Philosophy Commons^™

Against Theory—Again (Though With Reservations), Ivan Gaskell

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In Thinking with Images (2019), John Carvalho proposes an “aesthetics without theory,” a phrase to be taken rhetorically rather than literally, for he accepts that percipients of artworks bring a theoretical knowledge to their encounters. He seeks to balance appropriate theoretical knowledge, notably Gibson’s theory of affordances, with reliance on empirical engagement with artworks to produce what he terms an “enactivist aesthetics.” He explores this proposal through discussion of four case studies: works by Francis Bacon, Duane Michals, Marcel Duchamp, and Jean-Luc Godard. This overview challenges Carvalho’s concern with meaning above making and use; and his apparent reluctance to offer …

Thinking With Film: On John Carvalho’S Reading Of Godard’S Le Mépris, Deborah Knight

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In Thinking with Images, John Carvalho is especially interested in situations where we do not know what to think about a work of art — where it perplexes us, where we cannot find answers to the questions it raises. I will focus on Carvalho’s final chapter which discusses Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film, Le Mépris (Contempt), adapted from the novel by Alberto Moravia. I argue that Le Mépris is not primarily about its literary content involving the collapse of a marriage during the filming of an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. I recommend that instead we think about such …

John Carvalho’S Thinking With Images, An Enactivist Aesthetics, Sonia Sedivy

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

John Carvalho’s Thinking with Images, an Enactivist Aesthetics argues that puzzling artworks can draw us into a special activity – thinking when we don’t know what to think – which is valuable because it takes us beyond our skills and understanding. Enactivism is the theory of mind that best explains such thinking. The book illustrates this proposal with four chapters that detail Carvalho’s highly personal or individual encounters with enigmatic works of art. I raise two concerns. First, the four illustrative chapters say that they are enactivist, but they do not show this. The illustrative chapters detail considerations about …

More Thinking About Thinking With Images: A Response To Ivan Gaskell, Deborah Knight And Sonia Sedivy, John M. Carvalho

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

I want to start by thanking my critics for reading my book and coming to so many insightful comments and challenging observations about it. I especially want to thank Deborah Knight for suggesting a panel to discuss the book and for doing so much to realize it. There is so much to say about the intelligent and generous commentary offered by Ivan Gaskell, Deborah Knight, and Sonia Sedivy. Put briefly, in the short space below, I say my book thinks mostly about how and that artworks mean rather than what they mean, as Gaskell recommends. Knight’s remarks prompt me to …

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Pre-Event Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

V.1 Winter 2022, Center For Arts & Language, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

v.1 is a publishing platform for the ongoing work, ideas, discussions, debates, and aspirations of students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Winter 2022 issue is a special edition "art writing capsule," with three zines that each feature a student writing about a work of art, and a fourth zine with an editor's note and postscript. Writing 1 is Angelina Rogers on Salman Toor's "Two Boys with a Dog," Writing 2 is Maxwell Fertik on Shahzia Sikander's "Epistrophe," and Writing 3 is Sabo Kpade on Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's "Any Number of Preoccupations."

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.

Symposium On Thinking With Images: An Enactivist Aesthetics By John Carvalho: Introduction, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The commentaries collected in this symposium were first developed at the “Author Meets Critics” session on John Carvalho’s Thinking with Images: An Enactivist Aesthetics at The American Society for Aesthetics Eastern Division Meeting in Philadelphia on April 17, 2021. We thank Deborah Knight for organizing the papers to be published as a symposium for Contemporary Aesthetics and all the authors for their contributions.

Architecture Emerging From Landscape: A Reading Of Spinoza In Landscape Architecture, Gokhan Balik

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In what follows, Benedict de Spinoza’s ontology of immanence and monism is deployed as a means to launch a rethinking in between landscape and architecture. Public urban landscape, I suggest, is not a static and neutral construction, but a complex system of dynamic relationships within a continuous process of becoming and a generative field of non-oppressive, non-hegemonic power. This study focuses on two temporary structures by different European practices in the Royal Park of Kensington Gardens, in London. This study uses these works to ground a philosophy of radical immanence within our understanding of a contemporary world of landscape architectural …

Reflections On “Catching The Ghost: House Dance And Improvisational Mastery”, Renee Conroy

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Contemporary Aesthetics recommends first reading Christian Kronsted’s article, “Catching the Ghost: House Dance and Improvisational Mastery,” appearing before this article.

