A Negotiated Existence

Abstract

Although CTA’s temporal disconnect — between the mimetic facilitation of the artist and the mimetic learning of art’s audience — is theoretically dealt with by CTA’s process of the socialization of a candidate artwork as Artwork proper, this process is theoretically problematic in its indeterminacy. To overcome this problematic it is necessary to introduce a further, meta-theoretical, justification which is at least cognizant of the temporal nature of the transference of meaning. I am, in essence, looking to add back the historical to an ahistoric conceptualization of art. Temporality however — and, indeed, the malleability of meaning as it is transferred between social actors — complicates the suggestion that an Art of management might be a useful concept for future empiric study. Here also, traditional empiricism assumes a specific ontological position; this is further complicated by the argument that the nature of CTA, rooted as it is in an Art aesthetic of the sublime and beauty, is an idea that is antecedent to a given ontology.

The desert will give you an understanding of the world; in fact, anything on the face of the earth will do that. You don’t even have to understand the desert: all you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation.

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho