About Alan Just — Thinking Like an Artist

I built Artists Are Jerks through improvisation: asking Socratic questions, trying things, breaking them, following curiosity. Only later did I notice my method echoed the moves of major philosophers and theorists. This is my self-portrait — but more importantly, it's a training ground for you.

Click each thinker below to see the ecology of art:

  • Good Jerks expand perception.
  • Bad Jerks distort or gatekeep.
  • Normies stabilize and normalize art in daily life.

Try the prompts and you'll practice how to think like an artist yourself.

1

Walter Benjamin

The Slow Look

Thinking Move: Linger; meaning appears through time and presence.
Good Jerk

Creates conditions for slowness—quiet installs, long works—so aura can emerge.

Bad Jerk

Manufactures fake scarcity/VIP mystique to inflate value.

Normie

Keeps aura alive in daily life via familiar images revisited over time.

Visitor Practice: Spend three minutes with one artwork. What appears only after minute two?
2

Susan Sontag

The Embodied Encounter

Thinking Move: Trust your body before your intellect.
Good Jerk

Strips away explanation and invites visceral response.

Bad Jerk

Uses jargon to dismiss emotion as naïve.

Normie

Sustains everyday aesthetic pleasure—liking beauty without overthinking.

Visitor Practice: Before reading wall text, note three physical sensations the work gives you.
3

Roland Barthes

The Co-Author

Thinking Move: Meaning is co-created; no single owner.
Good Jerk

Opens art to multiple readings, handing meaning back to viewers.

Bad Jerk

Demands a single correct interpretation.

Normie

Accepts received interpretations, keeping shared culture steady.

Visitor Practice: Write a one-sentence reading of a piece that's yours alone—no quotes, no labels.
4

Arthur Danto

The Framer

Thinking Move: Context defines what counts as art.
Good Jerk

Reframes the ordinary to expose how context shifts meaning.

Bad Jerk

Leans on gallery context to prop up thin work.

Normie

Accepts institutional frames, stabilizing art's public role.

Visitor Practice: Choose a mundane object. Imagine it in a gallery. What new meanings appear?
5

bell hooks

Visibility & Justice

Thinking Move: Look for presence, absence, and power.
Good Jerk

Reveals erased voices and broadens visibility.

Bad Jerk

Exploits identity or pain for clout.

Normie

Engages art without interrogating justice, helping stories circulate widely.

Visitor Practice: Ask: who is visible here, who is missing, and why might it matter?
6

Barry Schwartz

The Constraint-Lover

Thinking Move: Less is more; constraint deepens focus.
Good Jerk

Uses tight limits to heighten attention (small works, sparse shows).

Bad Jerk

Overloads with spectacle/info to mask emptiness.

Normie

Prefers balance and moderation, keeping art approachable.

Visitor Practice: In a crowded show, adopt one piece and ignore the rest.
7

Gilles Deleuze

The Rhizomatic Wanderer

Thinking Move: Follow connections sideways; let meaning proliferate.
Good Jerk

Invites remix and surprising linkages across media and ideas.

Bad Jerk

Builds labyrinthine theory as a barrier to exclude.

Normie

Connects art to everyday life in simple, steady ways.

Visitor Practice: Link an artwork to a song, a memory, and a headline. What sprouts?
8

Clement Greenberg

The Useful Foil

Thinking Move: Break purity rules; embrace fruitful impurity.
Good Jerk

Crosses mediums and references to expand experience.

Bad Jerk

Polices purity and declares whole practices invalid.

Normie

Values traditional categories, keeping art legible for most.

Visitor Practice: List the 'impurities' in a work (materials, sources, genres). How do they enrich it?