certainty, truth, etc., there seeking! They already know there is In much the same way that learning by can be no claim that is immune from no truth…). doing has nothing necessarily to do with doubt. All art that challenges accepted skill, likewise art should not be taught fundamental notions of what art is Perhaps more importantly, beyond merely for the sake of preparing future works with some level of fallibilism. pure intellectual or artistic pursuit, artists to be competent in a certain form What we consider, or what up until fallibilism as a philosophical program of expression. The knowledge gathered now we have considered to be art is has implications for the constitution in art-experience instead represents a a starting point for further fundamental of a democratic state. Establishing critical and self-conscious approach inquiry and experimentation (with the that we can never be certain of our to all human activities (pragmatist results contingent upon the particular claims, implies a willingness to listen 150 experience is always related to “doing”), experiment at hand). Certainty in to different and opposing views, which, of course, is the basis of negotiat- about representing but rather inter within education qua experience. First ing power relations within a democratic acting or even making transactions comes the fallibilist starting point—calling society. with nature. all certainties into question—which is crucial to avoid education becoming Art schools and exhibition spaces are Perhaps most importantly, these reproduction. Then the overcoming of (could be, should be) institutions active transactions with nature, while the dualism of theory and practice that are based on an understanding wholly based in a specific social reality, through “learning by doing,” underlined of the necessity of challenging the are contingent. Although situated in a in the common interactive experience of underlying assumptions and traditions specific time and place in a specific teaching as learning and learning as not only of art, but also of society as a human community, they are always teaching, and finally the stress on whole, providing an institutional space constructed—and therefore open to experience as experiment reflects a for fallibilism in theory and practice, transformation. The contingent nature fundamental, ontological contingency— where all symbols, images, all forms of of experience is reflected in the notion the indeterminacy of the future condi- representation and identity can be of the experiment. The experiment- tions of experience. called into question—in a celebration experience, though formulated within of contingency!89 certain given structures, is always 5. Art and the Humanities in uncertain in outcome. Unlike more Vocational Training 3. Radical Pragmatism: sociologically-minded traditions, existing Democracy takes work. For Dewey this Constructive Experience social structures, patterns of behavior work begins with education, with schools and Contingency and ways of thinking are to be under- cultivating freethinking and self-critical The philosophy of “pragmatism” has stood, at best, as experiments in social individuals—not merely the vocational a complex history. I would try to describe organization that could just as easily and instrumental skills that are needed it in the most basic terms possible as be conceived in entirely different terms. for a profession. In Dewey’s pedagogy, a philosophy that claims that knowledge The pragmatist-constructivist revolution broad humanities-based education and and agency are inseparable, that social begins with the Monty Python gag the arts would take on a central role as reality is formed through a collective “and now for something completely initiators of open processes that link construction of meaning, which in different…” immediate professional-oriented work to turn creates the future conditions for critical thought (see also: learning by knowledge-agency. The constructivism 4. Democracy as a Form doing). Here yet another dualism should of pragmatism, unlike the similar of Engagement be overcome by both vocational schools logic of certain schools of post- To what extent is education the means teaching humanities and art and modernism is closer to the empiricism with which society reproduces itself? humanities and art schools teaching of the natural sciences—although the To what extent is it a challenge to vocational training (the latter case was, notion of experiment can also be seen given structures? Of the many dualisms for example, at the core of the Black in aesthetic terms. Pragmatic experience that pragmatism sought to overcome: Mountain College curriculum). is a process of reacting and acting but the dualisms between mind and also constructing forms of conscious- body, between theory and practice, etc. The current crisis of democracy must be ness in an “active and alert commerce would have to be added the underlying understood as part of a long-term crisis with the world […] complete inter social dualisms of the master and in funding in education and culture with penetration of self and the world