Contemporary Art and the Perceived Self-sufficiency of Urban Life

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Art - Art Theory, General, grade: A, , course: Issues in Contemporary Art, language: English, abstract: Seventeenth century scientists (Descartes, Bacon, and Newton) made discoveries that brought us scientific method and a vision of secular progress through technological achievement. But in this vision the purpose of knowledge was proposed as utilitarian, the domination of nature. The world we live in today is based on this vision of technological achievement.

Art, because it is not shackled by the purposes of science, has an important role to play in enhancing our awareness of the true nature of things. Its negotiations with the natural world are intuitive and imaginative and this can enable it to bring to light much that is concealed from our everyday perception.