Modalities of Art and Artistic Research: The Possible, the Potential and the Virtual

In this article, I study how modalities work in the arts and how the arts work with them. Modalities are traditionally understood as the categories of “possible,” “real” or “effective” and “necessity,” as well as their negations, “impossible,” “unreal/ineffective” and “contingent.” In modal logic, modalities characterise how a statement is true or false, or the way in which something exists or does not exist. From a larger philosophical perspective, modalities describe our cognitive relation to the world as speaking, perceiving and acting subjects. In our everyday communication and thinking, modalities are in constant use, and people often use them without noticing. As I argue, modalities are not merely conceptual categories but, as forms of experiencing, they are something that arts and artists can effectively manifest, modify and operate with