“The art system operates on its own terms, but an observer of art can choose many different distinctions to indicate what he observes.”

— Niklas Luhmann

Source: Art As a Social System (2000), p. 102.

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Niklas Luhmann 12

German sociologist, administration expert, and social syste… 1927–1998

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“The activity of observing establishes a distinction in a space that remains unmarked, the space from which the observer executes the distinction. The observer must employ a distinction in order to generate the difference between unmarked and marked space, and between himself and what he indicates. The whole point of this distinction (its intention) is to mark something as distinct from something else. At the same time, the observer — in drawing a distinction - makes himself visable to others. He betrays his presence - even if a further distinction is required to distinguish him.”

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Source: Art As a Social System (2000), p. 54 as cited in: Pamela M. Lee (2004) Chronophobia: On Time in the Art of the 1960's. p. 66.

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