 Hello again, everybody. This is great Texan philosophy and we're talking about John Dewey's art as experience chapter 7 the natural history of form in This chapter Dewey Continue asked the quest continues to ask the question. What is form remember last week? We were talking about Substance and form in general and Dewey tells us in this chapter that the definition from the prior chapter That form organizes material of experience into the substance of art is a relational definition of form as already achieved but not an account of how form comes to be and this latter question a question about the conditions of the Generation of form is the main topic for this chapter Right off the bat Dewey tells us that Form is this dynamic right and this is even he tells us contained in the relational definition from the last chapter when we start to understand relation not as an abstract thing But as a mode of interaction So when Dewey tells us that form concerns mutual adaptation of parts to one another in constituting a whole He means that not in a completely abstract way He means it as Description of the interaction of the parts in experience coming to some culmination in experience He describes this dynamic both in acts of perception and in the work of the artist So this leads to a revised definition of form in more active terms He tells us form may then be defined as the operation of forces that carry the experience of an event object scene and situation to its own integral fulfillment And there's a kind of corollary here in that the end result of the work of art is Is what it is only in terms of the fulfillment of the process of making or perceiving the art as a completion of the materials that Contribute to the work of art. It's not just in and of itself now Dewey gives us some examples various examples throughout the chapter of formal traits of art some of them include For example skill right so skill is not just something that the artist has But it is something that is can be seen in the formal characteristics of the artwork Costliness or rarity he quotes Santiana here as giving an example of how The costliness or rarity of a work of art gives an example gives a kind of way of Overcoming mechanical the mechanical reproduction of art or art that becomes too mechanical by it by virtue of Promoting novelty, but he says this is also a formal trait Elegance also is an example. He gives of a formal trait of art now in in Dewey's account There are a few major theses right that he articulates in this chapter one is the relativity of technique to form So Dewey describes the relativity of technique to form in this way He says it was not lack of dexterity That gives early Gothic sculpture its special form nor that gives Chinese paintings their special kind of perspective The artist said what they had to say better with the techniques they used then they could have done with another What to us is a charming naivete was to them the simple and direct method of expressing a felt subject matter For this reason while there is not continuity of repetition in any aesthetic art neither is there of necessity advance So there's no simple Necessary story to tell about progress in art You know Dewey tells us That we can't just say, you know artists of a certain period just didn't know what they were doing compared to later artists The later artists figured out perspective or color values or what have you and this is This this is why their art is better. No, I mean we can recognize that the advances in technique or skill at a technological level but in terms of the movement of arts the Relativity of technique to form means that there is a certain relativity of that evaluation As Dewey says in the chapter Greek sculpture will never be equaled in its own terms So movements of art according to Dewey respond to the emergence of new things and experience Right new new things in our lives that demand expression and those new demands require new Techniques and that's that's how technical advance Happens not it's not some kind of linear tale of progress. It's rather changing techniques respond to changing needs Another major thesis in this chapter again related to technique is what Dewey calls the relativity of technique to instruments And here again quoting Dewey at some length Early pottery is largely determined by the potter's wheel the instrument That the potter uses rugs and blankets are much of their geometric design to the nature of the instrument of weaving Such things by themselves are like the physical constitution of an artist as Cezanne wished he had mayonnaise muscles Such things become of more than antiquarian interest only when they relate to a change in culture and experience So what do he means here? I think is that while technique is obviously relative to instruments the relativity of technique to form is more significant and instrumental change Is is significant primarily because it permits response to new cultural needs and experiences Now this chapter is also about the so-called natural history of form, right? That's the title But so far we haven't heard much about nature or natural history And Dewey starts to give us that picture of the natural history of form partway through the chapter here I think is really where it begins on 152 Dewey says what then are those? Formal conditions of artistic form that are rooted deep in the world itself Interaction of environment with organism is the source direct or indirect of all experience and from the environments and From the environment come those checks resistances furtherance is equilibria Which when they meet with the energies of the organism in appropriate ways constitute form The first characteristic of the environment world that makes possible the existence of artistic form is rhythm There is rhythm in nature before poetry painting architecture and music exists So once again, we have an account in Dewey where rhythm is playing a really important role We've seen this before right and here Dewey is telling us that rhythm is kind of the core formal condition Of of art that we can see already playing out in in nature, right? and As the as the discussion of the natural the so-called natural history, you know his natural history goes on we see a description of The the rhythms of nature Building on to the rhythms of life the rhythms of human activity and And all of those things lastly informing the rhythms of art So you get this sort of historical account of where rhythm comes from and how these these different layers of Rhythm accrue Throughout the development of life And it's and it's in this way Dewey Articulates a certain form of of objectivity to art He he says there are objective conditions of aesthetic form first simply because works of art exist in public spaces they exist as Statuary or paintings which are physical things they Or if they're performances they exist in sound and light which are also physical things, right? but also there are there are Some kind of objective Conditions or objective criteria that make Aesthetic form possible, you know rhythm is Dewey's big example of course but rhythm He says sort of is a condition that makes possible other objective conditions And he lists several time in the chapter these this set of conditions continuity Right the continuity of experience is a formal condition of art Cumulation the fact that meanings accumulate right Conservation the conservation of meaning from one situation to another The existence of tension which is extremely important to this notion of rhythm but also to the account of impulsion and resistance that he's given us previously and Then anticipation Is another significant? Formal characteristic Now of course at this point. I think it's really important to ask ourselves. What does do we mean by objectivity? what kind of notion of subjective versus objective is he working with and Obviously, he's not working with a notion that objective means Part of the material world Independent of human activity, right? So whatever he's he means by subjective and objective He doesn't mean that what he does mean by objectivity and what objectivity means in the context of the interaction of a live creature With their environment. I think is is a deep question for us to think about in more detail And it's one that will come up again in the book. So we'll leave it there for now So that's my thoughts on chapter seven of art is experience the natural history of form I'd love to hear what you think on the discussion board in class or in the comments of this video So, please have a good day and I will see you in class