transitivity

I should leave it to Duchamp to succinctly ameliorate this role of ‘spectator’.

'All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualification and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives a final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten artists'
THE CREATIVE ACT. By Marcel Duchamp
Published in: Robert Lebel: Marcel Duchamp.
New York: Paragraphic Books, 1959, pp. 77/78.
http://radicalart.info/things/readymade/duchamp/text.html

I am just getting the point to transitivity ‘a relation between three elements such that if it holds between the first and second and it also holds between the second and third it must necessarily hold between the first and third’ and Bourdieu ‘relations between individuals and groups, between the artist and the world, and by way of transitivity, between the beholder and the world.'

I should leave it there for I know there are others with more knowledge than me. I am feeling very like ‘Alice’ falling down the rabbit hole. I look forward to the class discussion.

Carmel Wellburn