ABSTRACT
In this final chapter I foreground art’s reliance on communication and recognition. Artworks are a particular kind of emergent meta-level conversation. Artists “hold” the space open (“enough”) for the audience to undertake their own reality-testing, their own mix of experience, subjectivity and reality; this is a structured practice of creativity and care. Discussing Andrew Collier’s critical realist ethics, theories of recognition, and human “ambivalence”, I conclude that living artfully is “good” because it contributes to the human conatus towards greater interaction. The chapter presents the case for Aesthetic Critical Realism, and for supporting the “good-enough artist” in all of us. A radical paradigm shift in how we understand and care for culture is called for. Fortunately, we have just the right tool to help us achieve this transformation – and it’s called art.
