Every Art Work is an “Open Work” — By Umberto Eco

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The literary institution for centuries constituted the essence of a work of art as an unchanging entity, whose expression was ruled by its creator. However, ‘Art for Croce’ was more of a mental phenomenon that communicated directly to the mind of the reader, viewer, or listener from the mind of the artist.

‘The Poetics of the Open Work’ is based on the analysis of semiotic (the studies of symbols/ signs). According to Eco an ‘open text’ or ‘open work’ is a literary work that allows readers to produce multiple or mediated interpretations. In contrast, the process that leads readers to come up with one intended meaning is called ‘closed text’, which we are quite familiar with.

Umberto Eco’s came up with the concept of ‘open work’ in his collection of essays called ‘The Role of the Reader’, which is also derivative of the distinction between the terms ‘readerly’ (lisible) and ‘writerly’ (scriptable) texts set out by Roland Barthes in his ‘The Death of the Author’ published in 1968.

Umberto Eco takes the example of musical works to describe how some special ones can be organized & re-organized by the artists before they play them to the audience. Following which he introduces this idea to literary texts as well as other forms of art.

All pieces of art can be interpreted or read, according to Eco’s view, in three separate ways: moral, allegorical, and anagogical. Each of them is not merely distinct in meaning but could be completely anticipated as well as directed by the artist/author of the work. Eco uses the example of Kafka’s stories to experience this kind of reading. Readers cannot read Kafka’s symbolic actions in a single definitive way. With each reading, readers will produce a similar interpretation while coming up with multiple meanings.

Open reading of work allows the reader to read a particular work and come up with a different meaning every time, depending on their physical state, emotional state, and political world view. He believed that a reader’s view of a certain text varies on each reading. Brecht’s plays can be used as an example for his analysis as they are written in a way that “open” in a similar way to an argument between people is open, both sides (including the viewers and the actors) want and are anticipating a solution at the end. However, no solution ever comes, leaving the readers to wander and find the meaning.

Umberto Eco distinguishes between such works, which are “open” in their interpretation, to musical pieces from the start that can be considered open in a structural sense. This kind of “openness” can not only be applied to musical works but to all artistic works (painting, poem, performance, etc.)

This kind of “openness” is as of the development in science during the time, the literary critic says, of course in the old days, people believed in the geocentric world, leading them to expect that every work of art has only one definitive meaning. Everything can only be interpreted in a single way. However, as the man started to discover the secrets about the universe and the stars, they became more curious and expected more ideas to be explored from every work.

Eco continues his comparison of open works with Quantum mechanics, arriving at the conclusion that the idea of openwork is more like the universe’s idea of Einstein that seems random at first but is governed by precise laws. The artist who creates these open works carefully arranges his work so that it remains open to re-organization by another while holding his ground, original voice, and intent as an artist. The process of producing an open work is a meticulous process led by the author where he/she constructs and organizes their work so it is open to interpretation. Readers/ audience are free to reorganize the work and see it from their subjective point of view and decode it however they like.

Every work of literature can be read and interpreted in infinite ways, depending on an individual perspective and state of mind. The derived meaning of the text may also depend on the invention of a third party either the curator at the museum or orchestra players. Eco states that he understands and acknowledges the difficulties with an open perspective, ending this essay, on a note that this work is an “open work”, a “work in movement”, and a “work in progress”, that critics or readers may use analyze and explore this idea.

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