Levi has
a new post up on what Latour means by trials of strength. I don't have anything to add one way or another, but I want to use it as an excuse to post one of my favorite quotations from Kandinsky, which seems to agree a great deal with this notion of trial by strength.
From On the Spiritual in Art:
In a mysterious, puzzling, and mystical way, the true work of art 
arises "from out of the artist." Once released from him, it assumes its own independent life, takes on a personality, and becomes a self-sufficient, spiritually breathing subject that also leads a real material life: it is a being. It is not, therefore an indifferent phenomenon arising from chance, living out an indifferent spiritual life, but rather possesses-- like every living being-- further creative, active forces. It lives and acts and plays a part in the creation of the spiritual atmosphere that we have discussed. It is also exclusively from this inner standpoint that one must answer the question whether the work is good or bad. If it is "bad" formally, or too weak, then this form is unsuitable or too weak to produce any kind of pure, spiritual vibration within the soul.
