Ian Verstegen

University of Pennsylvania, USA
[history of art; images as cognitive instruments]
Phenomenology is the gate that all our knowledge of art and artifacts passes, and EPh is important because it scientifically formalizes this layer of qualitative experience. In visual studies today phenomenology is often considered anthropocentric, subjective and alienating from reality, but what is the “materiality” of an artwork that, in contrast, is so often referred to? It is still mediated by experience; it is phenomenology.