Contextual backdrop
Against which all
Experience unfolds
The light is not simply there; it is being processed by the material, revealing its contours and imparting a certain glow.
“Experience is primarily an active and passive affair; it is an undergoing of consequences and an enjoyment of results.” – John Dewey
Vibrant congeries
Actual occasions
Ceaselessly coming into being
The interplay of light and shadow, the warm glow emanating from within the structure, the sharp angles contrasting with the soft blur of the background, all contribute to a vivid harmony.
“The actual occasions are the final real things of which the world is made up. There is no going behind actual occasions to find anything more real.” – Alfred North Whitehead
Tourist brochure
Hinting at a world
Beyond its own frame
Look beyond the empirical facts of a brochure to ask not just what we see, but how what we see acquires meaning and what kind of being it possesses within a larger interpretive framework.
“To see something as art requires something the eye cannot descry – an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.” – Arthur Danto
Reveal the interplay
Form light material
Revelation of truth
Metaphysically, this image resonates with the idea that reality is not composed of isolated, self-contained entities, but rather a dynamic web of relationships.
“The work of art is not an object that exists for itself and whose meaning can be understood simply by studying it. It is rather an event that takes place in us and transforms us.” – Hans-Georg Gadamer
Car as an object
Dissolves into
Manifold of sensations
A moment of sensation that bypasses conceptual understanding, offering itself directly to the body and mind.
“Art does not render the visible, but renders visible.” – Paul Klee
From a perspective
Tactile suggestion
Primary engagement
The coats, with their tangible texture and immediate presence, present a curious detachment, an objecthood that invites contemplation apart from their immediate function.
“I am myself plus my circumstance.” – José Ortega y Gasset
Light dancing
On the surface
Sensuous delight
This is the realm of pure potentiality, of qualities as they are in themselves, without reference to anything else.
“The universe is a vast representamen, a great poem, a great architecture, a great music, or a great symphony of ideas.” – Charles Sanders Peirce
Complex sign-event
Perpetually unfolding
Dynamic process of semiosis
Before any cognitive apprehension, there is the raw sensory impact: the gleaming cream-colored letters, their rounded edges and assertive presence against the cool, indeterminate blue.
“Firstness is the mode of being of that which is such as it is, positively and without reference to anything else.” – Charles Sanders Peirce
Concrete object
In space and time
Physical manifestation
The aesthete, forever engaged in the pursuit of immediate sensation and the boundless possibilities of the moment, finds in these stairs a fleeting beauty, a hint of something more, even if undefined.
“The present age is a reflective age, an age that knows that the most direct way to get what it wants is by detour.” – Soren Kierkegaard
Physical phenomena
As distinct from
Psychical phenomena
Our perception of the hood latch-spring mechanism, the blurred background, and the shimmering bokeh circles is not merely a passive reception of sensory data, but an active, directed engagement with these elements.
“The aesthetic object is not a thing but a meaning.” – Mikel Dufrenne