The utility of encounter with art in the public sphere

In this dissertation, art emerges as an independent power of life that brings about new options to emancipate the human condition from the forces claiming immunity to change. The encounter with art puts forth art's potential to reveal liberty as a peculiar characteristic of humans relative to the human condition. There is an inverse relation between art and the objectification of art by forces external to it. The greater the emancipation of art in the public sphere, the more potent the transformative impact of that force for libertarian choices. The introduction puts forth the hypothesis of the dissertation and the methodology and a summary of developments and complications in public spheres. In Chapter 2, we cover the stages of public space and its analyses relative to the encounter with Art in two parts: In Part 1, we analyze the Public Sphere of Antiquity, the Medieval, and the Copernican Turn through philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Pico Della Mirandola, Hobbes, and Spinoza. In Part 2, we analyze the emergence of the Individual in the Social Contract and the public discourse in the coffee shops of London and salons of Paris. The impact of Enlightenment philosophers in Britain, France, and Germany in the formation of the Bourgeois Public Sphere is analyzed. The modern Public Sphere theories structured for consensus (Jürgen Habermas) and in radical divergences (Chantal Mouffe) are contrasted. Finally, we mention the new contemporary structures of the Public Spheres in digital platforms. In Chapter 3, we discuss the complications of encounter with art under the term "Objectification," an eclipse that hampers the emancipatory power of art. In the dissertation the objectification of art is analyzed in relation to time, sociopolitical realm, religion, ideology, public opinion, aesthetics, curatorial projects, language, and emerging new identities in digital platforms. In the contemporary world, a new complication soars with the technological revolution: On the one hand, the convergence of people brings more freedom and diversity than ever, as the pace of evolution in the public sphere is unparalleled and will test the resilience of art as a life force in new ways. On the other hand, the digital platforms allow a concentration of sameness and development of discourse, and judgment is based upon popularity in the sameness. The findings point to a resilient and robust bond between art and human liberty. The resolution of encounter with art is in the eyes and ears of the beholders. Thus, the objectification of art is a limitation on human liberty and a decaying act against human dignity. In Chapter 4, we convert our findings and observations into a mathematical formula illustrated simply as: y= f(1/x), where y stands for an independent path of emancipatory art and x for the forces impactful upon the limitations of art. The formula is also presented as the utility function of the encounter of art in the public sphere or, the function of human dignity before the objectification of liberty. Case studies follow the fourth chapter. We conclude that to use the lens of art is an emancipatory power of life with the potential to change the world. At the encounter, new visibilities grow into new possibilities and options for sensing the meaning of liberties, the value of self as human and the sense of being human that converges us all.