| The basic presupposition is that "frames" or "make-beliefs", like myth, ballad, theatrical "role," or iconography, etc., evoke a specific kind of affective state in the reader/viewer. Cultural artifacts objectify cognitive drives whose origins cannot be fully explained by reductionist, i.e., cognitive, neuro-psychological methods as Lorenz, or D'Aquili et al contend, or as behavioralists like Taylor, Getzels, Csikszentmihalyi argue. Affective states are "demarcated" (John Dewey) moments within a "stream" (William James) of consciousness. Some of the characteristics of affect are (1) ludic freedom (as in play-acting); (2) delight (as in comedic impersonations, ballad, iconography); (3) life-enhancing movement (precipitating enjoyment, though not obsessive involvement). I shall argue that artistic affect comprises emergent characteristics beyond those immediately recognizable in ordinary states of consciousness, yet identified as ones which are enhanced or fine-tuned to a specific kind of being or awareness.; This dissertation makes an attempt to prove that cognitive science stands in need of new empiricisms for a proper evaluation of esthetic states, especially those induced by festivals, ritual, folk-art, and all kinds of ethnological artifacts or narratives, including theater, movie, painting, and literature. Secondly, it also advocates an anti-post-modernist agenda, arguing vehemently in favor of the need for a science-based, realistic appraisal of such trance states and mystical experiences that are not only plausible, but constitute deep-rooted forms of human intuition. This dissertation rehabilitates behavioralist questions on the nature of art, and the gestalt psychology of Max Wertheimer, and Michael Polanyi, not to say such assumptions as those made by A. N. Whitehead, William James or John Dewey, on the "ingressive", or "prehensive" capacity of human imagination, its ability to recognize the completely emergent, or demarcated condition of esthetic states. The artistic process has been examined in terms of the experience of the artist and the cognitive realities that inform the actual making of art works; each chapter is devoted to the analysis of one kind of artistic activity or skill. Scrutiny of praxis, in real time, of the nature of artistic experience, including acting, ritual enactment, sculpting---the making of iconography, totemic idol, masks etc., or even contriving a metaphor or poetic narrative, leads us to realize how true artists become cognizant of altered states, in handling their media and inthe act of crossing a line where expression acquires an epiphanic dimension---delightful and engaging and instilled with the pre-conditions that accompany moments of "beauty" (Frederick Turner) in the real world. |
