Aesthetic education and qualitative inquiry entered the standard vocabulary of art and art education graduate level research during the last half of the twentieth century partly through the discipline-based art education movement spearheaded by the Getty Foundation,(1) and partly by the independent efforts of major players in the development of doctoral programs in art such as David W. Ecker and Jerome Hausman at New York University.(2) This first decade of the twenty-first century finds the progress of research in art and art education diminished by decades of institutional requirements to “do more with less,” and college and university reorganization resulting in the extinction of extraordinarily productive graduate research programs.(3)

This proposal asserts the importance of the continuance and dissemination of phenomenologically grounded graduate research in art and art education, observes the commonality of “the arts” in terms of the artistic process as qualitative problem solving, and presents a rationale for the further development of graduate research programs in art and art education.

Theoretical Groundwork – Phenomenology

The word phenomenology refers to the description, history, or explanation of phenomena. Phenomenology as a philosophical doctrine was proposed by Edmund Husserl and is based on the study of human experience in which considerations of objective reality are not asserted. The fundamental intellectual maneuvers of Husserlian Phenomenology are strategies to disengage claims about what is real from descriptions of that which is experienced,(4) procedural strategies that can be taught in one form or another at every level.(5)

Subsequent developments in philosophy take advantage of this maneuver, and some contributions to the philosophy itself can be as difficult as defining a philosophical movement as the space between two other philosophical movements,(6) but teaching and using this proposed set of tools do not demand profound philosophical insights. It is not necessary to navigate the intricacies of existential phenomenology, semiotics, deconstruction, structuralism or post-structuralism to do this work, because one “does” phenomenology as an activity in order to understand the techniques.(7) That said, although when a better tool comes along the old one is put aside, this toolbox remains relevant.

Doing Phenomenology

One advantage of phenomenological training is the ability to move toward distinguishing judgment from perception, an act essential to making and evaluating art of any kind as well as for any act of conflict resolution. Don Ihde’s 1977 chapter headings suggest basic categories for instruction.(8)

Phenomenological Reduction

Phenomenological Excursus

Phenomenological Deconstruction

Variations and Deconstruction

Variations and Phenomenological Reconstruction

Adequacy and Invariance

Without exhausting the subject inappropriately for this proposal, a brief examination of the phenomenological reduction is reasonable.

phenomenological reduction - epoché(9)

Although the greatest insight about art is made with more art, it is necessary here to work with words.

Husserl’s epistemological insight questions a distinction between consciousness and object, as found in Cartesian thought. For Husserl, the terms “noesis” and “noema” do not so much identify distinct items like “consciousness” and “object” as provide a linguistic vehicle to speak about the interpenetration of each by the other as aspects of a more inclusive whole. The first step toward understanding this distinction is “stepping back” by becoming aware of preconceptions and assumptions provoked by an experience and stripping them away to clarify the experience as well as to permit one to examine the preconceptions and assumptions themselves.

Experience can be held aside from judgment only with effort and training. We are, in ordinary circumstances, constantly and automatically judging, evaluating and explaining everything experienced. If we did not we would be in difficulty even if we had mastered the art of walking and chewing gum simultaneously. For some experiences, however, we should choose to examine those judgments, evaluations and explanations carefully, such as when making art or other critical decisions. Some steps toward doing so are to:

attend to the phenomena of experience as they appear

describe, don’t explain

“horizontalize,” or equalize all phenomena

identify structural or invariant features of phenomena

All of these can be addressed in a critique of an object or event without philosophical abstraction. Rather than inquiring about what people think of an object or event, they can be asked what they sensed. First responses are invariably tangential, explanatory, hierarchical and peripheral. This is a natural mechanism of pre-judgment. It may have saved us from predators by permitting us to act quickly without reflection on the basis of limited information. Directed Socratic dialogue moves the discussion closer to what was experienced, and with considerable practice people will arrive at the above mentioned moves themselves. Once revealed, those tangents, explanations, hierarchies and peripheries can be studied separately for their usefulness and validity.

Moving in the opposite direction, artificial intelligence research is presently studying how to program devices to make decisions on the basis of limited information, in fact how to pre-judge. Studies in qualitative reasoning investigate the non-quantitative processes involved in what is sometimes called common-sense reasoning about complex systems, as is prevalent in everyday thought about physical systems. (10) In this way artificial intelligence research is working toward modeling that characteristic of human intelligence that allows the kind of decision-making on the basis of limited information which C.S. Peirce, with considerable wit, adds to the list of “deduction” and “induction” as “abduction.” (11) We might call this kind of research anti-epoché, or the search for artificial pre-judgment.

