Phenomenology

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Mural by Denver artist, Thomas “Detour” Evans (image source)

This artwork is having an effect on you. It has had an effect on me, and we are affecting the artwork. The model posing in front of the mural has been affected and so has the artist. This is my understanding of phenomenology, the study of structures of experience, or conscioiusness. The essay Meaning, Identity, Embodiment The Uses of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology in Art History by Amerlia Jones painstakingly explains the relationships of artist, viewer, and subject through the philosophical idea of phenomenology. There is a reciprocal relationship between the object (in this case subject), viewer, and artist. We have, by viewing this piece of art, had an emotional response that is defined by our past experiences and we are projecting those feelings towards this piece of art. The artist has purposely tried to communicate his own viewpoint that is informed by his own life experience. I have, by copying and pasting, had an effect on the artwork itself, and we can’t leave out the model who is tied into this piece as the object in the form of a subject. It is an existential cobweb that has spread its tendrils in infinite directions and has given me a headache.(1)

When we were discussing this topic in class I couldn’t help but think of Plato’s allegory of the cave. In the allegory there are 3 prisoners shackled in a cave. Behind the prisoners is a walkway and beyond that there is a fire that is always burning. The prisoners have only experienced life through the shadows of people walking by that are projected onto the wall. To the prisoners the shadows are what is real because they have no knowledge of reality beyond the shadows. When one prisoner escapes and experiences reality for the first time he joyously wants to free the other prisoners so that they too can experience real life. The other prisoners believe the escapee has gone mad and threaten to kill him if he tries to free them. I think this allegory is a good illustration of how everything we sense is how we are informed and defines the world around us. Without this prior information the world would have no meaning. The baggage of our life is phenomenology. We could not look upon the above mural and see exactly what the artist is trying to communicate outside of our shared cultural experiences. We extrapolate meaning from these cultural experiences as did the artist and model. The model has become a symbolic representation of that which each individual has in their mind of what she represents and we will all be forever changed by this experience.(2)

At the beginning of the essay Amelia Jones highlights an example of an art critic Maxime du Camp projecting his own perversion onto the critique of Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde. Du camp can’t passively veiw the artwork without bringing his own identity to the interpretation. He accidentally shows his own perversion by becoming passionately opposed to the piece while identifying an orgasm where there is none. This is how our own identity is tied into how we interpret art. I don’t know if there is another way in which to interpret art. (1)

As with everything in the field of philosophy I feel like we are beating a dead horse (to death). These concepts seem obvious, but upon closer examination they are maddeningly impossible to define in simple terms. I thought the allegory of the cave was a good illustration of these concepts and I hope they helped you phenomenologically from me to you.

Source
  1. Amelia Jones, "Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: The Uses of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology in Art History," in Art and Thought, 2003
  2. Amy Trumpeter, “The Allegory of the Cave by Plato: Summary and Meaning,” in Philosphyzer.com, accessed October 28, 2021, https://www.philosophyzer.com/the-allegory-of-the-cave-by-plato-summary-and-meaning/

Comments

  1. Meg OlsenOctober 31, 2021 at 7:00 AM

    Hi Ashley,

    I enjoyed reading your blog. I think you did a good job explaining the concepts in the essay and I liked the nod to Plato and the story of the prisoners in the cave. I thought that was a good reference to what Jones was saying in the essay. I think the art critic who gave himself away with the orgasm comment was Michael Fried. Merleau-Ponty was the philosopher who said "flesh of the world." It seems from your comment that we are" beating a dead horse to death" you are not impressed with philosophers or philosophy as a course of study. Is that correct? If that is true when do you think philosophy became a dead horse?

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  2. Ashley MOctober 31, 2021 at 8:08 AM

    Hi, Meg

    It's not that I'm not impressed with philosophy. It's more that my own brain can't handle it. It's one of those things where I don't think it's productive to analyze all the minutia in life. I think it goes without saying that we have relationships to things that are effected by our past experiences. I don't need someone to point that out. I don't mind when philosophers try to make sense of the world, and some of it I enjoy learning about. I think I was grouchy when I wrote this post.

    Maxime du Camp was the guy who wrote about the Courbet painting in 1881. He was the one who was disgusted with the painting and declared that he was "stupefied to perceive a woman, life-size, seen from the front, moved and convulsed..."Michael Fried came later. He was projecting his own masculinity on the artist. Of course, Merleau-Ponty was one of the philosophers who made phenomenology popular.

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