Miklós Erdély: Theses for the marly conference in 1980


0	What we regard as art is a matter of decision, rather than one of
definitionnce of art.
00	It makes sense to regarde all things which to recogniyed art forms have
in common as art or the essence of art.
	Inversely: the various art forms can be regarded as art precisely because
what they have in common is their essence.
000	The greater the diversity of activities and objects  regarded as art,
the briefer is the list of what they have in common.
0	If  I decide to regarde all the significant representatives of every art
form,beginning with prehistoric art right up to modern art, as artists, then
I shall be able to find nothing in common in the work of all these people.
0	Just because a statement is a matter of decision, it is not necessarily
arbitrary.
0	Naturally, it is also a matter of decision which artists I regard as
significant.
0	In my view, an artist is significant if he works towards the effect that
the various activities regarded as art should not have anything in common.
0	The greatest figures in proper art history are people who did just that.
0	In other words, proper art history stripped the word " art " of its meaning.
000	Since it is not acceptable that a concept (in this case art) can have
different maenings in differente ocassions and since I do not wish to
disqualify artists, regarded by me as significant, for the sake of
preserving the notion.of art  (when in fact I regarde them as significant
precisely because it is due to their work that the notion of art is so
elusive), I have to announce that -thanks to the artists- the notion of art
is empty,it has no operand and it is void of meaning.
0	Obviously, the meaning of arbitrary and conventional signs narrows down
when the domain of their operands is extended.
0	The domain of operands must be specified in order to be able to insure the
function of the operator.
0	The meaning of non -arbitrary signs- signs which are based on analogies
and interaction (iconic or indexical types) - is extended by increasing the
domain of their operands.
0	If a work of art is a sign, then it is of this type.
00	In the case of the arbitrary and conventional signs, their operands must
have something in common, by contrast,the other type of signs invoke all the
possible - and at times fundamentally different - features of their operands
themselves.
000	This is the reason why [ a non -arbitrary sign ] can become a multivocal
supersign, with a tendency to expand into infinity.
0	The meaning of a work of art is not the total sum of its different
references, rather, a work of art makes these references possible, or
otherwise, it virtually contains them.
00	Because of its analogous and interactive references, a work of art might
mean one thing here and another there according to the actual period or
enviroment, or it might even mean both things at the same time.
000	While in the case of conventional signs their meaning narrows down as
the domain of their operands increases, in the case of iconic/indexical type
of signs  polysemy might lead to the fading and devaluation of the signs,
and ultimately to complete emptiness even, as it often happens with works of
art.
0000	A work of art, therefore,can be regarded as a sign which enhances and
one of the various meanings at the expense of the rest; it multiplies them
or it uses one to cancel out another by destructive interference, thus
making it impossible for the work of art as a whole to have a meaning.
00000	Such a sign should not be thought analogous with 'x', the algebric
independent variable able to assume an arbitrary value, a work of art cnnot
assume any meaning, except when it is misinterpreted.
0	Roughly speaking, the various meanings appear on four different levels:
-Thematic level ( what )
-Technical level ( how )
-In an art historical context ( with reference to every work of art produced
by old and contemporary artists ), further broken down as :
-what
-how
-In a social, historical context ( set against the social and cultural
backround, which can be narrower or broader,depending on the artists
qualities ), further broken down as:
-what
-how
0	The interference of the various meanings mostly follows from the vertical
interblending of the four levels.
000	The montage effect represent the references that destructively interfere
with each other within any one of the levels ( together with the inevitable
modulated meanings of the other levels ).
0	In a manner of speaking, a work of art is filled with invalidated
meanings, and as such, it works as a meaning-repellant.
0	The message of a work of art is its inherent emptiness.
00	It is this emptiness that the receptive mind receives.
000	The work of art makes room in the receptive mind, when its message is
"understood".
0000	The recipient then says: "nice" , which is another empty statement.
00000	Then comes the feeling of freedom, which is nothing else than
emptiness, space in the train of "recognised necessity" : a place.
000000	A place : for the not-yet-realized.
0	By discussing the things in life, a work of art makes these things disappear.
0	By discussing the things in life, a work of art makes discussion on these
things disappear.