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Failures of Intention and Failed-Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2020

Michel-Antoine Xhignesse
Michel-Antoine Xhignesse*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Capilano University, North Vancouver, BC, Canada
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper explores what happens when artists fail to execute their goals. I argue that taxonomies of failure in general, and of failed-art in particular, should focus on the attempts which generate the failed-entity, and that to do this they must be sensitive to an attempt’s orientation. This account of failed-attempts delivers three important new insights into artistic practice: (1) there can be no accidental art, only deliberate and incidental art; (2) art’s intention-dependence entails the possibility of performative failure, but not of failed-art; and (3) art’s intention-dependence is perfectly compatible with the role that luck plays in artistic creation.

Keywords

accidental artart-attemptscomplex plansfailed-artincidental artintentionplanning
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 50 , Issue 7 , October 2020 , pp. 905 - 917
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

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