In this chapter I will consider some of the consequences of externalism for art. I will argue that some artists have intuitively understood the mind to be something that extends beyond the brain and the body. The kinds of externalist tendencies evident in artistic practice, however, differ somewhat from those found in the more formally expressed theories of science and philosophy. Then I will take an approach I have termed 'extensionism'. Extensionism stresses the extended dimensions of objects and events rather than that which divides them. When this approach is applied to the analysis of art it becomes apparent how widely distributed the mental aspects of artworks are, and how hard it is to put the genie of the conscious mind back into the bottle of the brain.
Book chapter in Aesthetics Beyond the Skin, edited by Riccardo Manzotti, due 2011
