Fleck - das Bild der Selbsttätigkeit um 1800

The author explores the relationship between inkblot and image in early 19th-century thought. In the German Romantic period fantasy was considered a particularly important capability. According to Immanuel Kant the imagination is characterised by its autonomy with respect to rational functions and willpower. This sort of autonomy he called self-activity. In the generations that followed the concept of self-activity was employed to develop new techniques of image production. Both artists and scientists used these new methods to express the changing understanding of truth and objectivity. One characteristic of the art that came out of such thought was its vicinity to the inkblot – a form of aesthetics that, different from classical aesthetic, imparts meaning to the self-active development of visual appearances. In this work the inkblot as a form of imagery served as a means to study the interactions between theory and practice. Many, in part previously unpublished, blots from the Romantic period are introduced here. The result is that the inkblot is seen as a reflection of human fantasy. This work attempts to exemplarily demonstrate how the method of production aesthetics found in art works tries to produce meaning through the choice of a specific type of creative process.