Aesthetics Commons^™

On The Front: Aesthetics Vs. Popular Arts And Mass Culture - I, Ken-Ichi Sasaki

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The popular arts and mass culture represent our environment. The flood of their products reduces high art to minority status. This situation leads us to reconsider the privileged status of high art and the role of aesthetics as its theory, which is my main focus here. I take up three different cultural eras: early modern times, when the notions of art and aesthetics as a philosophical discipline were founded; our own day as the time of mass culture; and, lastly, the popular culture in the Edo period in Japan, the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, which reflected different choices.

In …

The Aesthetics Of Conversation: Dewey And Davidson, Kalle Puolakka

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Conversation is one of the most mundane events of human life, yet the conversations we have can vary a lot. Some proceed only with great effort, while others engage us thoroughly. Drawing on Dewey’s aesthetics, this paper argues that the movement and rhythm of conversations can make them into genuine candidates for an aesthetic status. The key term of the paper is interaction. For Dewey, all experience, aesthetic experience included, is constituted by an interaction between humans and their environment. In his later philosophy of language, which is critical of conventionalist explanations of language, Davidson, in turn, offers a very …

The Role Of Imperfection In Everyday Aesthetics, Yuriko Saito

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The notions of perfection and imperfection do not have the same prominent presence they once occupied in earlier aesthetics discourse. However, they still play an important role as criteria for aesthetic judgments today in our everyday life. The wide-spread and easily accepted aesthetic appeal of objects with perfection tends to overshadow the potential aesthetic value of imperfect objects that are considered to be defective or deficient. This not only impoverishes our aesthetic lives but also leads to some serious environmental and social consequences. I first argue for the need to cultivate an aesthetic sensibility to appreciate imperfection in our everyday …

Bio-Aesthetics: The Evolution Of Sensibility Through Nature, Katya Mandoki

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

[1] This paper gathers a few points developed in my recent book, The Indispensable Excess of the Aesthetic: Evolution of Sensibility in Nature, where I explore the processes that involve aisthesis from their most primal manifestations to their more complex. I propose the concept of bio-aesthetics as the study of all forms of sensibility in living beings, and that, given the fact that it is a function of our corporeal condition, the required starting point is the evolutionary paradigm. Another crucial tool for understanding how different types of creatures value, understand, react, and relate to their environment is provided by …

Imagination In The Stars: The Role Of The Imagination In Artistic Astronomical Photography, Stephen Chadwick

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this article I discuss the role the imagination plays in the production of what I call artistic astronomical photographs. I examine the entire creative process, which has been defined as “that stretch of mental and physical activity between the incept and the final touch.”[1] I begin with an examination of some of the ways in which the imagination is exercised in traditional artistic photography and in observational painting, in order to tease out the similarities and differences. Following a brief explanation of the way artistic astronomical photographs are produced, I examine these similarities and differences and, in doing so, …

Editorial, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Away With Green Aesthetics!, Mateusz Salwa

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Experience, Knowledge, And Appreciation In The Implicit Aesthetics Of Weather Lore, Mădălina Diaconu

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

[1] Weather sayings are empirical rules for the prediction of weather and have been studied, so far, only by paremiologists and meteorologists. The author argues that they also present interest for environmental aesthetics, and that their aesthetic dimension is not confined to their stylistic qualities and versified form but is mainly based on the experience that underlies them. The analyses of weather lore in English, French, and German emphasize that this pre-modern, expert knowledge produced and still can bring enjoyment and, conversely, that the sources of this aesthetic enjoyment are to a large extent cognitive, even if not scientific by …

Everyday Aesthetics And Everyday Behavior, Ossi Naukkarinen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This article addresses everyday aesthetics from the point of view of everyday behavior. I suggest that the ordinary daily interaction of people with each other is one of the most important areas of everyday aesthetics. I present an interpretation of the concepts of both the everyday and aesthetics, and argue that in the context of everyday social relationships, it is wise to understand everyday aesthetics in a way that emphasizes the very everydayness of aesthetics, not its opposite, namely non-everyday or extraordinary aesthetics. This does not mean that extraordinary aesthetics would not have its place in other contexts, but it …

Autonomania: Music And Music Education From Mars, Thomas A. Regelski

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Traditional aesthetic theory has posited an account of music, and the other arts, as autonomous of social meanings, relevance, and conditions. In the case of music, “absolute music” is sequestered from social and other roots that bring music into being in the first place. The typical claim, thus, is that classical music is music for its own sake, divorced from the many and highly evident social dimensions that it serves. It ignores all other genres of music, most of which are more appreciated than can be accounted for by the theory of autonomania. This aesthetic theory of music, one of …

Material Blue, Justin Winkler

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In the 1780s, de Saussure invented the cyanometer that was subsequently used by Humboldt on his research travels. It served to determine the blueness of the sky at various altitudes. This article examines the research context in which this device was used and seeks to trace an underlying aisthesis materialis (Barck). I raise the question whether this recourse to a supposed pre–art theory and aesthetic practice can help establish a better concept of the everyday aesthetics to come.

