Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Making Sense Of ‘Tropical’ Kitsch, Max Ryynänen, Anna-Sofia Sysser

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The ‘tropical’ has not just been “imported” to Northern spas and travel agency advertisements. Plastic palm trees and inflatable pineapples echo tourism experiences, have roots in “feel-good” Americana, and belong to colonial imagery. The tropical is often portrayed in simplified ways, even though there is a huge diversity of cultures, inhabitants and landscapes within the tropical zone. Could the concept of kitsch help us to understand the construct of the tropical? Could the ‘tropical’ help us to understand kitsch? If one takes away the nearly deceased modern conception of kitsch as pretentious pseudo-art and concentrates on sentimental and/or sugared knickknacks …

Arnold Berleant’S Project Of Post-Kantian Aesthetics, Krystyna Wilkoszewska

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Changes in art and culture toward the end of the twentieth century have become a challenge for aesthetics. Arnold Berleant is one of the forerunners of the revising of modern aesthetics, and has been from the very start of his research. He has especially examined the relationship of aesthetics to philosophy.

His critique resonates with views expressed by Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, James, and Dewey, in addition to ecological and feminist departures from Kantian aesthetics. He has criticized the category of disinterestedness and the aesthetics of separation, isolation, contemplation, and distance. This critical analysis is linked to overcoming the notion of experience …

Disinterestedness, Disdain And The Reception Of Berleant’S Major Idea, Cheryl Foster

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Arnold Berleant’s philosophical theories have proven to be prescient in their identification of an aesthetic interface between human beings and the natural world – the interface he calls “engagement,” a form of participatory aesthetics. This essay presents the context out of which Berleant’s theory of engagement has evolved and then touches upon the application of engagement first to cases of aesthetic appreciation and then to a very recent case in coastal ecology and management. It is suggested that Berleant’s elaboration of a “participatory aesthetics” both mirrors and informs the scientific model of “participatory research,” which in turn has implications for …

A Philosophical Retrospective, Arnold Berleant

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Berleant’S Phenomenology Of Sculptural Space: Brâncuşi, Alicja Kuczyńska

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The distinction between reason and senses, until recently maintained in philosophy, has now grown to cause serious doubts. The situation requires creating new forms of cognitive continuity revealed in various levels of emotional experience. Constantin Brâncuşi’s art is analyzed as an example of transgression of this distinction through building a vinculum between the earthly and the heavenly and between the external and the internal. The author refutes the common attribution of Brâncuşi’s art to the Parisian trends or to primary organic forms. In Brâncuşi’s understanding, art creates its own philosophy whose aim is to attain the essence of being. Thus, …

Berleant's Opening, Crispin Sartwell

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Throughout modernity, aesthetics had been marked by a significant narrowing of its subject matter, the early peak of this trend being Kantian aesthetics of disinterestedness and modernist formalism based on distance. Arnold Berleant’s mission in aesthetics has been to re-open its domain towards all elements of every-day life, including consumer products, political systems, and the environment. By defining the aesthetic field as an environment of continuity between the self and the non-self, Berleant has managed to transform the Kantian subject-object relation into one of unity. However, the paper argues that such an environmental aesthetics requires a basically realist or materialist …

Visual Interlude Ii, Mara Miller

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Reflections, Arnold Berleant

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The “Body In Motion” As The Substance Of Dance Improvisation? Based On Motifs From Maurice Merleau-Ponty’S Phenomenology Of Perception, Lilianna Bieszczad

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In the beginning of my academic career, it was my personal experience of dance practice that provided a direct impulse for studying the phenomenon of dance as art from a philosophical perspective. It was that same experience that drew my attention to the concept of aesthetic engagement proposed by Arnold Berleant. His theory, in my view, captures the fundamental aspects of dance in a unique way.[1] That early study led me to develop and promote the aesthetics of sensitivity, which in turn created a basis for the appreciation of dance as a practice that is inseparable from life.[2] Many problems …

The Role Of Aesthetics In World-Making, Yuriko Saito

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Arnold Berleant’s oeuvre spanning five decades is devoted to restoring aesthetics’ connection to the rest of our lives. In this paper, I shall join him by highlighting the crucial role aesthetics plays in shaping our lives and the world by interacting with objects, environments, and people. I show how our seemingly innocuous and trivial aesthetic tastes and preferences regarding everyday objects and activities have a surprisingly significant power to determine our attitudes, judgments, and actions, often with serious political, environmental, and moral implications. In light of this power of the aesthetic to affect the quality of life and the state …

Negative Aesthetics In Art, Environment, And Everyday Life: Arnold Berleant’S Theory And The Novels Of Kirino Natsuo, Mara Miller

