For most of its history art has been mimetic in nature; not surprisingly, mimetic theories of art held sway for a long time. By the middle of the twentieth century art had departed so radically from the mimetic traditions that philosophers were forced to shift their focus away from functional theories (which typically drew on the formal features of artworks) to procedural ones (which are concerned with the imperceptible, relational properties external to the work of art). This breakthrough would eventually culminate in the Institutional Theory of Art, a perspective that provides the most exhaustive classificatory definition of art available, and which (despite the objections of its critics) remains the most persuasive theory of art on offer. The same logic that makes the Institutional Theory of Art a satisfying classificatory theory can be applied, in a similar manner, to questions about the source of the terms by which we evaluate works of art. In other words: the Institutional Theory is capable of serving not only as a powerful classificatory theory, but also as a highly effective evaluative theory of art. Moreover, if the Institutional Theory can be shown to provide a satisfying account of artistic value, it may also be equipped to deal with the related problems of subjectivism (i.e., that artistic judgments are a matter of personal taste) and cultural relativism (i.e., that artistic judgments are culturally specific). Presently, no theory of art can explain away these difficulties; accordingly, an institutional account of artistic value might offer – as does the Institutional Theory of Art itself – an explanatory framework capable of dealing with seemingly intractable problems of subjectivism and relativism in artistic judgment. / Graduate / 0422 / michaelabhainn@shaw.ca

For most of its history art has been mimetic in nature; not surprisingly, mimetic theories of art held sway for a long time. By the middle of the twentieth century art had departed so radically from the mimetic traditions that philosophers were forced to shift their focus away from functional theories (which typically drew on the formal features of artworks) to procedural ones (which are concerned with the imperceptible, relational properties external to the work of art). This breakthrough would eventually culminate in the Institutional Theory of Art, a perspective that provides the most exhaustive classificatory definition of art available, and which (despite the objections of its critics) remains the most persuasive theory of art on offer. The same logic that makes the Institutional Theory of Art a satisfying classificatory theory can be applied, in a similar manner, to questions about the source of the terms by which we evaluate works of art. In other words: the Institutional Theory is capable of serving not only as a powerful classificatory theory, but also as a highly effective evaluative theory of art. Moreover, if the Institutional Theory can be shown to provide a satisfying account of artistic value, it may also be equipped to deal with the related problems of subjectivism (i.e., that artistic judgments are a matter of personal taste) and cultural relativism (i.e., that artistic judgments are culturally specific). Presently, no theory of art can explain away these difficulties; accordingly, an institutional account of artistic value might offer – as does the Institutional Theory of Art itself – an explanatory framework capable of dealing with seemingly intractable problems of subjectivism and relativism in artistic judgment. / Graduate / 0422 / michaelabhainn@shaw.ca

No description available.

This thesis is an analysis of the media attention concerning the artist Anna Odell and her artwork Okänd, kvinna 2009 – 349701. The main materials I have used come from newspapers and articles where critics discuss Odell´s artwork in the period 2009 to 2015. The theoretical and methodological framework is based on Arthur C. Danto, George Dickie and Howard Beckers understanding of the art world and how artwork and artist receive their status. Another theoretical tool I have used is a discourse theory of Mara Lee. Lee helped me to understand the language and the relations between power and institutions. My aim with this thesis has been to understand how Okänd, kvinna 2009 – 349701 achieved its value and its transformation from a bad to a good evaluation. Why did Odell, in the beginning, get blamed for using tax money, tricking people in to believing that she was mentally ill resulting to the attention of the police, but in the end became an appreciated artist for this very same action? Odell was criticized for her behavior and was accused of stepping over a line for using art in a questionable way. A discussion started about the question of what art is. And what the purpose of art in society is. A few years later, in 2015, Odell was called one of the most interesting artists in Sweden by art critics when they wrote about Okänd, kvinna 2009 – 349701. What changed in the eyes of the critics? What is artistic quality and how can we understand the transformation that Odell´s artwork underwent? My analysis shows that esthetic quality depends on the situation and in ethics and morality. At the beginning the critics compared Okänd, kvinna 2009 – 349701 and the profession of psychiatry and in that comparison the psychiatry profession is more important than art. People attributed more confidence to a doctor than to a student of art regarding the truth about what happened at the psychiatric institution of St: Göran´s on the 21th of January 2009.

