Theory and Criticism Commons^™

Statecraft: Vandalism And Iconoclasm In The Digital Age, Connell Vaughan

Conference papers

Not only is vandalism increasingly subject to digital documentation, but the aesthetic nature of vandalism itself is different as a result of the digital. No longer is vandalism a local destructive act, it has become an act performed primarily for broadcast to global markets. This paper uses the example of Islamic State (IS) iconoclasm to explore the way in which digital media is strategically used by vandals and considers the responses of the heritage industry to respond to such destruction. It illustrates how the deliberate digital documentation and subsequent global broadcasting of the destruction of cultural heritage by Islamic State …

Speed And Resolution In The Age Of Technological Reproducibility, Shawn Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The rate of acceleration of the biologic and synthetic world has for a while now, been in the process of exponentially speeding up, maxing out servers and landfills, merging with each other, destroying each other. The last prehistoric relics on Earth are absorbing the same oxygen, carbon dioxide and electronic waves in our biosphere as us. A degraded .jpeg enlarged to full screen on a Samsung 4K UHD HU8550 Series Smart TV - 85” Class (84.5” diag.). Within this composite ecology, the ancient limestone of the grand canyon competes with the iMax movie of itself, the production of Mac pros, …

Armed With An Easel: Understanding Artistic Political Praxis Through The Works Of Theodor Adorno And Chantal Mouffe, Evelyn Yu Yu Swe

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter examines the role of capitalism in the formation of our culture. The argument presented here is that culture plays an important role in reinforcing modern neoliberal capitalism and that neoliberal capitalism has massive control over the dissemination of culture and the arts. The chapter concludes that it is necessary to utilize socio-cultural means in combating the influence of capitalism, and there does indeed exist emancipatory potential in artistic political praxis.

The second chapter focuses on Theodor Adorno’s aesthetic theory in articulating his conception of the emancipatory potential of art. …

If You See Something, Say Something: A Look At Experimental Writing On Art, Charlotte Lucy Latham

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Signs all over New York City state, "If you see something, say something," but museum studies repeatedly find viewers do not attend to pictures, just as eye witness testimony is invariably skewed. Ways of seeing have been limited to known ways of discussing. Alternative approaches offer new insights. The first section, "Experiments in Art Writing," examines two texts: T.J. Clark's The Sight of Death, a journal of his daily visits looking at two Poussin paintings, for which he maintains the ambiguity of exploration and argues to keep visual images from their dissolution into political symbols; and, Charles Simic's Dime Store …

To Each His Own Reality: How The Analysis Of Artistic Exchanges In Cold War Europe Challenges Categories, Mathilde Arnoux

Artl@s Bulletin

How to reconstruct artistic relationships among four European countries, situated on both sides of the Iron Curtain, during the period that commenced post-Stalin and lasted until the fall of the Berlin Wall? This is one of the questions that faces the research program To Each His Own Reality: The notion of the real in the art of France, West Germany, East Germany and Poland between 1960 and 1989, which was initiated in January 2011. The paper discusses syntheses of the questions that the research team is facing, descriptions of its methodology, an analysis of preliminary results and what they allow …

Feelings Sustaining Text: Aphorisms And Inspiration, Mikhail Pozdniakov

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

There are genres of reflection, one of which is constituted by the aphorism. These reflections are an art of ponderance, of pensiveness. Philosophy is not necessarily the best example, nor is it identical with the genre of reflection as such; it has had a hard time breaking with its derivative moments, and its history is of a catalogue of dogmas as well as progressive critiques. In logic, one of philosophy’s products, the continuous or infinite form of knowledge is condensed into the axiom or principle or formula, which carries the appearance of a statement of fact. Contrary to the latter, …

Art And Hyperreality, Alfredo Martin-Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My Thesis pertains to philosophy of art. Its main purpose is a reconsideration of the notion of art as a response to claims stating the end of art, as in the case of the writings on hyperreality, stating that the transformation of reality, has resulted in a world that is permeated with a virtual reality that replaces traditional schemas for ways of living in the world, that valued the originality of art.

In the setting up of the subject, I will briefly mention descriptions of both reality and hyperreality, and the developments in art throughout the modern, and post modern …

Eagerly Patient, Erin Elizabeth

Theses and Dissertations

Are banal and routine experiences in life less important or memory-worthy than celebratory moments that require preparation and planning, the anticipation of which is akin to emotional foreplay? What is the purpose of celebration? Is it empty, bound to disappoint, or is it ritualistic punctuation of the mundane, providing balance for the sublimity of suffering? These questions are addressed in the thesis exhibition, Eagerly Patient. The exhibition includes carriers of celebration such as cake, confetti, banners, and gifts in an attempt to understand the paradoxical hierarchy of experiential value.

