Artistic Agency: Thinking Creation with Post-War French Philosophy

This volume seeks to explain the notion of control artists possess, and given they are changed by the action, the sense in which they can claim an artwork as theirs. Standard explanations of action and agency struggle to explain various artistic practices. Requiring recourse to a prior intention, these accounts are challenged by the spontaneity of dance and musical improvisation, a painter’s realization of an artwork, and how writers manifest meaning in a piece of writing. Furthermore, in such artistic practices, the artist is changed by the demands of the action. This interdisciplinary volume combines thirteen contributions from various artistic practices, in photography, music, dance and painting, with philosophical perspectives from post-war France to consider the changing role of the artist. This identifies what it is about an artistic practice that is creative, and how everyday occurrences can become artistic, describing the ethical and political implications of various artistic practices.

Alistair Macaulay is a scholar working across multiple universities in Melbourne, Australia. His research concerns the intersection between art and philosophy, publishing on the significance of improvisation.

Timothy Deane-Freeman is Associate Lecturer of Philosophy at Deakin University, Australia. His research is primarily dedicated to the intersection of politics and aesthetics. He is the author of Deleuze, Digital Media and Thought (2024).

Antonia Pont is Associate Professor of Writing and Literature at Deakin University, Australia. She is the author of A Philosophy of Practising with Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition (2021).