John Dewey & Art as Experience

As a late nineteenth American philosopher, John Dewey reflected the pragmatism of his lineage of several generations of Vermont farmers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers who had earned their living connected to the earthiness of New England. His father, Rich Dewey, was a grocer and owner of a cigar and tobacco shop (Biography 1). Out of this practicality arose Dewey's thoughtful philosophies and their importance for intelligent living in a democracy. It is the thesis of this paper, that in particular, his philosophy regarding the importance of arts is as timely today as it was when he wrote Art as Experience in 1934.

Dewey, as a nineteenth century American, was influenced by the philosophy of John Locke, who had a philosophy of freedom. These ideas permeated western thought. Dewey was also influenced by the Congregationalist church and his study under John Peirce. He greatly revered the ideas of Hegel. During his long life he witnessed the development of the electric light, telephone, television, cars, airplanes, an the atom bomb (Stuhr 431). The simplicity of his nineteenth century background gave him a respect for first-hand experience, although he did recognize that life and society around him were becoming increasingly complex and industrialized. A consequence of such specialization is that the arts get separated away from the center of normal existence, creating a situation where people "are often content to look upon the fruits of these arts as adornmen

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r visual talents as vials of colored sand become inspiring representations on the floors of various spiritual centers where people gather to observe and commune during the process. The sand painters are not interested in becoming famous, although they are very interested in the beauty and meaningfulness of their product. They are not interested in its permanence. Dewey would approve. These creations are good examples of art as experience, art in the aspect of process rather than a thing to be stored, curated, observed and reproduced for tabletop coasters. Greene comments on the dangers of bombardment of images, that such an overload of sensory input can "freeze imaginative thinking" (Greene 378). This is a hazard when art becomes too specialized and relegated to the media and entertainment experts. Instead of creating one's own response to an important happening, one waits for the reviews and the favored films to show at a convenient cinema. This separates art from the participant, making an unfortunate division between the creator and the consumer, leaving a sort of aesthetic emptiness in the consumer. The Italian writer and critic of popular culture, Umberto Eco, believes, similarly to Dewey, that the "point of receptio

Category: Arts - J