This essay is a constructive response to Christian Kronsted’s “Catching the Ghost: House Dance and Improvisational Mastery,” in which he develops three topics introduced in his novel treatment of this club dance form. First, I consider the nature of the relationship between house dancing and house music. Second, I address the significance of “the vibe” in house culture. Third, I apply these reflections to Kronsted’s three puzzles of improvisational agency to demonstrate that an apt, aesthetic analysis of …

V.1 Fall 2021, Center For Arts & Language, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

v.1 is a publishing platform for the ongoing work, ideas, discussions, debates, and aspirations of students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Fall 2021 issue is formatted as a zine and contains notes from students displayed on their phones and otherwise, along with student creative writing.

Catching The Ghost: House Dance And Improvisational Mastery, Christian Kronsted

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article received the 2020 Outstanding Student Paper Award from the American Society for Aesthetics. Contemporary Aesthetics recommends reading Renee Conroy’s article, “Reflections on ‘Catching the Ghost: House Dance and Improvisational Mastery,’” following this article.

I interviewed seven expert house dancers regarding their improvisational practice and discovered several intriguing testimonial consistencies. House dancers articulated a feeling of simultaneously being in control and not in control of their movements. Furthermore, in peak moments of improvisation, interviewees were often surprised by their own capabilities. How do we award artistic credit to someone who is seemingly not aware of his or …

Baking As A Means Of Non-Verbal Expression: An Aesthetic Inquiry On Conventual Pastry, Maddalena Borsato

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The aim of this essay is to philosophically explore the domain of conventual pastry by understanding baking as a form of aesthetic expression. I intend to investigate the aesthetic meaning of making sweets, both for the specificity of this taste and for the link between tacit knowledge and the meaning of gift through cloistering. From the very beginning of its production in the monasteries, pastry developed not only as an economic livelihood but also as a way to create a meaningful language beyond the so-called intellectual activities. The philosophical interest lies in the relationship of food practice with intimate …

The Glob, Spring 2021, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

The Glob was a one-off student newspaper created for the course Words, Images and Ideas, ILLUS 3412-01, taught by Ernest A. Bryant III. Students contributed 1-2 pages each of writing and images on topics such as COVID-19, fashion and style, risograph printing, and more.

Authenticity, Universality, And Expression In Song: The Case Of Flamenco, Peter Manuel

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article explores questions of aesthetic expression and meaning in song, focusing in particular on the enigmatic dynamics involved in song’s combination of abstract and lyrical dimensions of import. These questions are especially overt and actively debated in flamenco, where an ideology of authenticity and suffering, akin to that in African-American genres such as blues or rap, implies that a singer must draw on certain profound biographical experiences rather than universal emotions. However, the accounts of various performers suggest alternate expressive processes in which singers of any background can use a certain sort of role-playing to generate actual emotions that …

Aesthetics From The Visual Artists’ Viewpoint, Dena Shottenkirk

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

How to characterize aesthetics has been revived with Bence Nanay’s Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception. Reviewing criticisms made by Dustin Stokes, this paper makes the argument that Nanay’s problem is broader than what Stokes points to, as it involves the problem of property attribution and the difference between perceiving a property in a nonaesthetic situation and an aesthetic one. The latter context involves not attributing a property to an object, but rather the process of perceiving low-level features. The problem of how to characterize aesthetics is thus solved by looking at three things: recent research into gist perception, Gareth …

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 …

Visual Interlude Ii, Mara Miller

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

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.

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 …

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 …

Visual Interlude I, Mara Miller

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

A Philosophical Retrospective, Arnold Berleant

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

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, …

Reflections, Arnold Berleant

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.