The Pedagogical Function of Art as Interpretation

In this article, I argue that both art and teaching are forms of point out that are derivative of the more basic and everyday act of interpretation. Key to this reading is the work of Martin Heidegger, in particular, his phenomenology of interpretation found in Being and Time. By reading Heidegger’s early phenomenology of interpretation side by side with his later essays on art, I enable the reader to appreciate how art and teaching are related yet also distinct practices. The article concludes with examples drawn from contemporary art that highlight the need for arts in the curriculum without reducing such arts to either aesthetic or instrumental ends.