slave, and of rich and poor. The roots in the cultural shift of the 1970s of objects and events.”90 In this way, Deweyian tradition would try to find and 1980s. We are now living the pragmatist consciousness is not a level of fundamental egalitarianism results of neo-liberal cuts in public 153 education (and in the US the exploding from the activities to which it refers. The analysis of the “several collective costs of private education) coupled with result, very often, is endless refinement, determinations, and therefore ‘several the conservative preservation of cultural esoteric jargon, romantic posturing, and identities’ and several forms of subjec- dominance through the continued fierce intramural polemic.”91 tion”93 that had shaped this experience. separation of pupils into different educational paths based almost entirely Today it increasingly appears that one of The publication in 2009 of Eribon’s on class distinctions. the most important ideas of pragmatism work came at an important cultural has been forgotten by progressive moment, as social-democrat parties This crisis has become more evident in politics: the dichotomy of theory and throughout Europe lost their grip on the recent years, with large voter blocks practice can only be overcome through continent’s political imagination—in spite without an academic background agency! The “unity of theory and of the massive failure of investment becoming more and more enthralled practice” Walzer speaks of here has capitalism made obvious in 2008—as with repeating the clichés of the ruling dominated policy decision-making for large groups of people shifted their class. While the question of education the past 40 years. A future progressive allegiance from socialist or leftist and social background is of course art education must take this situation parties to voting for extreme right-wing complex, with numerous factors playing into consideration and must work on populism— while at the same time, a role including property, profession, the level of funding and policy-making the artworld had perhaps never been salary, future perspectives, etc. there to forward its goals—in addition to as politically self-conscious. nonetheless is such an overwhelming exploring the romantic and esoteric statistical correlation between extreme- polemics of critical discourse and In much the same way that Dewey right-wing populist tendencies and practice! criticized the separation of art from vocational training that it is long overdue society, thereby creating a situation to reconsider this division of education 7. “…I regretted the fact that I had where the dominant classes were able and labor—from both sides. allowed the violence of the social to compartmentalize and segregate a world to triumph over me, as it had certain kind of experience, one could 6. Pragmatism Vs. Neo-Conservative triumphed over him.”92 also claim that the critical hermeneutics Thinktanks? In the epilogue of Didier Eribon’s (cultural and political theory) that have During the height of neo-liberal Returning to Reims from 2009, developed alongside art have also been conservatism and its attacks on which traced his own intellectual and compartmentalized and removed from progressive education and art funding existential transformation, moving from society at large. In the same way that in the late 1980s, the political theorist a provincial working-class background to the excessive concentration on the Martin Walzer remarked Paris to become a well-known sociologist objecthood of art was related to the role and philosopher, Eribon reflects upon art objects play in maintaining class- “The neoconservative thinktanks of his relationship to his father and family based society, one could argue that the the 1970s and early 1980s provide the and to the cultural world he had come academicization of art and political only recent example of the unity of from. Between the social precarity and theory also has led to an unbridgeable theory and practice. Leftist and even intense personal challenges faced both gap between those “in the know” and liberal arguments these days are largely by his parents and himself, his story those outside of institutions of art and theoretical in character: professors unfolds within an autobiographical and higher learning. While this is a recurring writing for other professors. […] Political discursive space. It is the story of a man theme on the left (i.e. the problem of theory is a kind of alienated politics, an reacting to his very specific personal the intellectual elite), I feel it nonethe- 154 enterprise carried on at some distance experiences and at the same time an less must be reiterated here in the context of what I would call a “radical pragmatic” perspective. Although there 72 „Während der Zeit von 1919 bis 1933 Jackson Mac Low, Larry Poons, George Segal, is certainly never one ‘silver bullet’ durchliefen das Bauhaus 1287 Studierende Florence Tarlow and 'LaMonte Young. argument or program that could change aus 29 Staaten. Davon waren 20% Ausländer, 79 this dramatic and complex situation, one und etwas ein Drittel war weiblich.