Sondra Bacharach | Victoria University of Wellington (original) (raw)
Street Art by Sondra Bacharach
Case Studies in Contemporary Aesthetics
I argue that activists have co-opted street art as a tool for addressing epistemic injustices, in... more I argue that activists have co-opted street art as a tool for addressing epistemic injustices, injustices that result from negative identity prejudices that silence certain groups of people unfairly. To defend this claim, I explore the special nature of street art that makes it an especially appropriate tool for activists to enlist in the fight against epistemic injustices. From there, I will examine two case studies in detail which illustrate how street art is used as to respond to and correct for these injustices: first the street art series, " Stop Telling Women to Smile " by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and then Chris Metzger's Inside Out Project in Baltimore. Drawing on these examples, I highlight the features in virtue of which street art constitutes a particularly effective tool for correcting epistemic injustices.
Street art has exploded: it pervades our back alleys, surrounds us at bus-stops, covers billboard... more Street art has exploded: it pervades our back alleys, surrounds us at bus-stops, covers billboards, competes with advertising and generally serves as urban wallpaper in most cities. But what is
street art? A far cry from mere graffiti, street art has gained some social acceptance, but it remains neither officially sanctioned like public art, nor institutionally condoned, like its more traditional
artistic cousins in museums. Somewhere in between these two extremes, street art has emerged, occupying a metaphysically suspect grey area between illegal activity and bona fide art. This paper explores the nature of this emerging art form and draws out some of the differences between street art, public art and ‘mere’ graffiti.
This paper explores how engaging in and with philosophy in the streets has unique and special pot... more This paper explores how engaging in and with philosophy in the streets has unique and special potential for children doing philosophy both inside and outside the classroom. We highlight techniques drawn from research into the political, social and activist potential of street art, and we illustrate how to apply these techniques in a P4C context in what we call guerrilla philosophy. We argue that guerrilla philosophy is a pedagogically powerful method to philosophically engage students whose ages range from 11-13. In calling attention to the power of guerrilla philosophy to engage students philosophically, we are tacitly assuming a Deweyan philosophical approach (Dewey 1916, 1925, 1934), which emphasises (1) the importance of promoting civic-mindedness as a social value; (2) the reliance on imaginative, creative and experiential forms of learning as essential to education ; and (3) a vision of the classroom as an embodiment of the larger civic community to which we all belong and in which we all must cooperate and engage (Dewey 1916). This paper traces these three themes in Dewey's philosophical views of education and democracy, and considers how they are given a twenty-first century interpretation through street art, guerrilla philosophy and children's activism.
Collaborative Art in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Sondra Bacharach, Siv B. Fjærestad, Jeremy Neil Booth
Book review of Young's Street Art World
Authorship and Collaboration by Sondra Bacharach
The British Journal of Aesthetics, 2018
Many works are attributed to artists after their death, even when someone else has contributed su... more Many works are attributed to artists after their death, even when someone else has contributed substantively to the content of the work or when the work left by the artist is deemed incomplete by any standard of completion. Call these works posthumous works. These cases give rise to several interesting and related questions about the ontology of artworks and authorship: If the works are incomplete when the first artist dies, then can someone else complete them, or do they remain forever unfinished? Are works that are altered after the artist’s death new and distinct works? If they remain forever unfinished, then what is the unfinished works’ relation to the putatively “finished” work? If, on the other hand, they can be finished and are finished by someone other than the original artist (since the original artist is dead), then to whom to do we give credit: the deceased artist, the finishing artist, or both? Recent accounts of when an artwork is complete make posthumous works impossible. In this paper, we offer an explanation of how the unfinished work of the dead can be completed and why in these cases attributing the work to the dead is justified.
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2010
Essays on Collective Intentionality, 2008
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2011
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Darren Hudson Hick’s recent paper “Authorship, Co-Authorship, and Multiple Authorship” explores t... more Darren Hudson Hick’s recent paper “Authorship, Co-Authorship, and Multiple Authorship” explores the issues surrounding the notion of authorship in posthumously completed works, taking the recent, posthumously completed work, Micro as a case study. Micro is a novel begun by Michael Crichton. Upon his death, Crichton’s trust hired Richard Preston to complete it. The issue at stake is who qualifies as the author of this posthumously completed work. Hick claims that Crichton and Preston should qualify as co-authors, and therefore that Micro challenges our own account of co-authorship. We reject both of these claims. In what follows, we examine the case of Micro in order to highlight an important difference between co-authorship and multiple authorship. We conclude by discussing how posthumously completed works help us distinguish between issues of authorship and various forms of agency.
