Just a quick thought about the notion of the freedom to experience art. My Father (who is a seriously smart guy, historian, former actor, sailor, curriculum developer, etc.) and I went to the Carnegie International Art Show about ten or fifteen years ago. One of the exhibits was in a small gallery- it was a piece created by John Cage and someone else (I don;t remember the other person). Anyway, the piece consisted of several three dimensional objects in a large room. Every day, a computer would randomly generate the placing of the objects within the room. It would then change every day. Well, to my surprise, my Dad looked at the piece, read about it and then entered the room and moved one of the objects to another location in the room.
What does that do to the piece? Obviously it changed it. But, did he vandalize it? Did he enhance his own personal experience? How did his personal experience enhance the way other people experienced it? To this day, I am somewhat scandalized and inspired by that event.
I think about that every once in awhile.
