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Art as a Mode of Action: Some Problems with Gell's Art and Agency

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dc.contributor.authorMorphy, Howard
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-10T22:23:58Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.date.updated2016-02-24T09:51:56Z
dc.description.abstractThis article is a dialogue with the theoretical arguments of Alfred Gell's book Art and Agency. While strongly supporting an action-oriented perspective on art it is argued that Gell's argument deflects attention away from human agency by attributing agency to the objects themselves. It is argued that the very properties of art that Gell excludes from his definition of art objects and largely from his analyses - aesthetics and semantics - are integral to understanding art as a way of acting in the world and to understanding the impact that art works have on people.
dc.identifier.issn1359-1835
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/53051
dc.publisherSage Publications Inc
dc.sourceJournal of Material Culture
dc.subjectKeywords: anthropology; art; theoretical study Aesthetics; Agency; Anthropological theory; Art; Theory of action; Yolngu
dc.titleArt as a Mode of Action: Some Problems with Gell's Art and Agency
dc.typeJournal article
local.bibliographicCitation.issue1
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage27
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage5
local.contributor.affiliationMorphy, Howard, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU
local.contributor.authoruidMorphy, Howard, u7800269
local.description.embargo2037-12-31
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.identifier.absfor190103 - Art Theory
local.identifier.absfor160104 - Social and Cultural Anthropology
local.identifier.absfor200201 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Studies
local.identifier.ariespublicationu3025350xPUB263
local.identifier.citationvolume12
local.identifier.doi10.1177/1359183508100006
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-59649125082
local.type.statusPublished Version

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