Definitions

Art

Great minds have concluded that art is beauty, entertainment, self-expression, creativity, service to God or the state, and so many other contradictory things that there is never-ending debate over definition of the term. Use of the famed William Jefferson Clinton ontological question, “What do you mean by ’is’?” suggests an alternative to this eternal conflict. Dutifully performing the phenomenological epoché, and finding a structurally invariant feature in the process of making art as qualitative problem-solving, that observation will be used as a definition here.(12)

The maneuver defining “artistic process as qualitative problem solving” was summarized as early as 1961 by David W. Ecker, (13) who traced it from John Dewey’s thought on qualitative intelligence through the research of N. L. Champlin and F. T. Villemain to his own contributions. Current thinking on multiple intelligences has served to validate the underlying concepts. (14)

Culture

The word culture, as used here, refers to the set of strategies developed by a people for their survival.

This definition is purposefully simple so as to imply no time, group, region, quality, value or other characteristic, and in that simplicity offers clarification of other terms such as multi-cultural, cross-cultural, and cultural/culture conflict.

For example, the Inuit who finds himself transplanted to Polynesia might be as ill-advised to express his cultural standard in dress as would be the Polynesian in the arctic. The clash of culture and climate would be extreme in either case, and certainly a phenomenological investigation would reveal the nature of the flaw in the subjects’ reasoning.

Tradition

Tradition can be regarded as the transmission of statements, beliefs, histories, customs, information, etc., between generations. This definition implies that a group or individual can found a practice, but it becomes a tradition when that practice is transmitted inter-generationally.

The expression “living traditions” has further implications. The first is that the practice under consideration continues, but also with the implication that there are traditions that are no longer practiced, although perhaps documented or documentable, whether or not retrievable. Archaeology, anthropology and historical research have unearthed bygone traditions, and some have thereby been revived. Again, the definition is intended to be value-neutral. Making folsom-points by flint-knapping would probably be an unobjectionable activity to most, but practicing cannibalism could be found somewhat questionable in polite company.

The phenomenological approach to research suggested here is particularly suitable to examining traditionally received ideas because these tools separate objects and events from preconceptions, attitudes and judgments, laying them out for examination.

Ladder of Discourse

The hierarchical structure of discourse and the phenomenological toolbox are powerfully combined strategies for research, and essential to teaching art criticism as aesthetic inquiry.(15)

Use of the “ladder of discourse” relies on the assertion that the experience of an object or an event is separable from judgments about that experience, and that at the first level one can better approach description by using the techniques of experimental phenomenology to describe an experience of the object or event itself without baggage. Once there is agreement about a description of experience of the object or event in the absence of judgment is it reasonable to ascend to the level of criticism. Similarly, a critique, or explanation, of criticism moves upward to discussing theory of criticism, and eventually to exploring theory of theory, or meta-theory. Ambiguity about the location of discourse at any time invariably leads to confusion. Researchers are thereby enabled to de­limit their investigations and to insure that their knowledge claims are grounded in their aesthetic experience of an "object/event."

Research Models – Dissertations

A diverse body of doctoral level research exists demonstrating the efficacy of the phenomenological approach to aesthetic inquiry, as is suggested by the titles within this selection of dissertations from New York University alone. The inquiries cut across standard modalities such as visual art, musical art, literary art and theater art, transcend cultures, and demonstrate the diverse applicability of the strategies discussed here.