The Aesthetic Unconscious, Roland K. Végső

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Within the context of recent European history, examines the phrase "aesthetic ideology" and attendant conceptual considerations. Discusses Jacques Rancière’s work and his unequivocal rejection of what he calls “this great anti-aesthetic consensus,” and the central category of the “distribution of the sensible” (le partage du sensible). Rancière calls some level of political engagement “primary aesthetics” and opposes it to actual “aesthetic practices.”

Further, considers Alain Badiou’s critique of Rancière’s Disagreement. Badiou summarizes Rancière’s argument by calling it “a democratic anti-philosophy that identifies the axiom of equality, and is founded on a negative ontology of the collective that sublates the …

Rhyme Or Reason:That Is The Question?, Jim Roche

Articles

Noting that “the aesthetic should not be limited merely to the way things look” the organisers of this conference sought “in part to address the discursive limitation in architecture and related subjects by broadening the aesthetic discourse beyond questions relating to purely visual phenomena in order to include those derived from all facets of human experience”.

So where does etchics come in? Well, the introductory brochure noted that most philosophical trained aestheticians will say that “the aesthetic is everything” hinting perhaps of the necessity for a more haptic experience of architecture. It also drew on Wittgenstein’s quote that “ethics and …

Motion(Less) Pictures: The Cinema Of Stasis, Justin Remeselnik

Wayne State University Dissertations

Since cinema's inception, there has been much disagreement among film theorists about the role of movement in cinema's ontology. For example, while Rudolf Arnheim has argued that motion is a sine qua non of cinema, Roland Barthes has insisted that motion is not as central to cinema's ontology as duration, an experiential "unfolding." In this dissertation, I argue--following Barthes--that movement is merely a contingent, not a necessary, condition of cinema. I further suggest that the very enterprise of prescribing necessary conditions of cinema is myopic, reductive, and reactionary.

In supporting these claims, I interrogate the cinema of stasis, a modality …

Teachers’ Perceptions Toward Enhancing Learning Through Multiple Intelligences Theory In Elementary School: A Mixed Methods Study, Nouf I. Al-Wadi

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of multiple intelligences theory on elementary students’ academic achievement and to investigate teacher perceptions of multiple intelligences theory. The multiple intelligences school that was chosen for this study was Edwin Rhodes Elementary School. The study examined Edwin Rhodes Elementary School performance via the California Academic Performance Index. Edwin Rhodes School scores were compared with similar traditional school scores and with gifted and talented scores. The study found that the multiple intelligences school performance was between traditional and gifted and talented school performances. The study also explored teachers’ perceptions at Edwin …

The Gaze Called Animal: Notes For A Study On Thinking, Sharon Sliwinski

Data and Test Instruments

Over the course of several days in1997, JacquesDerrida delivereda long lecture to attendees of a conference in Cerisy called “The Autobiographical Animal.” As part of his opening remarks, the philosopher recounted a curious little scene that served to introduce the central theme of the larger address that followed. The scene begins when Derrida reports that each morning, with an almost ritualistic regularity, he is followed from his bedroom into the bathroom by his cat, an unnamed feline, he insists, that is a real little cat, not the mere figure of a cat: “It doesn’t silently enter the bedroom as an …

Kandinsky's Nonrepresentational Art: Finding Meaning Through Aesthetic Experience, Kandice Nikkole Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The art world is not one in which much scholarship has been conducted from a communication perspective. As such, this study attempts to add to the very little body of work that exists in the realms of both art and visual rhetoric. Abstract art, such as that of Wassily Kandinsky, is full of meaning despite the fact that it is nonobjective, and therefore considered meaningless. Using a rhetorical method, I argue that by examining the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky in certain contexts, it is possible to discover the meaning embedded in his abstract paintings, in particular his Compositions and Improvisations.

An Activity Theory Exploratory Of The Differential Impact On Students' And Professors' Experiences In How Laptops Are Used For Instruction, Jean Pierre Niyikora

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examined the differential impact of a laptop initiative in two general education classrooms during the winter term session of the 2009-2010 academic year at Midwest institution of higher learning. Beyond observing these two classrooms, a total of 12 student volunteers and two instructors were selected from the laptop using and non-laptop using classrooms for focus group interviews. In total, the researcher conducted 22 classroom observations per each class. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was used as a tool to analyze different tensions that occurred within or between different components of the laptop activity for both classrooms. The …

Physiological Responses To Temperature In The Lizard, Sceloporus Undulatus, Joseph C. Ehrenberger

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Temperature affects all organisms differently. Physiological processes, such as metabolism, interact with temperature to determine a minimal rate of energy loss. Physiological limits, such as heat and cold tolerances, likely constrain the activity and survival of organisms. Ultimately, these physiological processes and limits determine a species‘ geographical distribution. Through experiments, I sought to understand specifically how temperature affects the physiology of the lizard Sceloporus undulatus. This species is a model organism to answer such questions, as it is geographically widespread species and well-described phylogenetically. In the first experiment, I compared standard metabolic rates of lizards from three locales and interpreted …

