Art as Technique
In “Art as Technique”, an essay written in 1917, Russian author Viktor Shklovsky argues that the purpose of art is to defamiliarize oneself from a routine based life by making something that is normal seem unfamiliar. He supports his argument with examples from “Shame”, a text from a classic author, Leo Tolstoy, which examines the importance of perspective. Tolstoy analyzes the act of flogging but told from a horse's point of view to illustrate a different perception. Shklovsky also references an article written by Leo Jakubinsky to show that one can recognize the basic shapes of art but the meaning is often ignored because of defamiliarization. In a sense, the art is dead because it lacks any connections to the observer. Shklovsky ultimately suggests that art is meant to break habituation to create greater appreciation and a more conscious life.