Collaboration in the arts is no longer a conscious choice to make a deliberate artistic statement... more Collaboration in the arts is no longer a conscious choice to make a deliberate artistic statement, but instead a necessity of artistic survival. In today’s hybrid world of virtual mobility, collaboration decentralizes creative strategies, enabling artists to carve new territories and maintain practice-based autonomy in an increasingly commercial and saturated art world. Collaboration now transforms not only artistic practices but also the development of cultural institutions, communities and personal lifestyles.
This book explores why collaboration has become so integrated into a greater understanding of creative artistic practice. It draws on an emerging generation of contributors—from the arts, art history, sociology, political science, and philosophy—to engage directly with the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of collaborative practice of the future.
Philosophy of Art by Sondra Bacharach
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2015
The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, 2009
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2005
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2002
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Case Studies in Contemporary Aesthetics
I argue that activists have co-opted street art as a tool for addressing epistemic injustices, in... more I argue that activists have co-opted street art as a tool for addressing epistemic injustices, injustices that result from negative identity prejudices that silence certain groups of people unfairly. To defend this claim, I explore the special nature of street art that makes it an especially appropriate tool for activists to enlist in the fight against epistemic injustices. From there, I will examine two case studies in detail which illustrate how street art is used as to respond to and correct for these injustices: first the street art series, " Stop Telling Women to Smile " by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and then Chris Metzger's Inside Out Project in Baltimore. Drawing on these examples, I highlight the features in virtue of which street art constitutes a particularly effective tool for correcting epistemic injustices.
Street art has exploded: it pervades our back alleys, surrounds us at bus-stops, covers billboard... more Street art has exploded: it pervades our back alleys, surrounds us at bus-stops, covers billboards, competes with advertising and generally serves as urban wallpaper in most cities. But what is
street art? A far cry from mere graffiti, street art has gained some social acceptance, but it remains neither officially sanctioned like public art, nor institutionally condoned, like its more traditional
artistic cousins in museums. Somewhere in between these two extremes, street art has emerged, occupying a metaphysically suspect grey area between illegal activity and bona fide art. This paper explores the nature of this emerging art form and draws out some of the differences between street art, public art and ‘mere’ graffiti.
This paper explores how engaging in and with philosophy in the streets has unique and special pot... more This paper explores how engaging in and with philosophy in the streets has unique and special potential for children doing philosophy both inside and outside the classroom. We highlight techniques drawn from research into the political, social and activist potential of street art, and we illustrate how to apply these techniques in a P4C context in what we call guerrilla philosophy. We argue that guerrilla philosophy is a pedagogically powerful method to philosophically engage students whose ages range from 11-13. In calling attention to the power of guerrilla philosophy to engage students philosophically, we are tacitly assuming a Deweyan philosophical approach (Dewey 1916, 1925, 1934), which emphasises (1) the importance of promoting civic-mindedness as a social value; (2) the reliance on imaginative, creative and experiential forms of learning as essential to education ; and (3) a vision of the classroom as an embodiment of the larger civic community to which we all belong and in which we all must cooperate and engage (Dewey 1916). This paper traces these three themes in Dewey's philosophical views of education and democracy, and considers how they are given a twenty-first century interpretation through street art, guerrilla philosophy and children's activism.
Collaborative Art in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Sondra Bacharach, Siv B. Fjærestad, Jeremy Neil Booth
Book review of Young's Street Art World
The British Journal of Aesthetics, 2018
Many works are attributed to artists after their death, even when someone else has contributed su... more Many works are attributed to artists after their death, even when someone else has contributed substantively to the content of the work or when the work left by the artist is deemed incomplete by any standard of completion. Call these works posthumous works. These cases give rise to several interesting and related questions about the ontology of artworks and authorship: If the works are incomplete when the first artist dies, then can someone else complete them, or do they remain forever unfinished? Are works that are altered after the artist’s death new and distinct works? If they remain forever unfinished, then what is the unfinished works’ relation to the putatively “finished” work? If, on the other hand, they can be finished and are finished by someone other than the original artist (since the original artist is dead), then to whom to do we give credit: the deceased artist, the finishing artist, or both? Recent accounts of when an artwork is complete make posthumous works impossible. In this paper, we offer an explanation of how the unfinished work of the dead can be completed and why in these cases attributing the work to the dead is justified.
