Conceptual Groundwork

During its early years, Project Zero was a loose collection of 10-15 resaerch assistants and senior scholars. The group met regularly to discuss philosophical, psychological, and conceptual issues in the arts and art education. From the first, the Project took a cognitive view of the arts, viewing artisitc activity as involving mental processes fully as powerful and subtle as those used in the sciences or public policy. In that sense, the Project reflected the "cognitive revolution" of hte time -- countering both the behaviorist past of psychology and the overly romantic view of the arts as matters of mystery, emotion, or entertainment. The "Bible" for this period was Goodman's influential Languages of Art (1968).