“ George Maciunas, in: Ubi Fluxus ibi motus Michael Siebenbrodt and Lutz Schöbe, 1990-1962 (Milan: Edizioni Mazotta, 1990), can find in Dewey’s work and to a Bauhaus: 1919-1933 (New York: Parkstone 227. certain extent in the avant-garde inter- International), 231. pretation of his philosophy, a program of 80 Henry Flynt, “Mutations of the Vanguard,” art education that could be imple- 73 “Albers went further to find in form an in: Ubi Fluxus ibi motus 1990-1962 mented in cultural and educational ethics of perception, which he developed (Milan: Edizioni Mazotta, 1990), 128. in theories of progressive pedagogy concerning institutions across the spectrum of experimentation and social change. Drawing on 81 “Such consciousness of what we do and society. In any case, rather than holding the work of John Dewey, Albers presented the feel each day, its relation to others' experience endless debates about the effects of the methodology of the experimental test as a and to nature around us, becomes in a Bologna Process on the aristocratic art forceful corrective against stagnant perceptual real way the performance of living. And the academies or the imminent threat to habits in the culture at large, centering attention very process of paying attention to this on the tremendous stake of progressive continuum is poised on the threshold of mythical Humboldtian ideals, it would education in combating forces of social art performance.” Allan Kaprow, Essays again be necessary to think of education reproduction, that is, the tendency of dominant on the Blurring of Art and Life, edited by in broader progressive, perhaps even cultural values to be reproduced as the Jeff Kelley (Berkeley: UC Press), 196. utopian (albeit pragmatic) terms. At the privileged traditions of society.” Eva Díaz, 82 very least, education should once again “The Ethics of Perception: Josef Albers in the Jeff Kelley, “Introduction,” in: United States,” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 90, No. 2 Allan Kaprow, Essays on the Blurring of Art be considered under experiential terms— (June 2008), 260, https://www.jstor.org/ and Life, xi. as an experiment in learning how to live. stable/20619605. 83 Allan Kaprow, “Manifesto,” in: 74 Josef Albers, “Concerning Art Instruction,” Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life, 82. in: Black Mountain College Bulletin, Series 1, No. 2 2 (Black Mountain College: North 84 Robert Filliou, Teaching and Learning 69 Boris Groys, “Education by Infection,” Carolina, 1934), https://monoskop.org/ as Performing Arts in: Art School Propositions for the 21st Century, images/9/9c/Black_Mountain_ (New York: Verlag Gebrüder König, [1970] ed. Steven Henry Madoff College_1933-1934.pdf. Facsimile Reprint 2014), 12. (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2009), 27. 75 William Fetterman, John Cage’s Theatre 85 Hannah Higgins, Fluxus Experience 70 John Dewey, Art as Experience Pieces: Notations and Performances (East (Berkeley: UC Press, 2002), 189. (New York: Perigee, [1934] 2005), Sussex: Psychology Press, 1996). 1. Emphasis added. 86 John Dewey, Democracy and Education: 76 According to an interview he held An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education 71 “As it took shape, the college became a in 1961, it was the “Julliard Lecture” later (New York: The Macmillan Company, unique combination of liberal arts school, published in A Year From Monday (1964). [1916] 1931), 235. Please note that summer camp, farm school, pioneering village, See: William Fetterman, John Cage’s Theatre Dewey’s use of the word ‘race’ corresponds refugee center and religious retreat.” Mary Pieces: Notations and Performances (1996). to the now outdated use meaning “people.” Emma Harris, “Black Mountain College: Dewey, as an early supporter of the N.A.A.C.P., European Modernism, the Experimental 77 John Dewey, Art as Experience, 37. was certainly not a racist. Spirit and the American Avant-Garde,” in: American Art in the 20th Century, ed. 78 Students of Cage at the New School 87 John Dewey, “Charles Sanders Peirce,” Christos Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal lectures included George Brecht, in: The Later Works of John Dewey, Vol. 6, (Munich: Prestel, 1993), 95. Jim Dine, Al Hansen, Dick Higgins, ed. Jo Ann Boydston (Carbondale: Southern Scott Hyde, Allan Kaprow, Illinois University Press, 1985), 275. 157 88 John Dewey, “Charles Sanders Peirce,” 275.
89 Although, unfortunately and obviously, this is not always the case… formalisms of identity and moralism can be found everywhere.
90 John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Perigee, [1934] 2005), 18.
91 However bleak this might sound, there is hope, as Walzer continued: “Nonetheless, interesting work gets done, and if some of it is written in code, it is still possible to detect certain tendencies that may one day have practical impact.” Martin Walzer, “Introduction: The State of Political Theory,” Dissent. Summer 1989, 337.
92 Didier Eribon, Returning to Reims (Cambridge MA: Semiotext(e), 2013), 244.
93 Didier Eribon, Returning to Reims, 242.
158 Narcissistic Wound: Fig. 7 Image and Submission