Aesthetics Commons^™

The Cut Worm Forgives The Plow, August Neuscheler

Theses and Dissertations

The explorations in this thesis writing are centered on William Blake’s proverb “The cut worm forgives the plow.” It has been reinterpreted as an allegory of history and energy. A theory of their relation is proposed based on forgiveness, a theory that accepts the palimpsest of orders as evidence for the abundance of the present moment. The writing focuses on questions of proportionality, scale, archaeological screening methods, planar cutting, and a critique of entropy as grounds for this theory. Some of its subjects include the Statue of Liberty, Kate Raworth’s donut economic model, sashimi, triangulation, Joseph Beuys’ “7,000 Eichen,” semiconductors, …

Editorial, Yuriko Saito

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Notices, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Rhythm Against Poethics, Jayvyn Dacas

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis stages an auto-poetic ethnography that listens to, and moves with, the anterior spaces of Black life. Those murmurs, hums, musical hesitations, and infrastructural vibrations that refuse capture by dominant epistemic regimes. Drawing from Ramon Amaro’s reading of Sylvia Wynter, Katherine McKittrick and Alexander Weheliye’s reflections on sound, Fred Moten’s insights on displacement, and Tendayi Sithole’s attention to the phonographic, the project situates music production as method and unworlding. Through engagements with the 808, sampling, sound systems, and embodied listening across Florida. Spaces like the warehouse, the party, record stores, and community become the work of Black voices, and …

Mirrors Of The Reel: Black Women's Identity In American Cinema (2009-2024), Melanie-Penny Harrison

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study investigates whether white supremacy structures, embodied in Hollywood’s predominantly white leadership, drive negative portrayals of Black women in 31 mainstream American films from 2009 to 2024. Employing a mixed-methods approach—quantitative content analysis, qualitative content analysis (QCA), and narrative methodology—I code portrayals for racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, colorism, and internalized racism, classifying them as progressive (e.g., empowered roles), regressive (e.g., subservient stereotypes), or hybrid. Guided by Critical Race Theory and intersectionality, the analysis examines narrative structures, character agency, symbolism, and dialogue to uncover intersectional patterns (e.g., race, gender, class) across three periods: 2009–2013, 2014–2018, and 2019–2024. Across these periods, cultural …

Eros And The Sublime: Tools For Reaching Toward An Altered Ecological Consciousness, Aineka Carlson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores connections between the Kantian sublime and Anne Carson’s ideas regarding “eros.” Since Kant’s Critique of Judgement was published in 1790, the Kantian sublime has grown in popularity and been utilized by theorists and creative writers alike. While the Kantian sublime is often associated with nature in popular culture, there are certain egocentric and phallocentric elements of this mode of thinking that might inhibit a biocentric mindset. Through a character study of Oryx from Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake, this thesis draws relations between the subjugation of women, nature, and the ways in which the popularized …

Is Sexyy Red Minstrelsy, Or Are We Overreacting?, Malik Brizan-Reed

Capstones

This criticism piece explores the controversial female rapper Sexyy Red. It challenges negative perspectives about her persona, primarily based on respectability politics. It highlights Sexyy Red's ability to capitalize on a moment and business savviness. The article has themes of racial double standards and classism. Sexyy Red is more than the "ghetto Black girl," aesthetic. She's a mother and entrepreneur who is authentic to herself.

Atmosphere In The Images Of Contemporary Chinese Illustrators In Exchange With Western Styles Of Depiction, Volkmar Mühleis, Yingda Dong

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In our contribution, we would like to discuss the depiction of atmosphere in the drawings of contemporary Chinese illustrators, regarding their exchanges with comparable Western styles. Therefore, we first address general structural questions of how to conceptualize the atmosphere in Eastern and Western cultures and then focus on concrete examples of images and contextualize them.

Aesthetic Evaluation Of The Atmosphere In Everyday Environments-A Case Study In Ashiyahama Seaside Town, Japan, Mao Matsuyama, Jaeyoung Heo

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Since the emergence of environmental aesthetics, this field has been expanding its focus into various objects and environments including human-made objects. But still, it seems that we prefer aesthetically good environments and experiences because the word ‘aesthetic’ often automatically implicates some kind of positive value. However, as Timothy Morton suggests with the concept of dark ecology, we have to find a way to love “the disgusting, inert, and meaningless” that we have created and rely on as well, instead of dreaming a romantic and idealized world.

n this interdisciplinary research with aesthetics and environmental science, we will investigate the aesthetic …

The Construction Of Intercultural Temporal And Spatial Atmospheres In Sino-Italian Art Exchange Exhibitions: The Exhibition “Forms Of Time” As An Example, Rui Ji

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Since the 1990s, Sino-Italian art exchange exhibitions have achieved fruitful results. They juxtapose and integrate different heterogeneous cultures of the two countries, forming an intercultural spatial and temporal atmosphere. This paper analyzes one of these exhibitions, “Forms of Time,” and explores how to build the atmosphere. A joint exhibition between the Chinese artist Tong Yan Runan and Italian artist Giorgio Morandi was held at the Bologna City History Center in 2017. Combining the intercultural origins of Michel Foucault’s heterotopia and the principle of “heterotopias/heterochronies,” this paper discusses two significant aspects. First, it analyzes the “heterogeneity” constructed by the two artists …

