Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

concerningthe article “the dematerialization
of art”
terry atkinson
(...)
I have some inquiries I wish to advance relating to the usage of the word “dematerialization”
with precise regard as to its correctness in describing and relating the process of disestablishing
a precept which had been assumed to be a necessary condition of the visual art menage (i.e.
that there be a “looking at” object). There seems to be in your article a strongly emphasized
paleontological framework of reference according to the data you offer from Schillinger’s evolutionary
categorical chronology of art-making procedures, hence I deduce that you are using
“dematerialization” to describe a process which has connections with processes which have
been slowly forming its own structure. Nevertheless, after careful consideration, I can only
perceive that your usage of “dematerialization” is a metaphorical one (I know that I am pointing
out what is probably the most obvious of facts); there is not, I realize, anything of necessity
wrong with metaphorical usage. But I think in the case of the process I understand your article
to be concerned with, such a usage has a number of shortcomings in as far as the process of
dematerialization is not in any strict sense the process (I emphasize as I understand it) you are
describing. (. . .)