Pio, Frank (Ed.D), The Creation and Development of a Program of Study Derived from Ojibwe Philosophy for a Proposed Center of Learning and Research for the Arts

Dernini, Sandro (Ph.D.), A Multicultural Aesthetic Inquiry into "Plexus Black Box," an International Community-Based Art Project

Chen, Shang-Yu (Ph.D.), "Popular Art and Political Movements: An Aesthetic Inquiry into Chinese Pictorial Stories"

Coates James (D.A.), "In the Light of Desire: Painting as a Form of Inquiry into the Aesthetic Nature of Being There"

Mohammad, Faridah (Ph.D.), "Artist Representation in Contemporary Kuwaiti, Egyptian and Iranian Paintings and Prints, and Interpretation of these Works According to Islamic Law"

Chang, Xiao-ai (Ph.D.), "A Cross-Cultural Interpretation of Artistic Terms in Chinese and Western Art Theory and Practice: A Semiotic Analysis"

Perlmutter, Dawn (Ph.D.), "Graven Images: Creative Acts of Idolatry-A Hermeneutic Study of the Relevance of Theological Proscription of Image-Making in Judaic Law to Contemporary Jewish Art and Artists"

Nworjih, Chris (Ph.D.), "A Study of the Origins, Characteristics, and Significance of the Traditional Art of Blacksmithing in Southeastern Nigeria"

Devero, Lisa (Ph.D.), 'The Court Dance of Lois XIV as Exemplified by Feuillet's 'Choregraphie' (1700) and How The Court Dance and Ceremonial Ball were Used as Forms of Political Socialization"

Fawowe, Moses (Ph.D.), "A Study of the Origins, Development, and Significance of Southern Nigerian Traditional Pottery"

Gottheim, Vivian (DA), "Eve of Saint John's Day: A Work in Words and Images Based on an Aesthetic Inquiry into the Dramatic-Dance 'Bumba-Meuboi' as Presented in Sao Luis of Maranhao, Brazil"

Lieberman, Barry (Ed.D.), "Phenomenological Approach to Aesthetic Education in Secondary School Painting Classes"

Kessel, Gertrude (Ph.D.), "An Analysis of the Concept of the Artist's Intention in the Visual Arts

Cultural Diversity

The doctoral level scholarship produced within the NYU program that generated the above dissertations over thirty years until 1997 represents the major cultures of the world, affirming the usefulness of these strategies to cross-cultural aesthetic inquiry, and explaining an emphasis on traditional art.

“1. The object/event (X) can be perceived as a work of art (Y) only in a cultural context (2). The "same" artifact or performance may/may not be viewed as "art" by the insider/outsider. In the context of Western aesthetics, for example, it could be argued that seeing an "X" as a "Y" is primarily a perceptual/ imaginative act in pre-reflective/reflective consciousness.

2. Cross-cultural aesthetic inquiry requires participation in an artistic activity of another culture for the purpose of understanding it on its own terms. Western terminology is provisional. The student would learn how to think in the categories of another world view, if not how to empathize with the feelings and attitudes of other individuals and groups. He or she will learn that many non-Western languages have no word for art and that the Chinese civilization got along without a word for aesthetics until early in this century.

3. A multicultural aesthetics, having no "universals" to investigate, can employ only alternative cultural concepts, rules, values in addressing intercultural issues. Appropriating images and ideas from other cultures may introduce "loan words" into critical discourse and yield hybrid art forms, but the critic can neither name nor point to essences that recover/transcend the conventions/ creations of a particular culture. Just as poems cannot be translated, their interpreted meanings cannot be transmitted across cultures intact.

4. A complete multicultural art education program would advance four irreducible kinds of understanding: an inside understanding of the "arts" of other culture(s), but also an outsider's understanding of the arts of one's own culture; an outside understanding of other cultures, and (not least) an inside understanding of one's own cultural heritage.”(16)

ISALTA

In 1981 an informal group of colleagues sharing the above interests formed an organization named the International Society for the Advancement of Living Traditions in Art as a 401©3 not-for-profit corporation in New York State. The organization has since facilitated research and communication between scholars, produced events and, recently, developed a website.(17)

The expansion of this initiative, its contacts and online publications would be a significant asset in the development of the herein suggested phenomenological aesthetic grounded graduate program. Among the ISALTA publication concepts are the ISALTA Research Journal, for reporting scholarly work, The Artist Researcher, devoted to the concerns of artists in their workplaces, and the Encyclopedia of Living Traditions in Art, conceived of as a growing repository of research and information of work in this field. Courses such as Art Criticism as Aesthetic Inquiry (18) and Living Traditions in Art have proven fruitful in the past in generating fascinating inquiries and events which can now be shared given current technology.

Recommendation

It is recommended that inquiry into the possibility of developing a phenomenological aesthetic grounded graduate program in art and art education be implemented.

