Author

Emile Mausner

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Contemporary Art, Postmodernism, Performance

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

This thesis explores a selection of literature, video installation, and performance, which borrow from the familiar "pop culture" domain of genre fiction, daytime television programming, and saint's day parades to render accessible postmodern theoretical concerns about the nature of aesthetic experience. Characteristically disclosing numerous other entities whose presence helps define live acts as art, they are self-conscious of the fact that they have no function other than their generation of aesthetic experiences. Conditions guaranteeing the possibility of aesthetic experience are multiply visible, since each re-presents the process of its own production. Internally emphasizing the realities that exceed its boundaries, Calvino's novel shows how a pleasurable reading experience is contingent upon a carefully circumscribed set of possibilities. Jankowski's video installations re-present his own involvement in television, thereby calling attention to the fact that the artist is not solely responsible. Finally, Al�s's procession was literally a process of marching "MoMA's most sacred icons" across New York City, providing public access to the process by which a live event is identified as art.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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