INTENT

Intent and Communication

In the realm of art, which incorporates architecture, technological creations, paintings, sculptures and the like, there is an urge for the “artist” to produce “art” and that process is connected to a ‘biological, spiritual and/or intellectual need to communicate.’ (Aesthetic Intention, Technology And The Art Praxis, p.509)

Whether the art was created to communicate a certain idea, follow in line with or against a procession of ideas or techniques, it all defiantly good word holds multiple variations of purpose and intent. Livingston, the writer of Art and Intention, defined an author of any form of art as “an agent who intentionally makes an utterance . . . an intended function of which is expression or communication” (p. 69) (Paisley Livingston, Art and Intention: A Philosophical Study, p.300)

How we interpret the art with our different cultural understandings can be very different to the original aesthetic intention of the creation of the art. Nonetheless, if the art work evokes feeling, understanding, and/or intrigue or is reacted to in the most simplest form then the art, the artist has communicated to an audience.

“[A]rt does not end with the production of the object alone but continues to be completed by the viewer. This is an inherent attribute in the activity of art making that links the maker to the receiver through the object. Undoubtedly, art then becomes a phenomenological human activity both in the reading and the making.” (Aesthetic Intention, Technology And The Art Praxis, p.509)

Some, like W.K. Wimsatt & Monroe Beardsley, Kevin Wilson, and George Dickie, believe that intention of the artist isn’t relevant to the interpretation of the art. But in the light of communication, communication is two-way and therefore in the eyes of these thinkers art is not communication between artists and audience but is only an interpretation of the art alone. They explain that "the design or intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the success of a work of art." (Wikipedia, Intentional Fallacy)

References

Jerrold Levinson (2007). Artful Intentions: Paisley Livingston, Art and Intention: A Philosophical Study. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 65(3), 299 -305. Retrieved April 23, 2008 from Blackwell Synergy.

Maureen Nappi (1995). Aesthetic Intention, Technology And The Art Praxis. Computers & Graphics, 19(4), 509 -512. Retrieved April 23, 2008 from Science Direct (Doi: 10.1016/0097-8493(95)00028-B)

Wikipedia Contributors (2008, January 9). Intentional fallacy. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Intentional_fallacy&oldid=183068850