本研究由梅洛龐蒂 (Maurice Merleau-Ponty) 與體驗論 (Experientialism) 對於身體的概念出發,探究藝術家與觀眾於藝術活動中的身體現象;研究的主旨在於建立藝術家、觀眾與藝術品之間的聯繫,並且探究藝術家與觀眾於藝術創作與觀賞經驗中的基礎。第一章首先介紹梅洛龐蒂的身體概念;分別探討身體的哲學思維發展、身體主體 (body subject) 的概念、身體感知的結構、運作與特質以及身體與物體、他人之間的關係。第二章則介紹體驗論對於身體與心智運作關聯的觀點;探討身體經驗與概念系統的形成以及理解能力的運作之間的關係。綜合第一章與第二章的探討則可以發現身體同時是感覺與認識的主體,並且包含著表達與溝通的意涵。第三章則轉而分析藝術家於創作活動中的身體現象,探討藝術家的身體與靈感、風格等概念的關聯;以及分析觀眾於觀賞經驗中的身體現象,探討觀眾的身體與直覺、想像力等概念的關聯。綜合以上三章的探討則可以發現藝術家與觀眾的身體於藝術活動中實則作為表達與溝通的身體;而身體則成為藝術家與觀眾於藝術活動中的基礎,它形成藝術家、觀眾與藝術品之間的聯繫。
My thesis explores a phenomenology of bodies that concerns artists and audience in the process of art, using such concepts as described in Merleau-Ponty and Experientialist writings. It is meant as a deeper look into the complicit connections that exist in between the artist, the work of art and the spectator, which I argue constitute a shared matrix for what we know as experiences of creation and reception. The first chapter delves into Merleau-Ponty’s ideology of body, covering such topics as body as a basis of philosophical inquiries, body as subject, the internal structures and external connections of body as a complex of senses. The second chapter focuses on Experientialism and its criteria in body/mind connections, which assert that body experiences convene with our analytical and conceptual faculties. The first two chapters jointly see the body as a subject of sensorial and cognitive activities that is capable of representing through expressions and communications. The last chapter observes the bodies of the artist and the spectator as they engage in art, intently associating style and inspiration with the former and intuition and imagination with the latter. The body is, in this view, profoundly intermediary and indispensable for the inter-personal activities of artistic constitution, expression, and communication.