Week I Reflection

It was interesting to hear a class room full of ideas. Some I agreed with, most probably not. Of course authorial intention had to come up at some point. It seems as though intention is irrelevant to all except the writer. Only the author needs intention, we as the reader don't need to understand that intention to get something out of the piece. Art is inherently subjective, it belongs to one viewer in a wholly different way than it does to another, and again in a different way than it does to the author of the piece. What we as the readers should concern ourselves with is not the intent, but our viewing of the piece. Are we viewing a specific piece independently as an autonomous individual might? Or are we looking at it through the eyes of our cultural identity? In the case of the latter, the subjectivity is no longer personal but predetermined and directed at a specific answer that suits the cultural demands not the individual viewer...