(1) An excellent summary bibliography of DBAE literature will be found in Smith, Ralph A., “The DBAE Literature Project,” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://www.naea-reston.org/pdf/DBAEBibl1.pdf

(2) Drs. Ecker and Hausman’s contributions in building the NYU doctoral program at SEHNAP will be found in In Their Own Words: The Development of Doctoral Study in Art Education, James Hutchens, Editor; NAEA, Reston, VA, {2001} ISBN 1-890160-16-4

 (3) Palmer, Carleton, “A Broken Thread: The Artist-Researcher,” ISALTA Research Journal, 2007: http://www.isalta.com/ISALTAjournal/13/A_Broken_Thread.htm

(4)  A delightful conundrum emerges from the claim that there is no universal truth being, in itself, a universal truth. Fortunately, we can profit from these tools without making that claim.

(5)  Ihde, Don, Experimental Phenomenology, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1977.

(6) An exemplary author coins the term “hermeneutic semiology” to describe this space: Silverman, Hugh J., Inscriptions: After Phenomenology and Structuralism, Northwestern U. Press, 1997 (previously published in 1987 as Inscriptions: Between Phenomenology and Structuralism.)

 (7) “We ‘necessarily’ simplify, and indeed, vastly so. But that sacrifice is also our glory. Drastic simplification is what allows us to reduce situations to their bare bones, to discover abstract essences, to put our fingers on what matters, to understand phenomena at amazingly high levels, to survive reliably in this world, and to formulate literature, art, music and science.” Hofstadter, Douglas, NY, Basic Books, 2007, p.35.

 (8) Ibid.

(9) Epoché is a Greek term describing the moment where all belief in the existence of the real world and action therein is suspended. This was developed by Aristotle, and can be found in Descartes as a form of methodological doubt. Husserl observes 'phenomenological epoché' in his work Cartesian Meditations in which the world is “lost in order to be regained,” epoché thereby “bracketing out” influences.

 (10) Kuipers , Benjamin, Qualitative Reasoning: Modeling and Simulation with Incomplete Knowledge, The MIT Press, 1994.

 (11) Sebeok, Thomas A., “One, Two, Three Spells UBERTY,” in: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce: The Sign of Three, Umberto Eco and Thomas A. Sebeok, Indiana University Press, 1983, pp. 1-10.

 (12) Palmer, Carleton, “Art Arts and a Useful Definition,” ISALTA Research Journal, New York, 2007: http://isalta.com/Membership/Palmer,%20Carleton/ArtArts.htm

 (13) The importance of this paper is such that it has been reprinted many times, and will currently be found online at http://www.cpalmer.biz/Membership/Ecker,%20David%20W/ArtisticProcess/EckerArtisticProcess.htm

Ecker, David W., The Artistic Process as Qualitative Problem Solving, paper read at the annual meeting of the ASA, held at Wayne State University on October 28,1961. It was subsequently published as follows:

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 21, No.3 (Fall 1963), pp. 283-290.

Reprinted in Readings In Art Education (ed. Eisner and Ecker). (Waltham, Mass.: Blaisdell, 1966) pp. 468.

Also reprinted in Contemporary Aesthetics, Matthew Lippman, ed., Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1973, pp. 407-15.

 (14) Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, New York: Basic,1983

- Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice, New York: Basic, 1993.

- Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, New York: Basic, 2000.

 (15) Ecker, David W., “Teaching Art Criticism as Aesthetic Inquiry,” Curriculum Theory Network, Vol. 4,No. 2/3, Curriculum in Art. (1974), pp. 112-123. http://isalta.com/Membership/Ecker,%20David%20W/EckerTACAI/EckerTACAI.htm

 (16) Ecker, David W., “Navigating Global Cultures: A Phenomenological Aesthetics for Well-Being in the Twenty-first Century,” Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 32, No. 1, Special Issue: Essays in Honor of Eugene F.Kaelin. (Spring, 1998), pp. 5-10. http://www.cpalmer.biz/Membership/Ecker,%20David%20W/Navigating/Navigating.htm

 (17) http://www.isalta.com

 (18) Ecker, David W., “Teaching Art Criticism as Aesthetic Inquiry,” David W. Ecker in Curriculum Theory Network, Vol. 4,No. 2/3, Curriculum in Art. (1974), pp. 112-123: http://www.isalta.com/Membership/Ecker,%20David%20W/EckerTACAI/EckerTACAI.htm