Susan Sontag against interpretation - Craig's livejournal

"Real art the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, comfortable." -Against Interpretation. [1964]

Craig: Susan Sontag is without doubt the best philosopher to have ever written about photography

Manel: For me she isn't the greatest. I find her interesting and I loved reading her because I don't agree with what she wrote in that essay. For me real art isn't the capacity to make us nervous. It's obviously that but it's more. It's dangerous to define concepts in a reductive way. I'd rather be wrong because I include a few things that aren't art, even when I try to think about interpretation. To miss something that is actually art would be a serious problem for me. Being a philosopher is to intensively seek for clues and not definitions as she does. Connections and alternative perspectives overcome structure on this activity... What I feel is that art has more resemblances with philosophy then it has with crafts, apparently these two fields of our culture are shortening their distances but they still can’t exchange properties such as rigour.

Craig: Susan Sontag- has written extensively more than anyone else I can think of about photography. Also she has tried to push its boundaries in many unthought-of ways, in pretty much every area possible. that comment about art making us nervous is merely something about the art work that is so often talked to death. &following that...in Pete Chapman’s exhibition 'the pool project' he had text next to each piece or work. this was a condition of him getting the gallery- educational purposes. he had someone say to him "do you think I'm stupid?”, because of the text explaining the work. making it accessible. taking something away, the adventure, chance, search...or whatever else it is you do when you look at art!...sorry for the short text...you know what happened!

Manel: I'll make it as clear as possible tomorrow... What would you bloggers say about this?