talkPOPc's Podcast
talkPOPc (Philosophers' Ontological Party club), is public philosophy + cognitively-engaged art nonprofit founded by Dr. Dena Shottenkirk, who is both a philosopher and an artist. As a topic-based project (we are now on our fourth) talkPOPc sponsors one-to-one conversations between a participant and a philosopher (who always dons our amazing gold African king hat, along with our mascot Puppet!) These conversations are consensus-building conversations and feed back into Shottenkirk's related artworks and published philosophy. The conversations become collaborative acts of making both philosophy and art. Thus, each topic - #1. nominalism, #2. censorship, #3. art as cognition, and #4 power - has three "pillars" the associated artworks, the published philosophy book, and podcast conversations. Various philosophers participate (see our website talkpopc.org for the list of philosophers) and these conversations happen in various places. For example, we go into bars and have one-to-one conversations. We sit down next to the deli counter and hold a conversation with someone who has walked in to get a ham sandwich and walked out knowing so much more about their own thoughts. We go into the MDC prison in Brooklyn and have conversations. We set up in galleries where the artworks and the philosophy are also displayed. And we listen. Here are some of those conversations.
Change happens when people talk.
talkPOPc's Podcast
Episode #107: Hendrix speaks with R.P. Shottenkirk about how art can make the viewer feel as though they are being seen
Timestamps:
- 00:10: Introductions with Hendrix
- 00:50: Is it about the purpose of Art? Defining cognition to boot.
- 01:50: Art is cognition, especially for the Artist. It comes from cognition. Pollock would approach Art differently from Picasso, likely based on the stimuli in their respective lives.
- 03:45: Emotion also comes from cognition. How you feel comes from how you think. A dog or a cat person, depending on our judgments, our emotions change. We bring our prejudices everywhere. Except in this case, regarding pet preferences
- 05:15: The way you capture the world depends on how you've seen it and how you've lived, even two close siblings can differ. Art functions as cognition for the Artist as a mix of judgment, emotion and other things.
- 06:30: For the viewer, Art & cognition stems from a stimulus you pick up from the Art. If a painting strikes you, brings complex emotions, it just might be cognition.
- 08:30: A Pollock piece brings the idea of being noticed. The chaos of the painting helps to bring out a personal feeling. It's not about noticing the chaos in the image, but instead noticing the chaos within.
- 10:30: If two individuals had the exact same events happen to them, would they become the same person? Are people intrinsically unique or are they purely formed through experience?