Why Should Artists Study Aesthetics?

I was quoted this recently from some source unknown to me, "Aesthetics is to the artist as ornithology is to the birds." Implying of course, (disregarding the bad analogy as it is generally accepted that dancers should study kinesiology) that the study of aesthetics have nothing to do with being an artist or creating art. Being someone who wants to find in-roads for philosophy and dance to interact, this was a troubling sentiment to me. So what exactly does the study of aesthetics do for a choreographer? Well, my first reaction, and the one I like to default on, is that the study of different areas brings new ways of thinking and perceiving in the creation of a work of art. However, that does not really answer the question, because the same holds true for the study of any discipline and it says nothing about the content of the field of aesthetics.So let us examine the importance of a specific debate upon an artist, say, the debate between the aesthetic empiricist and the aesthetic contextualist. (We will be skipping the enlightened empiricist position for the sake of simplicity)

Aesthetic empiricism is the idea that the appreciation of art is a matter of a distinct state of mind which allows someone to grasp the formal and expressive qualities of a piece of art. It has been described as a way of seeing or perceiving distinct from ordinary, day-to-day perceptions. Aesthetic contextualism, by contrast, is skeptical of this distinct state of mind and believes that aesthetic appreciation is a result of knowing the context which surrounds the art, along with the artwork itself. They claim that certain works require context in order to appreciate and that you cannot separate the art from its context.

So how does this affect an artist? Why should they care if aesthetic empiricism is right or aesthetic contextualism is right? Well, the answer is, that they do not really need to know if one is right or wrong, what they do need to do is recognize which one they believe in. If I am an aesthetic empiricist (which I am), then this information is vital for how to get my audience to enjoy my work. So I need to be able to communicate the type of mindset or somehow get them prepared to see my show by getting them in the right mindset to appreciate my work. But if I am an aesthetic contextualist, then I need to know what information to communicate to my audience if they are to get my dance.

So the answer to the question: "What does the study of aesthetics do for the artist?" is really quite simple. The study of aesthetics enables an awareness of the audience and how the audience should and should not be perceiving the work of an artist. It allows an artist to be able to avoid the usual answers to the all too much asked question: "What does it mean?" It allows the artist to guide the audience into the appreciation of their artwork, without appeal to artistic virtuosity. (The ability for the artist to create the piece of work, which is usually a quick, but undesirable, in-road to works of art.) Aesthetics is vital for the artist who wants an audience to actually appreciate their work.