More contemporary ties?

As an artist I always try to find how older theories can relate to contemporary artworks. This recent article in the NYT's offers some insight into the issue.
"The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art!"
By HOLLAND COTTER
"Why not make studio training an interdisciplinary experience, crossing over into sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, poetry and theology? Why not build into your graduate program a work-study semester that takes students out of the art world entirely and places them in hospitals, schools and prisons, sometimes in-extremis environments, i.e. real life? My guess is that if you did, American art would look very different than it does today.

Such changes would require new ways of thinking and writing about art..." and a rethinking of past theories like empathy?

Donald Weismann, Vincent Scully Robert Venturi, and Colin Rowe are mentioned by Mark Jarzombek as "a few of the better known practitioners of empathetic see-
ing." This article is from 1994 so maybe we can come up with a new more current list.


"Helicopter" 1959 Weismann
Bank Robert Venturi