CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | King, Andrew |
|---|---|
| Title | Aesthetic Experience, Accessibility, and Art Museums |
| Summary | I argue that (a) some of what I term “non-traditional experiences” of artworks—in particular, experiences of artworks that take place by means of a sense modality (or modalities) not traditionally thought to be appropriate or correct for a given work—can count as valuable experiences of them, and that (b) given this (and given that certain further conditions are met), public art museums should provide means for disabled perceivers to have these non-traditional experiences. I focus on cases involving tactile access aids, or tactile renderings of visual works made for blind persons. I review a debate between Dominic McIver Lopes and Robert Hopkins about how best to explain empirical findings that suggest untutored blind perceivers can both draw in and perceive perspective via raised-line drawings. I suggest that, even if Hopkins is right that the explanation for this is not that certain contents of visual experience are also contents of tactile experience, we can still explain how tactile representations give rise to valuable experiences of visual works. I articulate and defend criteria that tactile access aids must meet in order to do so that make no reference to (i) modality specificity, or the idea that, for some artwork, there is a sense modality or modalities uniquely appropriate for perceiving it, or (ii) views about the specific contents experience via any particular sense modality. I then argue that, if the proposal is successful, public art museums are obligated, all else equal, to provide access aids for blind persons, since failing to do so would be to deny a class of members of the civic body something to which they have a right—namely, valuable aesthetic experiences of artworks. I argue, further, that what I call the substantive good (of valuable aesthetic experiences) that access aids make possible undergirds arguments for expressive goods, or goods that involve (e.g.) an institution’s signaling a commitment to a value(s), rather than expressive arguments succeeding independently. |
| Supervisor | Rippon, Simon |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/king_andrew.pdf |
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