Manifesto - Jessica Bower

Art is the representation of knowledge within a deliberate context wherein the intention is for the result or action to be received as art. Art is recognized by the vocabulary that is used to create it. I believe that artistic mediums are made up of vocabularies that establish the language of said medium. Each medium’s language is learned, honed, and crafted until it is interpretable by individual artists. Once individuals become fluent in a language of a certain medium, they are able to explore the parameters and boundaries of the medium, and some go as far as to add content to the vocabulary or attempt to combine two medium’s languages so as to produce a new type of artwork or a new genre within a medium. As new elements are discovered with potential to exist within a medium’s vocabulary, it is the action of using the element within a context that intends to define the new [sound, action, etc.] as art that establishes the element as an addition to the medium’s vocabulary. Acknowledgment of the element’s potential is not enough. Works of art are therefore interpretations of knowledge using or building upon the vocabularies that define the chosen medium, in a context that receives the action or result as an artistic expression.