Reading: “Understanding Art: The play of Work and Spectator in Monica Vilhauers Gadamer’s Ethics of Play: Hermeneutics.
To begin with my interaction with the text made me think of the film/ book The Witches by Roald Dahl in the beginning of the film where the narrator talks about the painting and the figure within the painting.
The chapter was an introduction to the 20th Century Philosopher Hans- Georg Gadamer by philosopher Monica Vilhauer; how we use the idea of play to create an artistic dialogue between the teacher and the learner. The text was heavy with philosophical dialogue and between the parable-esque scenarios the actual language, and how the author chose to present these abstract ideologies, within itself proved to present a back-and-forth play of knowledge and understanding. I thought of how I could understand the text in very linear terms so ultimately, I substituted:
Artwork – Knowledge
(Material)– Epistemology
Epistemology – Ontology
There seems to be not only a transference of knowledge and understanding but what Gadamer calls an ontological Event closely linked to theologians Paul Tillich’s idea of the “theonomous” / religious experience (same experience can take place in the classroom / the art of imagination implied). Paul Tillich’s Theology of Culture analytical approach to scrutinising culture within the contexts of religion revolutionized how Theology was perceived outside of Academia. Tillich evolved a correlated discourse where within a contemporary westernised setting the religious secular modes of thinking could methodise a system of:
- Questioning &
- Answering
Throughout Tillich Systematic Theology he develops utilises terminologies from the “theonomous” to “correlation” which can be synonymously used to denote a correlative relationship that responds not only to the historical events in history but essential questions of what it means to sub-exist in a society that consists of God and culture (Epistemology and Ontology). Tillich uses (correlation) as a theological tool to demythologise and deconstruct different aspects of culture in relation to science and philosophy although this branches out to other areas of study. Gadamer seems to express the same idea of co
“Gadamer teaches us to recognize how understanding itself only takes place in dynamic, interactive, interpretative process of working through meaning with others. A shared understanding is in this way interpretative event that takes place in a play of presenting and recognising meaning”
I think that for the interpretive event of play to take place there is an eclipse which knowledge is a transformative exchange of not ideas but where teachers not only stimulate the student to challenge what there leaning but where education set within the mundanity of the classroom, or the lecture theatre transcends these tangible spaces and broadens the pedagogical landscape of intangible knowledge.
Gadamer: “Spectators are crucial players; a true spectator of an artwork is not one who simply who happens to be in the room in a quite causal way while the performance is going on rather; he must participate, this participation involves what Gadamer calls a subjective accomplishment in human conduct”
The idea of play is crucial within the contexts of education. As we develop hermeneutics within the cyclical pattern of play it goes beyond our own terms of communication/ understanding because each time we engage in play Gadamer challenges us to challenge ourselves to push the boundaries of our knowledge to delve deeper and ask more questions that call into question not only our response but in turn, makes the individual / the player play a deeper line of inquiry that branches out to other hermeneutical epistemologies.
I thought that the idea presented by Gadamer also made me think of the interaction of the player when encountering interacting with the artwork, music, play and once disengaged how this disengagement a allows the player to use the experience to use numerous forms of “play” with other players or by themselves. I thought of Rene Descartes mediation on first philosophy and how this links to knowledge and how it links to the idea of play.
Descartes Mediation on first philosophy he analogises the example of wax.
It has just been taken from the honeycomb; it has not quite yet lost the taste of honey; it retains some of the scent of flowers from which it gathers; its colour, shape and size are plain to see; it is hard, cold and can be handled without difficulty; if you rap it with your knuckle it makes a sound. I put the wax in the fire, and look the residual taste is eliminated, the smell goes away, the colour changes, the shape is lost, the size increases, it becomes liquid and hot, you can hardly touch it and if you strike it, it no longer makes a sound
I must therefore admit that the nature of this piece of wax is in no way revealed by imagination but is perceived by the mind alone.