Towards Artistic Theory

There are several strands of inquiry that must be incorporated into any cogent theory of the artistic process, role, or influence. The foremost issue in any evaluation of art is an understanding of the chaos of the sublime. This is the essential paradox of art theory: How can the chaotic nature of sublimality be understood rationally? Given this intrinsic problem with any use of psychological philosophy, there are several strains of thought that may help us to assess possible outcomes of artistic creation and consumption. 

The artistic process is essentially an intuitive process, so what analytical conceptualization can possibly give rise to a deeper understanding? This may also be the essential disconnect between art and theory. For many artists any kind of rational probing into their process of working prior to, shall we say, canonization as a finished work of art is unthinkable. The concern is the destruction of intuitive abilities that can come with intellectual probing. At this point, I must point out the inherent difficulty of the process of abstraction. Abstractions can seem to have validity as we build them, but the more empirical or introspective elements you try to incorporate, the more unwieldy a theory can get if its base assumptions have only a subjective validity. Intuition on the other hand, has a direct connection to all of the unconscious processes that give rise to both consciousness and more narrowly the rational thoughts from which theories are built. These processes include spatio-temporal perceptions, volitive actions, emotions, unconscious neural activity…all the abilities of the brain and body as constantly reinterpreted in an individual’s constantly renewed memory traces of their perception of the moment of conscious experience.