"Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. It is a question of producing ourselves, not things that enslave us"

Angela Carter’s statement challenges conventional perspectives on the function and purpose of art. She contends that art is not confined to recording or reproducing past experiences or emotions. Instead, Carter advocates for a shift toward utilizing art as a means of actively shaping and organizing new, more sophisticated or nuanced sensations within ourselves and our communities.

The first key implication is a movement away from nostalgia or mere documentation. When art serves as an “account of past sensations,” it risks becoming a static archive, tied to what has already transpired, possibly limiting its transformative or generative power. Carter resists this limitation by proposing that art should be a direct agent of evolution, fostering the creation of more advanced forms of feeling and awareness. Art, therefore, becomes a force that pushes us forward, continually expanding the boundaries of what it means to experience, to sense, and to be conscious, rather than anchoring us in what we have already known.

The later part of her statement, emphasizing “producing ourselves, not things that enslave us,” warns against the uncritical creation of objects, be they artworks, commodities, or conventional norms, that come to dominate and restrict human potential. Carter gestures toward the idea that creativity should not serve external fetishes or social habits that ultimately limit our freedom. Instead, the artistic process should be a dimension of self-actualization and liberation. Art becomes a tool for self-creation, a method by which individuals and societies continually redefine themselves, rather than being trapped by the objects or conventions they produce.

There is an underlying call to responsibility: artists, and by extension all creators, have the power to choose whether their work reinforces the status quo, perpetuating forms that confine us, or whether it contributes to a process of continual human emergence and transformation. Carter’s vision is of an art that leads to agency, autonomy, and the untethered evolution of the human spirit.