Art as Experience

Dewey, John. (1980). New York: Perigee Books.

Chapter 4. Act of Expression (p. 60-84)

For Dewey, art is an act of expression, in which past experience that would otherwise be stale or inert obtain fresh meanings through media. Expression is "the clarification of turbid emotion" (p. 80). Unlike a discharge of emotion, it requires clarification, which makes art a purposeful action more than inspiration. Dewey put it:

The inspiration, however, is initial. In itself, at the outset, it is still inchoate. Inflamed inner material must find objective fuel upon which to feed. Through the interaction of the fuel with material already afire the refined and formed product comes into existence. The act of expression is not something which supervenes upon an inspiration already complete. It is the carrying forward to completion of an inspiration by means of the objective materials of perception and imagery ( 68-69)

Dewey implies that to express emotion, one needs a medium, a tool for expressing it and clarifying it. In addition, although Dewey did not articulate, there should be something that develop the faculty of expressing the emotion, not just discharging it.