(Art History and Studio Art)

This thesis inquires into the application of Richard Shusterman’s somaesthetics with respect to contemporary art, through an analysis of the work of Yann Toma and Tatiana Trouvé included in the exhibition Aesthetic Transactions, 2012. In exploring somaesthetics in relation to art, this thesis addresses John Dewey’s aesthetics and idea of the consummatory experience, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology with respect to art and experience as parts of the foundation of Shusterman’s ideas of somaesthetics. In today’s decentralized, global art world, can somaesthetics offer a means of understanding and maintaining art’s vitality for viewers and/or artists? In this thesis, I argue for somaesthetics ’ potential utility in approaching contemporary art. i