Intuitive Politics and Art for Development

This opinion article is about art as an event or encounter with social, political, and economic conditions of society. Art can be an agent of changing these conditions if, according to the author, two of its underlying philosophical elements - intuition and creativity - are spared from institutionalisation.

The challenge of art for change is elaborated through a discussion of the functions of aesthetics and expression, with historical examples of art that expresses change. According to the author, the intuitive nature of art and artists is non-authoritarian and suited to the uncertainty of new political movements.

The author poses several questions: Should art for development stay within its three known roles, identified as: expressing political vision; linking with craft for economic development; and retaining societal myths of history? Should art instead move into the realm of intuition? Intuitive art, according to the article, is less predictable and less useful for supporting established institutions, but has more creative potential.



In this context of the tension between the restrictions of institutions and the possibility of new pathways through intuition and creativity, the author proposes, especially for the African continent, that intuition - intuitive politics, for example - be given a direct role in development in order to explore new roads to thinking about development, art and politics.

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