In reading about Duchamp's 1,200 Bags of Coal I was reminded of something James Harris said to us in class. He said art, upon meeting it in a gallery should make you go WOW. So much of contemporary art is striving to just achieve the status of being "contemporary art"; to be included in the canon. But when something, whether it be a piece of art or a squirrel leaping from a branch in a tree, makes you go WOW it has suddenly sparked a curiosity and interest in the world around us. To be wowed means to be touched enough that we want to know more about it, to start inquiring about it. On page 67 Brian O' Doherty does just that, he starts posing questions about 1,200 Bags of Coal; "Who helped him?"," ..how could they be full with coal?", "Who helped him?" etc.. He seems excited to know more.

In a saturated world of imagery and imposed 'beauty' it is a matter of survival for a piece of art to WOW, to stand out and somehow privately alter your consciousness. Otherwise, why make it if it is just going to be lost in cognition of the viewer's subconscious mind. How to get someone to become curious on their own, to start asking questions about the space they inhabit and the patterns of their minds receptivity, this is what Duchamp was after and indeed it is the only thing worth working towards as a conceptual artist.