Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
terms: CNN Business
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Singapore Owing a
Innovate:
Singapore-based start-up is using
A
technology to enable individuals
blockchain
buy “shares” in an artwork. This could
to
artists to maintain partial ownership
allow
their work, and enable smaller investors
of
would be unable to afford an entire
who
The shares can be bought and sold by
work.
more easily, which may allow the
investors
to realize the true value of a work
market
efficiently. Fractional ownership enables
more
to own parts of an artwork just like
people
of corporations. While this opens up
parts
to art ownership, it does not directly
access
access to art in general. In fact, it
improve
even reduce access to art, if the multiple
may
cannot agree to display it publicly they
owners
decide to store it in a secure, restricted
may
away from the public.
area
can access art in various ways, as an
We
as students, as owners and so on.
audience,
related concern is access to platforms for
A
Which art forms are considered art,
artists.
specifically good art, valued enough to be
and
Clues to the answer are found at
exhibited?
do you respond to the phenomenon of
How
that sells for millions of dollars? What
artwork
would you use to define the monetary
criteria
and price tag, of art?
value,
Danto, the philosopher and art
Arthur
challenged aesthetics and art price
critic,
in his influential 1964 essay “The
valuations
which suggested an answer to
Artworld”,
eternal question of “what is art”. Andy
the
had just created an exhibition of
Warhol
Brillo Boxes, which were replicas of ordinary
For the purpose of knowledge, what kind
1.
access to art is more important—as an
of
To whom should the benefits of the value of
2.
artwork accrue?
an
Apart from using blockchains, how can
3.
retain partial ownership of their
artists
of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)
Portrait
David Hockney broke records in 2018 when it sold for
by
complicated intersection between the art
the
and the art market. Below, we consider
world
role of art institutions in deciding art status
the
art value, in the context of our present
and
moment, described by some as late
cultural
stagecapitalism.
cartons of soap, stacked high as
supermarket
in a warehouse. Interested readers can look
if
Warhol’s intentions and explanations of
up
exhibition. Here we are concerned with
his
interrogation of this phenomena, of
Danto’s
objects that could be conceived of
ordinary
art. He concluded that “what in the end
as
the difference between a Brillo box
makes
a work of art consisting of a Brillo box
and
a certain theory of art” (Danto 1964). More
is
10
For reflection and discussion
Bitcoin art
audience or as owners?
Warhol
work?
Figure 10.7
$90 million. None of the money from that sale went to
Hockney, as he had sold the original in 1972 for $18,000.
Box 10.3: The artworld and the art market
specifically, Danto argued that art is what
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