About the Destruction, Continuation, and Transformation of Art

Abstract

In his article About the Destruction, Continuation, and Transformation of Art Frank Maet offers an answer to the question raised by Arthur C. Danto's thesis how to discern art from non-art? Maet considers art from the perspective of a technologically mediated reality and he distinguishes three different views on contemporary visual art: the destruction, the continuation, and the transformation of art. Maet considers these three artistic views as different strategies to deal with our current technological condition and evaluates the merits of each of them. He argues that our thoroughly designed reality turns the strategy of artistic destruction into a dangerous and sometimes even life-threatening strategy and that existing theories of art advocating the continuation of art fall short in taking into account popular and commercial products. According to Maet, we have to opt for a radical transformation of the concept of art and redefine art in light of the current digitalization as a specific kind of technology. Frank Maet, About the Destruction, Continuation, and Transformation of Art page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 15.3 (2013): Thematic Issue Literacy and Society, Culture, Media, and Education. Ed. Kris Rutten and Geert Vandermeersche