He was also a William Rice Kimball Fellow at Stanford University, working on a study of performance art, particularly the stand-up comedy of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce.
Carney argues that an emphasis on interpreting symbolism shows a “high school” understanding of art, and that this kind of “decoder ring” approach is in place because it is easier to grasp and makes scholars feel more important and esoteric.
Carney believes that the meaning of a creative work lies at its surface, and imagines a world where art is appreciated for what it objectively contains rather than what is read into it, an aesthetic he refers to as pragmatic.
[5] He argues that audiences can, for example, simply appreciate the acting in a film and gain meaning from this, what the characters actually say and do, and the tonal shifts that accompany these actions.
The suit was dropped in September of that same year, due to rising legal costs, although Rappaport later started an online petition demanding that Carney return the items.