The Logic Of Objects, David B. Eichelberger

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

The human mind assimilates information and experiences quickly and constantly, and is aided by mental systems that we rely on to function. We classify the input of our lives with extreme efficiency. Our notions about the things we encounter in the world are learned from past experiences, and these expectations help us file the data of our lives. My work is composed to create pause. I am interested in slowing down the processes of assimilation by manipulating our expectations, and extending events measured in microseconds into saturated and engaging experiences. Functional qualities, visual rhythms, and exaggerated proportions are some of …

The Thinking Hand: Book Review, Jim Roche

Articles

In this new book Juhani Pallasmaa continues his phenomenological exploration begun in ‘The Eyes of the Skin (2005)’, with the ‘Thinking Hand’ here proffered as a metaphor for his contention that all our senses, have innate imbedded crucial skills which help us perform the most basic daily tasks – and to create inspired works of art and architecture.

“The Negro Speaks Of Rivers” An African Centered Historical Study Of The Selfethnic Liberatory Education Nature And Goals Of The Poetry Of Langston Hughes: The Impact On Adult Education, Sarah E. Howard

Dissertations

The purposes of this historical study were to 1) document the Selfethnic Liberatory adult education nature and goals of the poetry of Langston Hughes (from 1921 to 1933); and 2) to document the impact this poetry had on members of the African Diaspora. In addition, the goal of this research was to expand the historical knowledge base of the adult education field, so that it is more inclusive of the contributions of African Americans.

This study addressed the problem that the historical and philosophical literature of the field does not to any significant degree include the intellectual and adult education …

Duchampian Authenticity And The Readymade Consumer, Terra D' An Rudisill

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The goal of this work is to define the term Duchampian authenticity. I focus primarily on the artist Marcel Duchamp's works and philosophies in relation not only to traditional philosophies regarding authenticity but also in relation to his effect on authenticity's metamorphosis in popular culture and the mass market. I propose that the monumental paradigm shifts produced by Duchamp's conceptual and aesthetic experiments within the realm of visual art spread into our cultural bedrock, ultimately defining the consumer's ability to attain authenticity and identity through inauthentic and ephemeral commodities. Marcel Duchamp challenged traditional notions of the authentic experience and translated …

From Reproduction To Reproducibility: Creativity And Technics In Benjamin And Arendt, Graham Macphee

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Words In Blood, Like Flowers: Philosophy And Poetry, Music And Eros In Hölderlin, Nietzsche, And Heidegger, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

Rembrandt Workshop, The Philosopher, Ca. 1660, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Railroads And The American Industrial Landscape: Ted Rose Paintings And Photographs, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Rudolph Ernst, A Moor Robing After The Bath, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

When Artists Fail: A Reply To Trivedi, Sheila Lintott

Faculty Journal Articles

In a recent article, ‘An Epistemic Dilemma for Actual Intentionalism’, Saam Trivedi argues that the way we ought to interpret artworks is best understood using the model proposed by hypothetical intentionalism. Trivedi alleges that actual intentionalism faces a serious dilemma, the upshot of which is that actual intentionalists must choose between redundancy and indeterminacy. Largely on the basis of this dilemma, he concludes that even if actual intentionalism is descriptively accurate, it is prescriptively untenable. In this essay, I focus on this alleged dilemma and argue that, contra Trivedi, it fails to undermine the prescriptive legitimacy of moderate actual intentionalism. …

The Appropriation Of Nietzschean Thought By Donald Kuspit In The Critic Is Artist: The Intentionality Of Art And The Existential Activist Painter: The Example Of Leon Golub, Frederic S. Bayersdorfer

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The prolific scholar and art critic, Donald Kuspit has frequently cited the works of Friedrich Nietzsche as a means to elucidate his art critical theories. This paper is an investigation of these citations in two of his most important works, The Critic is Artist: The Intentionality of Art, published in 1984, and The Existential Activist Painter: The Example of Leon Golub, published in 1986. In each of these two works many citations revolve around two Nietzschean concepts, the will to power and ressentiment. This paper first explores the relevance of using the philosophical work of Nietzsche as a point of …

On Malls, Museums, And The Art World: Postmodernism And The Vicissitudes Of Consumer Culture, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

Deaths Of Art: David Carrier's Metahistory Of Artwriting, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This essay is a critical examination of David Carrier's Artwriting (1987), which offered a philosophical account of the implicit strategies of narrative and presentation deployed by a wide range of art historians and critics. Here, this author raises some questions concerning Carrier's attempt to describe or define a genre of 'art-writing' distinct from philosophical aesthetics; he also discusses Carrier's views in the context of those writers whom Carrier examines in Artwriting.

Richard Lippold: Space As A Metaphor For The Spiritual In Art, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.