Technologies of Intuition

The term, "intuition," while commonly used by artists has been somewhat marginalized within art theory and criticism. Whether sensed as a gut feeling or a flash of insight, intuition is central to processes of "coming to know" in aesthetic practice and experience. Many artists habitually rely on extra-rational means of understanding, either in the form of everyday instinct or uncanny cognition. A delicate balance, though, exists between clairvoyance and fantasy, foreknowledge and wishful thinking. Technologies of Intuition demonstrates how artistic sensitivity requires disciplined and cultivated perception. Set in continuity with the compelling history of the Spiritualist Movement and emancipatory feminism, this anthology elucidates intuitive agency as a psychic, somatic and social technology in the fine arts and popular culture.