ABSTRACT
The processes involved in the creation of art and its reception, beginning with the incorrigible tendency in humans to construct meaningful narratives to account for events, are considered in this chapter. Perceived order is the trigger for such narratives. In this sense, the meaning conveyed by art is constructed by artist and viewer. In order to draw this out, I consider conceptions of aesthetic autonomy arguably derived from Kant’s aesthetic theory and examine two recent philosophical theories of perception according to which perceptual objects are not simply given but are constituted in part by a form of modelling or tacit inference. I draw upon the art of Daniel von Sturmer to demonstrate the relevant principles. A key term in this chapter is “aesthetic autonomy.”
