Techne Theory

Only since the Romantic period has art been understood in terms of an ineffable aesthetic quality of things like poems paintings and sculptures and the art-maker as endowed with an inexplicable power of creation. From the Greeks to the 18th century art was conceived as <i>techne--</i>the skill and know-how by which things and states of affairs are ordered. <i>Techne Theory</i> shows how to use this concept to cut through the Romantic notion of art as a kind of magic by returning to the original sense of art as techne the standpoint of the person who actually knows how to <i>make </i>a work of art. <br/><br/>Understood as techne art-making like all other cultural accomplishments is a form of work performed by an artisan who has inherited the know-how of previous generations of artisans. Along the way <i>Techne Theory </i>cuts through the humanist-structuralist impasse over the question of artistic agency and explains what 'form' really means.