Art-Making as a Way of Becoming Harmonious with Others

This essay proposes a new way to approach to social well-being by exploring the action of art-making within aesthetical, philosophical, and scientific considerations. It builds on art historian Ann Dezeuze's precarious art practices theory to address the issue of how art making could be understood as a way to approach social well-being. It extends Dezeuze's theory by drawing out Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Lévinas's theories to examine the action of art making. Their theories suggest that the nature of art-making is a matter of becoming harmonious with others. This discussion will center upon how the nature of art-making--becoming harmonious between one and others--could become a way to enhance social well-being. In which is not a metaphor for social well-being but rather a practical method to enhance social well-being. As such, it presents a way of enhancing social well-being ; moreover, it is also a way to challenge people's understanding and methodology of social well-being.