The aim of this project is to develop a legally relevant theory of artistic value, based on which a judge can reliably determine whether a work has sufficient such value to be granted constitutional protection, even though it would otherwise count as obscene. Within this framework I argue that a moral flaw can count as an aesthetic virtue in a narrative work, at least when the audience learns something from the immoral content of the work. Since expert testimony is sometimes required in legal cases about artistic value, I also develop a legally applicable theory of aesthetic testimony, such that expert testimony can be used to determine the valence of aesthetic properties, which is essential in determining a work‘s overall artistic value. My theory of which properties of works are relevant to their aesthetic evaluation depends both on which categories the work is appreciated in, and on the conventions of those categories. I address these issues within Canadian and American legal contexts. / text

(in English): This thesis deals with the sociology of art, its prevailing discourse and the search for other possible ways of taking a sociological approach to art. The text is divided into three complementary sections. The first section addresses the problem of the representation of art through the interpretation of art history as the history of display and the resulting conceptual duality of illusion versus schematicity. In the second section, the focus is on analysing the assumptions underlying the dominant stream of art sociology. These are the social determinations of artistic discourse, the denial of the axiology of art, the legitimisation of art on the basis of its social function, and the unequal approach of the perception of art in society. The relevance of these propositions is, in the present work, parsed in much the same way as the unifying theoretical framework underlying these premises, namely the Marxist aesthetic theory. The work presented in this thesis therefore identifies Marxist materialism as an agent of determinism and the levelling of values in the sociology of art, based on well-founded arguments, and concludes that the Marxist approach to art is unsatisfactory and destructive to sociology. In the end, the work seeks other ways for the sociological reflection of art, through...

Subject of this diploma thesis are historical doors as an indivisible part of architecture. The main focus is on gradual discovering of their underrated artistic value and historical authenticity of these elements. The paper is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical part. The opening of the theoretical part introduces a debate on the ambivalent term ``door{\crqq} and its meaning in people{\crq}s life. I look closely at the terminology and particular basic structural types of historical door wings from the late medieval time to the end of the 19th century. All types are presented with several examples of extant doors in urban conservation area of the towns of České Budějovice and Třeboň between 1760-1900, using author drawing studies and photo documentation. In the practical part of the paper I deal with creative design of the parterre in the historical house no. 91 in the square of the town of Třeboň, which is directly linked to the prior theoretical findings. Drafts and an architectural study came out of the preliminary builder historical connections, elaborations and debates. At the same time I include an insight into parterre executions in the past years.

Ce mémoire est une étude sur les processus de création, de présentation et de représentation des valeurs artistiques et compare leur début de production stratégique, supposément basé sur les changements infrastructurels et les caractéristiques du marché, avec leur stade de consommation tardif, principalement impliqué dans la formation du marché qui ajuste les connaissances, les habitudes et les attitudes de la population. Le corpus de la recherche est divisé en trois parties: 1) contexte théorique. 2) Les archétypes des arts de haut niveau associés aux changements d’infrastructure. 3) Les archétypes des arts de bas niveau associés à l’attitude, aux connaissances et aux habitudes des consommateurs. La première partie examine l'évolution de certaines des théories des quatre domaines, économie politique, marché, marketing et éthique politique, ainsi que leurs effets sur la société occidentale du milieu du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. La deuxième partie utilise ces théories pour identifier les jalons de l'art et explique différentes stratégies de production dans le monde de l'art occidental. La troisième partie modélise la formation des connaissances et de l’attitude du consommateur sur la base de certaines théories de la psychologie existantes et observe la tendance et le rythme des changements d’attitude du public sur le marché. Nous comparons la troisième partie avec la deuxième pour montrer que les arts de haut niveau et les arts de bas niveau ont un impact mutuel à long terme: les arts de haut niveau activement inspirent les arts de bas niveau; tandis que les arts de bas niveau passivement modifient les connaissances et l’attitude des consommateurs à propos des arts de haut niveau. / This memoire is a study on three processes, creation, presentation and representation of artistic values, and compares their early stage of strategic production, which is supposedly based on artist’s intention, infrastructural changes and type of market, with their late stage of consumption, which is mostly involved with a market training that adjusts population’s knowledge, habits, and attitudes. The corpus of the research is divided into three parts: 1) theoretical background. 2) Archetypes of highbrow arts associated to infrastructural changes. 3) Archetypes of lowbrow arts associated to consumer’s attitude, knowledge, and habits. The first part reviews the historic evolution of some of the fundamental theories of the four fields, econo-politics, market, marketing and political ethics and their hierarchical effects on the western society from the mid-eighteenth century to present. The second part uses those theories to identify milestones in front art and explains different strategic production patterns in the western art world. The third part models the formation of consumer’s knowledge and attitude based on some existing theories of psychology and observes the trend and pace of public’s attitude change in today’s market. We compare the third part with the second to show that highbrow and lowbrow arts have mutual impact over each other: highbrow arts actively inspire lowbrow arts; while, lowbrow arts passively change consumer’s knowledge and attitude about highbrow arts.