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Arnold Berleant’s valuable analysis of ‘negative aesthetics’ in his 2010 book Sensibility and Sense: The Aesthetic Transformation of the Human World provides an analytic framework not only for general investigation of negative aesthetics but for understanding their extension into daily life and literature. It illuminates the work of Japanese novelist Natsuo Kirino (1951- , 夏生桐野), just as her novels illustrate Berleant’s negative aesthetics. In Kirino’s narratives, negatively aesthetic landscapes determine characters’ mindsets, even as they mirror the moral and aesthetic bleakness of society at large, revealing characters’ internal dynamics and the larger social world with the same destructive efficacy Berleant …

Editorial Introduction To Special Volume 9: Aesthetics Beyond Philosophy: Exploring Berleant’S Concept Of Engagement Editorial Introduction, Bogna J. Gladden-Obidzińska

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Arnold Berleant’S Environmental Aesthetics And Chinese Ecological Aesthetics, Cheng Xiangzhan

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Professor Arnold Berleant has visited China academically several times since the early 1990s, becoming more and more popular in Chinese academia. Almost all of his books have been translated into Chinese, which produced a significant impact on Chinese scholars, especially on the development of Chinese ecological aesthetics, or ecoaesthetics. They generated a hot topic on the similarities and differences between Western environmental aesthetics and Chinese ecological aesthetics, in view of which this paper first outlines Berleant’s academic activities in China, then focuses on the impact of his environmental aesthetics on the ecological aesthetics mainly advanced by the Chinese scholars Zeng …

Sculpture And Its Meaning In The Context Of Berleant’S Aesthetic Engagement, Anna Wolińska

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

It is not my intention to provide a comprehensive analysis of Berleant’s notion of aesthetic engagement. My goal is modest. I hope to account for the key significance of the philosophical problematization of sculpture, in the context of engaged aesthetics. In writing about the philosophical problematization of sculpture, I am thinking most of all about the problem of space, a phenomenon that emerges in the relationship of the solid form to its surroundings. It is a relationship that is usually perceived as directly connected with the sculpture. I want to emphasize that Alicja Kuczyńska was well aware of the …

Visual Interlude I, Mara Miller

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Carretera Nacional, Melba Arellano, Fernando Gallegos, Alejandro Cartagena, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Photography

96 unnumbered pages : chiefly color illustrations, portraits. SUMMARY "Some of the most vivid and exciting memories from my childhood happened along the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo National Highway. This is a book about the people I saw and eventually met on those journeys"--Melba Arellano. Parallel text in Spanish and English. Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. 2021 First PhotoBook Shortlist. Pamphlet stitch. Book is wrapped in paper belly band.

Love And Politics / Alejandro Cartagena, Book Concept ; Photographs : Fototeca De Nuevo León, Conarte, Fondo Archivo General Del Estado De Nuevo León ; Edited By Fernando Gallegos And Alejandro Cartagena ; Text By Ximena Peredo., Alejandro Cartagena, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Photography

6 volumes : chiefly illustrations, portraits"Title from cover. Risograph printed. Vol. I. Our Guide -- Vol. II. The Inauguration -- Vol. III. Music for the Masses -- Vol. IV. The Supervisors -- Vol. V. Rituals of Love -- Vol. VI. For our Children. Parallel texts in English and Spanish. A critical view of the relationship between political and corporate power and society during the ""modernization"" period of the city of Monterrey in the first half of the 20th century. OUR GUIDE is a book of portraits that ridicules the theatricality of politics, Alejandro Cartagena and Fernando Gallegos present a compendium …

West 176 Street

Photography

30 unnumbered pages : all color illustrations, portraits. Title, statement of responsibilty and publisher from band around cover. Edition of 300. "ningun ser humano es ilegal"-- paper band. [No human being is illegal]. A selection of images taken at Groana's home. This apartment is were she grew up and where her parents still live. The publication includes both images from her family album and pictures she has been taking of the place and its inhabitants sinced 2005. The apartment is in the neighborhood of Washington Heights, located in northern Manhattan. Offset printing. Stapled. Born in Brooklyn, Groana Melendez was raised …

Pipilotti Rist : Your Eye Is My Island / Pipirotti Risuto : Anata No Me Wa Watashi No Shima; ピピロッティ。リスト : あなたの眼はわたしの島, Makiguchi Chinatsu, 牧口千夏, Oko Goto, 後藤桜子, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Art History

2 volumes : color illustrations. "Published on the occasion of the exhibition Pipilotti Rist : your eye is my island, held at Kyōto Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan, April 6, 2021 - June 20, 2021 and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, August 7 - October 17, 2021. Text in Japanese and English. Catalog and text volumes held together with cloth elastic band. Text volume has clear plastic spiral binding. Catalog volume perfect bound. Library has ""Second edition published on August 25, 2021"" --colophon of text volume. SEI"

It Is What It Is, Richard Kraft, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

5 volumes : chiefly color illustrations,. "On inauguration day January 20, 2017, artist Richard Kraft began issuing Donald Trump colored cards, just as a soccer referee penalizes players who transgress the rules and code of conduct. For four years, Kraft scoured the news and Trump's Twitter feed every day, notating and assigning each of Trump's transgressions a colored penalty card (at first, yellow and red, as in soccer--and then Kraft devised magenta, purple, and crimson for ever-escalating offenses). Kraft issued almost 10,000 cards to Trump, half of them in 2020. In this set of five artist's books, totaling over 1600 …

