Abstract

In an educational climate that is driven by the need for accountability and standardized tests, aesthetic education is too often justified on the basis that engagements with art objects will help students develop skills that in turn will help yield higher test results. This justification leads to perpetuating the marginal place of the aesthetic in education, and to a lack of consideration of that which is human in art. This dissertation rearticulates the nature and value of the aesthetic experiences of young people, with an emphasis on the human dimension of encounters with art objects, and a focus on the unique contributions of art viewing to the growth of students. ;The experience of a group of five adolescents in response to a sculpture by artist Isamu Noguchi was examined in the spirit of hermeneutic phenomenology. The analysis was informed by key themes from the literature on philosophical aesthetics, establishing a back-and-forth dialogue between the abstract ideas of philosophy and the concrete instance of an aesthetic engagement. ;The examination of the students' experience with Noguchi's work revealed a web-like structure framing the interaction between viewer and object, in which the art work became a symbol for meaningful human themes of intrinsic value to the young viewers. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that the aesthetic experiences of young people occur on many dimensions, which include discursive, body-rooted and emotional responses. It also became apparent that the meaning of a work of art cannot be reduced to a single idea, but is constituted by layers of ideas, sensations and emotions. Ultimately, this study suggests that the interaction of young viewers with art objects can result in the creation of new and powerful horizons that in turn lead to human transformation and awareness, as well as to the continuation of cultural tradition