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2010
Essays on Collective Intentionality, 2008
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2011
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Darren Hudson Hick’s recent paper “Authorship, Co-Authorship, and Multiple Authorship” explores t... more Darren Hudson Hick’s recent paper “Authorship, Co-Authorship, and Multiple Authorship” explores the issues surrounding the notion of authorship in posthumously completed works, taking the recent, posthumously completed work, Micro as a case study. Micro is a novel begun by Michael Crichton. Upon his death, Crichton’s trust hired Richard Preston to complete it. The issue at stake is who qualifies as the author of this posthumously completed work. Hick claims that Crichton and Preston should qualify as co-authors, and therefore that Micro challenges our own account of co-authorship. We reject both of these claims. In what follows, we examine the case of Micro in order to highlight an important difference between co-authorship and multiple authorship. We conclude by discussing how posthumously completed works help us distinguish between issues of authorship and various forms of agency.
Collaboration in the arts is no longer a conscious choice to make a deliberate artistic statement... more Collaboration in the arts is no longer a conscious choice to make a deliberate artistic statement, but instead a necessity of artistic survival. In today’s hybrid world of virtual mobility, collaboration decentralizes creative strategies, enabling artists to carve new territories and maintain practice-based autonomy in an increasingly commercial and saturated art world. Collaboration now transforms not only artistic practices but also the development of cultural institutions, communities and personal lifestyles.
This book explores why collaboration has become so integrated into a greater understanding of creative artistic practice. It draws on an emerging generation of contributors—from the arts, art history, sociology, political science, and philosophy—to engage directly with the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of collaborative practice of the future.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2015
The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, 2009
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2005
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2002
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Between Histories: Whence and Whither Contemporary Art, ed Marchenkov, 2013
Arthur Coleman Danto has published in a variety of fields in philosophy, but he is most famous fo... more Arthur Coleman Danto has published in a variety of fields in philosophy, but he is most famous for his systematic work in the philosophy of art, philosophy of art history, and art criticism. For nearly half a century, his writings in these areas have transformed the way aestheticians, art historians, and art critics engage with the disciplines. Throughout this time, Danto has maintained an intimate relationship with the artworld, himself a practicing artist and influential art critic; indeed, his knowledge and expertise in the arts is by any standards extensive.
Book Review of Christy Mag Uidhir's Art and Art Attempts, OUP 2013
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2007
Book Reviews. The Philosophy of Art. by davies, stephen. SONDRA BACHARACH 1 1 Department of Philo... more Book Reviews. The Philosophy of Art. by davies, stephen. SONDRA BACHARACH 1 1 Department of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington. Copyright 2007, The American Society for Aesthetics by Blackwell Publishing. ABSTRACT. No Abstract. ...
British Journal of Aesthetics, Oct 1, 2015
Street art has exploded: it pervades our back alleys, surrounds us at bus-stops, covers billboard... more Street art has exploded: it pervades our back alleys, surrounds us at bus-stops, covers billboards, competes with advertising and generally serves as urban wallpaper in most cities. But what is street art? A far cry from mere graffiti, street art has gained some social acceptance, but it remains neither officially sanctioned like public art, nor institutionally condoned, like its more traditional artistic cousins in museums. Somewhere in between these two extremes, street art has emerged, occupying a metaphysically suspect grey area between illegal activity and bona fide art. This paper explores the nature of this emerging art form and draws out some of the differences between street art, public art and 'mere' graffiti. Graffiti and tagging are pervasive and ubiquitous, and just about everyone has something (usually negative) to say about them. Except philosophers of art, who have been strangely silent. Although non-philosophers have written extensively about graffiti and tagging, few aestheticians have bothered to explore their art status or aesthetic merits. 1 Recently, however, a new movement in the streets has emerged: moving beyond mere territorial markings, so-called street art is beautiful, clever and inspiring. Street art straddles two radically different kinds of mark-making practices in public spaces, falling somewhere between bona fide institutionally supported public art, on the one hand, and illegal, childish scribbles on private property, on the other. Where before the lines between public art and graffiti were clear and obvious, street art occupies a space in between, raising questions about how we distinguish amongst these three different practices. The goal of this paper is to explore the nature of this emerging art form known as 'street art', and, in doing so, draw out some of the differences between street art, public art and 'mere' graffiti. Making these distinctions will highlight two central features of street art: street art is (1) aconsensually produced (made without the consent of the property owner on whose property the work exists) in a way that (2) constitutes an act of defiant activism designed to challenge (and change) the viewer's experience of his or her environment. This paper defends these two conditions as necessary for a work to count as street art. The first section of the paper will present some paradigmatic examples of street art and distinguish them from cases of public art, on the one hand, and from graffiti and tagging, on the other. The second section considers Riggle's account of street art, and why it is problematic. The third and fourth sections defend the role of aconsensuality in street art (which distinguishes street art from public art), and explain how aconsensuality is used for a particular, defiant and activist purpose, viz., to challenge (and change) the viewer's experience of the space (which distinguishes street art from graffiti and tagging).
