In The Aesthetic Field, Arnold Berleant argues that traditional answers to the question "What is art?" are partial at best, providing only what he calls "surrogate theories of art." In order to answer this question, Berleant insists, we need to understand art in a different way, as a complex field - an aesthetic field that takes account of all the many factors that form the context of art and are indissolubly bound together in the experience of art.

The Aesthetic Field is as innovative as the arts of our time. It was one of the first books to recognize the importance for aesthetics of the performative aspect of the arts, not only in music, theater, and dance, but also as a key factor in all aesthetic experience. Its fresh approach has gained increasing relevance as aesthetic experience and theory have expanded in new and provocative directions - as audience has collaborated with artist and performer in interactive art, and as feminism, postmodernism and other recent movements have shown the powerful influence of interpretation and culture as integral forces in shaping our experience and understanding of art.