Co-hosted by The Department of Art History \, Visual Art & Theory and The Department of Philosophy.
Prog
ramme
11.00-11.15 Introductory Remarks: Domi
nic McIver Lopes
11.15-12.00 Kathryn Brown: ‘The Spectator as Performe
r’
12.00-12.30 Discussion
12.30-1.30 Lunch
1.30-2.15 Bence N
anay: ‘The Hitchcock Paradox’
2.15-2.45 Discussion
2.45-3.15 Coff
ee
3.15-4.00 James Young: ‘Artworlds and Audiences’
4.00-4.30 Dis
cussion
4.30-5.00 Panel Discussion and Closing Remarks
A
bstracts of Papers
Kathryn Brown (UBC)
: ‘The Spectator as Performer’
Taking specific examples from nineteent
h-century painting\, this paper identifies various invitations extended to
the spectator to perform a role in relation to the fiction represented on t
he painted surface. I argue that the invitation to perform is a crucial par
t of the content of the work that enhances our experience of\, and interact
ion with\, that work. By considering a variety of critical responses in rec
ent art historical literature to selected nineteenth-century paintings\, I
explore how a performative view of spectatorship not only assists in the in
terpretation of pictorial content\, but also avoids ontological confusion b
etween the actual space of the spectator and the fictional space of the rep
resentation. I distinguish the role of the spectator as performer from Woll
heim’s concept of the internal spectator and from Kendall Walton’s concept
of visual make-believe in relation to representation.
Bence Na
nay (Syracuse and UBC): ‘The Hitchcock Paradox’
The aim of th
is paper is to analyze the mental processes that make it possible for the s
pectator to engage with a fictional character. Character engagement is most
often explained in terms of 'imagining from the inside' the experiences of
the fictional character. I argue that this way of explaining character ree
ngagement cannot explain what I call 'the Hitchcock paradox': the phenomeno
n that often the more dissimilar the mental
states of the spectator an
d the fictional character are\, the stronger is the spectator's engagement
with the fictional character. I propose an alternative account that is cons
istent with and explains the Hitchcock paradox.
James Young (University of Victoria): ‘Artworlds and Audiences’
The thesis
of this paper is that audiences play a crucial but under-appreciated role i
n the functioning of a well-ordered artworld. A well-ordered artworld is a
system for the production and appreciation of aesthetically valuable works
of art. This system can break down if artists cease to be responsive to an
audience or if audiences cease to be critically informed about artworks. I
suggest that the contemporary artworld has broken down in both ways.