Vitality Semiotics: The Ever Beautiful And Its Potential For An Intercultural Approach, Martina Sauer

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Two landscapes from different cultures, Europe and China, that are both considered masterpieces are the focus of this study. To what extent are they each perceived as beautiful? Can the differences in aesthetic understanding tell us something about the respective cultures? Do the results have the potential to contribute to intercultural rapprochement between Europe and China? The possibility that these ideas can be fruitful for intercultural connections and understanding, and for a reevaluation of the interaction between humans and nature, will be considered and analyzed using the tools and theory of vitality semiotics (VS). To this end, its premises in …

Co-Creating Atmospheres: The Use Of Design For Vā/Wā, Community, And Common Sense, A.-Chr. Engels-Schwarzpaul, Emily Parr

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Design is usually understood as a professional activity by which objects and processes are given form through the deliberate and innovative deployment of aesthetic means. While design disciplines are branching out beyond their traditional concerns, and co-design increasingly involves nonprofessionals, designers’ conceptual engagement with the perceptual processes set in train by design remains limited, even though they know them to be important from experience. Aristotle’s common sense, for instance, is not commonly discussed in the design literature—yet its communal aspects could enrich not only co-design. Another expansion of perception beyond the individual occurs in atmospheres, which we register when …

Designing Atmospheres: An Aesthetic Practice Across The Pluriverse?, Burkhard Meltzer

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Experiences of sensing of and finding oneself in a place largely depend on the design of atmospheres. Against the background of an increasing interest in ecological perspectives across various disciplines and regions, this text revisits Gernot Böhme’s respective aesthetic concept from the early 1990s. Arturo Escobar’s recent publication, “Designs for the Pluriverse,” which aims at restructuring relations between local design practices and global connections, will serve as a contemporary space of resonance for this exploration. How far might the aesthetic concept of atmosphere help to bridge gaps within today’s pluriversal thinking?

Creating Atmospheres As A Pedagogical Task, Kora Butz

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article focuses on the question: how do children experience atmospheres? A literary excerpt shows that children have no distance to their surroundings and therefore can be influenced and shaped by atmospheres to a much higher degree than adults. This view is supported by some recent neuroscientific studies. Atmospheres could turn out to be a forming influence in the child´s development, even slightly modifying the bodily constitution of later life. This puts a deep responsibility on parents and pedagogical staff. As a pedagogical task we must investigate what kind of atmospheres can contribute to a healthy way of bringing up …

Beauty As Care. Designing Atmospheres For Healthcare Places, Elisabetta Di Stefano

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

According to German philosopher Gernot Böhme, the “aesthetics of atmospheres” is highly important in architectural design. This holds particularly true in the design of hospitals and sanatoriums, where users require special care and attention. Moreover, in these marginal places of everyday life, not only the production of appropriate atmospheres but also the aesthetics of care can transform into a tool capable of influencing patients’ health. This essay aims to establish a connection between the aesthetics of atmosphere and the aesthetics of care, which stem from different philosophical backgrounds, namely phenomenology and everyday aesthetics. By examining their interrelations through the lens …

How Atmospheres Communicate: Aesthetics Of Burial Grounds And Car-Showrooms, Jürgen Hasse

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

On the one hand, atmospheres constitute themselves from situations. On the other hand, they are also produced for a specific purpose, in order to communicate feelings and the meanings associated with them. This article elaborates theoretical foundations of a recent philosophy of atmospheres. It turns out that aesthetic form not only follows function but that function also follows form. In the emission of atmospheres, there is a dialectic between surface aesthetics and depth aesthetics. Two examples illustrate the affective power of atmospheres. In the example of cemeteries, plants act in a special way as an immersive media of communication. In …

Designing A Smart Atmosphere In São Paulo: Public Spaces And The Green Image, Christiane Wagner

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

It has been suggested that urbanization does not create ways of life but rather offers models that satisfy the expectations of public life. These models can result from the ways that architects, designers, artists, and social actors shape the urban atmosphere setting. In this context, this paper focuses on how São Paulo has worked toward designing a smart city with elements that advance complex issues and promote climate change solutions. This paper explores the processes of aestheticizing and expanding public spaces through an empirical qualitative analysis in which the visual value of a space is evaluated based on cognitive and …

Ettingerian Matrixial Theory Glossary For This Artizein Issue, R. Michael Fisher, Barbara Bickel

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

A glossary to assist the navigation and learning of Matrixial Theory especially for those new to it. It is based on the Ettingerian Matrixial terms found in this special issue. Definitions are in process and are a combination of different Artizein authors understandings of the terms as referred to in this issue as compiled by co-editors R. Michael Fisher and Barbara Bickel.

Teaching Ettingerian Matrixial Theory, R. Michael Fisher

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Utilizing an adapted scoping review of the literature on Bracha L. Ettinger and Education (2008-2024), the author reveals the specific ways that Ettingerian Matrixial Theory (EMT) and its pedagogies are taught and can be taught in the future. EMT is argued to be a new branch of Critical Theory. The current literature shows there is mostly engagement with EMT in academic settings. As well, the literature reviewed shows EMT is used readily in arts and with artists as teachers and teachings for adults. However, the author unveils diverse other possibilities of teaching EMT. A few major themes from the literature …