Ontological Innovation in Art

Abstract

What sort of a thing is a work of art? When does a work of art come into existence, when is it damaged, when does it survive, and when is it destroyed? Which features are essential to it and which expendable? Is it the sort of thing that can be seen by people in Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Singapore at the same time, or do you have to travel to a unique location to see it? These are all questions regarding the ontology of the work of art. As I shall understand it here, the “ontological status” of a work of art is fundamentally fixed by its existence, identity, and persistence conditions; these fix what category of object it is. In fixing these, other facts may be fixed as well, including when and where a work is observable, what properties of the work are essential or accidental, what sorts of change interfere with its preservation, and so on.

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