Notes #6

There are two different aspects of what we like to call art. First there is learning and improvement of traditional artistic craft. Second there is the reflection on art as a social phenomena. These two aspects are at the same time interwoven und independent from each other. The craft receives its goals and values from theory. Even if the artistic process has no expectations towards its results and is highly participative, when questions of author and oeuvre are eliminated, it is thereby determined by the results of a free and deliberate theoretical reflection. On the other hand while executing the craft arise new problems, questions and solutions that could not have been foreseen by theory. This is as well the source of the craft’s autonomy as the possibility for creativity. 
Theory itself moves in analogous ways. It is founded on the material results, or residuals, of practical craft. The web of interpretation and meaning is rooted in these residuals. But the web incorporates, while unfolding, other aspects of contemporary social life that are independent from the residuals. The theoretical social aspects and material results of craft can be connected to each other in a logical and harmonious way. The autonomy of theory lays in the independent selection of the aspects that it tries to connect to the craft. Whether or not there is an inner relation or similarity and a connection somehow fruitful is proven during the development of theoretical reflection. 
So comes that theory and practice are deeply interwoven and at the same time claim to be the autonomous source for the other.