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Jun 9, 2023
In this article, I explore the relationship between witness-bearing arts as a form of creative ac... more In this article, I explore the relationship between witness-bearing arts as a form of creative activism designed to respond to social injustices. In the first section, I present some common features of bearing witness, as conceptualized within media studies and journalism. Then I explain how artworks placed in the streets can bear witness in a similar way. I argue that witness-bearing art transmits knowledge about certain unjust and harmful events, which then places a moral burden or responsibility on the viewer. To defend this view, I offer some examples of activist art that bears witness to certain events. I suggest that witness-bearing art is placed in the streets in order to make certain truths publicly available, by offering evidence of them embedded in the artwork. The final section considers why the bearing witness is especially effective for activist art. Witnessbearing art plays a crucial knowledge-transmitting function, one which enables art to engage in creative activism. I conclude by considering how witness-bearing art offers a powerful and persuasive voice for the oppressed.
The Monist, 2018
I argue that activists have co-opted street art as a tool for addressing epistemic injustices, in... more I argue that activists have co-opted street art as a tool for addressing epistemic injustices, injustices that result from negative identity prejudices that silence certain groups of people unfairly. To defend this claim, I explore the special nature of street art that makes it an especially appropriate tool for activists to enlist in the fight against epistemic injustices. From there, I will examine in detail two case studies which illustrate how street art is used to respond to and correct for these injustices: first, the street art series, "Stop Telling Women to Smile" by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and then Chris Metzger's Inside Out Project in Baltimore. Drawing on these examples, I highlight the features in virtue of which street art constitutes a particularly effective tool for correcting epistemic injustices.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Oct 1, 2015
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2021
Film and philosophy, 2009
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Mar 1, 2007
and unfashionable way. Maynard loves his subject and studies it with a rare and welcome patience.... more and unfashionable way. Maynard loves his subject and studies it with a rare and welcome patience. He practices something Wittgenstein all too often merely preached: he teaches us differences. There have been many fine modern books on the theory of the visual arts, but until now, in my opinion, there were only two indispensable ones: Gombrich's Art and Illusion and Wollheim's Painting as an Art. Now, in my opinion, there are three.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Mar 1, 2018
A Companion to Arthur C. Danto, Apr 18, 2022
Victoria University of Wellington, 2013
World Authorship, 2020
This chapter demonstrates how the process of constructing a theory of authorship around a single ... more This chapter demonstrates how the process of constructing a theory of authorship around a single individual, writing independently or authoring in solitary isolation, has become untenable. New media technologies make new forms of authorship possible and invite alternative methods of conceptualizing an author—from zines, to the Web 2.0, to comics. This chapter thus presents an overview of recent philosophical approaches to the question of collaborative authorship and advocates for an approach to the phenomenon that would rely less on authorial intentions than it would on commitments. The distinction has obvious implications for theories of authorship more generally: to call yourself an author, so it suggests, you have to be willing also to take ethical and intellectual ownership of what you have written.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Mar 1, 2005
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
In this article, I explore the relationship between witness-bearing arts as a form of creative ac... more In this article, I explore the relationship between witness-bearing arts as a form of creative activism designed to respond to social injustices. In the first section, I present some common features of bearing witness, as conceptualized within media studies and journalism. Then I explain how artworks placed in the streets can bear witness in a similar way. I argue that witness-bearing art transmits knowledge about certain unjust and harmful events, which then places a moral burden or responsibility on the viewer. To defend this view, I offer some examples of activist art that bears witness to certain events. I suggest that witness-bearing art is placed in the streets in order to make certain truths publicly available, by offering evidence of them embedded in the artwork. The final section considers why the bearing witness is especially effective for activist art. Witness-bearing art plays a crucial knowledge-transmitting function, one which enables art to engage in creative activism...
British Journal of Aesthetics, 2021
In countries like the United States, White people benefit from appropriating Black hair culture, ... more In countries like the United States, White people benefit from appropriating Black hair culture, even while Black men and women experience race-based hair discrimination and oppression. One goal of this paper is to raise awareness of hair discrimination and oppression within the philosophical community. Another is to consider whether current theories of appropriation can account for the wrongness of this widespread phenomenon and, if so, how. We are particularly interested in the special case where one minority group appropriates from another minority group—viz. the appropriation of Black hairstyles by Non-Black Persons of Colour (NBPoC). Our paper highlights the complexity of appropriation claims between competing minority groups—both of which have been oppressed, albeit differently, by White people— due to their multi-ethnic, multicultural and, therefore, intersectional, status.
