"Art as Experience" revisited: Dewey's aesthetic cognition theory in the age of fragmented perception

The technological environment of the information age is reshaping our ways of perceiving art, leading to the prevalence of cognitive fragmentation and experience disconnection as a common symptom of modernity. This phenomenon is manifested in the temporariness of perception, the discontinuity of experience, the floating nature of meaning, and the lack of depth. It has triggered contemporary anxiety about whether deep aesthetic experience is possible. This paper uses John Dewey's theory of "Art as Experience" as the core analytical framework. And a critical diagnosis of the fragmentation phenomenon is conducted through a systematic explanation of its principles of continuity, embodied cognition, consummatory experience. The study reveals that fragmentation essentially causes an incomplete state of experience and interrupts the dynamic growth process of "an experience" emphasized by Dewey. However, Dewey's theory not only provides a critical lens but also points to a constructive reinterpretation path. This paper argues that traditional art organically promotes active integration through its inherent unity of form and context. However, digital fragmentation disrupts this natural process, requiring the aesthetic subject to make more conscious and resistant active efforts. Fragments can serve as enticers of experience to stimulate in-depth exploration, and the re-creation of digital context and the generation of personalized experience narrative become contemporary practices for reconstructing "consummatory experience". This paper constructs a practical path of art education grounded in Deweyan aesthetics, aiming to reshape a more complete, profound and generative model of artistic cognition. Dewey's theory of aesthetic cognition enlightens us that art education in the information age should shift toward cultivating the ability to integrate experiences, and the true "aesthetic experience" may precisely manifest as a conscious resistance to fragmentation and the reconstruction of experiential continuity, thereby providing valuable philosophical guidance for anchoring experience in a fluid era.