Prof. Michael O'Rourke

Pratt Institute, Dept. of Digital Arts

Jacques Derrida: the "parergon", "framing" of artwork,...

(Best book I have found on this is Derrida Reframed, K.M. Richards, I.B.Taurus & Co.)

• ergon vs. parergon (Kant)

  • ergon = work

    • para = outside/beyond/beside

    • artwork vs. not-artwork

    • important vs. unimportant

       

    • Derrida: binary oppositions of Western thought invalid

      • Examples:
        - male/female; outside/inside; art/not-art
        - [painting/not-painting; fine art/not fine art]

      • deconstruction of them

        • Find inconsistencies in the binary oppositions

      • Not “either/or”

      • But “both/and”

     

    • parasite – independent, but mutually dependent

    • parergon/ergon – independent, but mutually dependent

     

    • physical frame – define the “boundary” of artwork/ergon

      • (Formalism: isolate artwork from all else)

     

    • framing by the artworld

      • A. Danto: “The Artworld”

      • “Institutional” theory of art (G. Dickie)

     

    • Social framing/context of artwork

      • social, Marxist, feminist critiques

      • our thoughts a function of social framing

    • All artwork comes out of a cultural frame

    • Interdependence of artworks

      • all artwork refers to other artwork

        • death of “author”

        • (R. Barthes, M. Foucault)

        • “Intertextuality” (J. Kristeva)

      • No such thing as “original”
        

    • labels for artworks

    • titles for artworks

    • signature for artwork

      • how do these define the artwork for us?