El Jardín De Senderos Que Se Bifurcan, Tarrah Krajnak, Kavior Moon, Shawn Bush, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Photography

116 unnumbered pages : illustrations ; 28 cm + 1 booklet (20 unnumbered pages : illustrations ; 21 cm). Title and author statement from slipcase, gold foil stamp (29 cm). Includes booklet: "37: The Missing Pyramid." "Images by Tarrah Krajnak. Text by Tarrah Krajnak. Afterword by Kavior Moon. Edited in collaboration with Tarrah Krajnak & Shawn Bush. Design and Box Production by Shawn Bush."--Colophon. First edition of 200. Special edition (25 numbered, signed copies) is issued in a slipcase, with an added envelope containing a silver gelatin print laid in. Library has copy 12 of the Special edition. Book within …

Editorial, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Recent Publications, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

2021-2022 Risd Course Announcement, Risd Registrar's Office, Risd Archives

RISD Course Catalogs / Announcements

No abstract provided.

Understanding Antisemitism : An Analysis-In-Process By Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (Jfrej): A Grassroots, Membership-Based Organization In New York City, Rachael Schragis, Rebecca Katz, Erin Brownstein Mcelroy, Audrey Sasson, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

1 poster : illustrations (black & white and color). Starting in 2018 and into early 2021, more than 70 JFREJ members participated in a cultural organizing project to understand, struggle against, and imagine a world free from antisemitism. JFREJ members and artists Rachel Schragis and Rebecca Katz facilitated this process, which involved JFREJers of all ages and backgrounds, including members of our Mizrahi & Sephardi, Jews of Color, and Poor & Working Class Caucuses. A 40-page pamphlet on the subject by JFREJ was produced to accompany the poster. Library does not have the pamphlet. Offset printing. Flowchart. Gift of Angela …

Insurrection Nation, Alejandro Cartagena, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

56 unnumbered pages : all color illustrations (portraits). Cover title. Publication information from publisher's website. Limited edition of 200. Photos taken January 6, 2021, Washington, D.C. SUMMARY: Color photographic portraits of the faces of 1440 individuals who took part in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. "The looting, the destruction, the deadly violence. President Donald Trump was right: Insurrection is upon us..."-- author's webpage. Stapled.

Dear Laurie, Dear Gülşah, Gülşah Mursaloğlu, Laurie A. Palmer, E.S. Kibele Yarman, Umur Publishing, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

108 unnumbered pages : color illustrations + 1 poster. Cover title. Edition of 500: 300 in English, 200 in Turkish Coptic bound with wrap-around cover that unfolds to become a poster. "'Dear Laurie, Dear Gülşah' is a publication that brings together the correspondence between A. Laurie Palmer and Gülşah Mursaloğlu across disparate geographies, from April to September 2020. Within this transformative year that bore witness to a global pandemic, anti-racist protests, downfalls of power figures and monuments and fires around both continents, the letters both reflect on the present moment and offer insight into the artists' practices and long-term projects."--Letter …

Lunar Volvelle, Monica Ong, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

1 volvelle : color illustrations ; 19 x 19 cm + 1 card (2 unnumbered pages Edition limited to 50 numbered copies, signed. Artists' book in the form of a volvelle, a chart made of concentric paper wheels. "To see the current lunar phase, begin by rotating the sun disc until the pointer rests on the desired date. Count the number of days since the last new moon or use an almanac to determine the day of the lunar cycle and move the moon disc to that number. As the moon reveals its ever-changing shape, so too does the poem …

Neighborhood Garden, Katie Baldwin, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

20 unnumbered pages : color illustrations. Edition of 100 copies, signed and numbered by the artist. "... created by Katie Baldwin in 2021, while she was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan. Long bicycle rides through the city were the inspiration for these images. Between highways, concrete, rivers and canals, small gardens were found. This book is Risograph printed on French Paper at Directangle Press by Josh Dannin in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. Baxter Stults expertly prepared the files for this project in Knoxville, TN. The edition was bound in Huntsville, AL."--colophon. Pagination includes cover. Colophon on page [3] of cover. Black …

Grave To Cradle, Hannah Batsel, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

10 unnumbered pages : color illustrations. Cover title. Edition of 35, signed and numbered by the artist. Trifold book cover which when opened displays the wingspan of a moth screenprinted on cloth. "This book was printed as part of an In Cahoots residency in Petaluma, CA, in October of 2019. It was assembled in Chicago, IL, in February of 2021"--Colophon. "Inspired by real-life bagworms, insects that construct different cocoons based on the materials available in their environments, and an actual cemetery in Petaluma, CA, 'Grave to Cradle' is a short magical realism story about insects that synthesize not only physical …