Thoughts On The Aesthetics Of Water, Tom Baugh

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Explication Of Events And Dialogues In Samuel Beckett’S Waiting For Godot, Erick Verran

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Using Soundscape Ecology In Design And Function, Wieteke Holthuijzen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Thoughts On A Holographic Aesthetics Of Nature, Tom Baugh

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

From Things To Relationships: Architecture Of The Ecological Mind, Lejla Vujicic

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Aesthetic Experiences Of Aura, Awe, And Wonder: Reflections On Their Nature And Relationships, Russell Quacchia

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The aim of this essay is to examine the semantic nature and linkage between the experiential phenomena of aura, awe, and wonder, central to matters of the aesthetic experience. In aesthetic commentary these terms are generally used rather loosely, often independently of each other and, most often, without regard to the connections between them. It would seem worthwhile to examine the nature of each of these terms to move toward understanding them and their mutual relationships. The conclusions drawn are that the aura effect appears to operate universally at the cognitive level of the aesthetic experience while those of awe …

The Institutional Margins Of Aesthetics: A Study Proposal, Jozef Kovalčik, Max Ryynänen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

A considerable number of classical texts in aesthetics and cultural philosophy were originally published outside of the framework of institutionalized academic scholarship. One can begin the modern story with two loners, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, then continue with the Frankfurt School and end the short list with the French “wave” (Blanchot, Bataille). Contemporary aesthetics benefits also from the work of thinkers like Susan Sontag and Nicolas Bourriaud, who have a huge scholarly impact but who built their careers outside academia. We intend to 1) sketch out a short historical overview of the scholars within aesthetics who could be considered to have …

Edward Yang's Confusion, Law Nga-Chun, Lo Chun-Cheong

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Edward Yang (in Chinese 楊德昌, 1947-2007) is one of the most renowned Taiwanese directors, whose works raise criticisms of modernity. Since the New Culture Movement in the 1910s and 1920s, Chinese literati have queried the place of traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, on the road to modernization. This paper gives an account of Yang’s understanding of modernization and the Confucian tradition as illustrated in his work, A Confucian Confusion (1994). We argue that, though he despised politically endorsed Confucianism as ideology, without sufficient justification Yang nonetheless reserves the possibility of taking Confucianism as a supplement to modernity.

Notices, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Aesthetics And Autobiography: Emotion And Style In The Book Of Disquiet By Fernando Pessoa / Bernardo Soars, Mikel Iriondo Aranguren

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

At the beginning of The Book of Disquiet, Bernardo Soares writes: “In these random impressions, and with no desire to be other than random, I indifferently narrate my factless autobiography, my lifeless history. These are my Confessions, and if in them I say nothing, it’s because I have nothing to say.”

Written a century ago, these words illustrate a great distance from the traditional way of writing an autobiography. They confront, however, the same paradox, which is how can any of our lives, constituted by different and unrelated events, be structured as a linear story looking for a meaning, …

Macabre Fascination And Moral Propriety: The Attraction Of Horror, Marius A. Pascale

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Why does the horror genre serve as a source of pleasure, given its aim to induce fear in the audience? I examine two general solutions to this phenomenon, referred to as the paradox of horror, which differ based upon their position regarding the possibility of deriving pleasure from fear. Each of the possible solutions contains significant flaws. I argue that, by adjusting a meta-theory originally proposed by Susan Feagin, it is possible to craft a solution that addresses the paradox while preserving the idea that, at times, fear can be enjoyed. The article concludes by considering the moral status of …

Editorial, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Address And The Lure Of The Aesthetic: Reflections On Monique Roelofs, The Cultural Promise Of The Aesthetic, Carolyn Korsmeyer

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Monique Roelofs argues that some of the aesthetic power of art is traceable to the way that works address their audiences, promising the creation of cultural community. Such communities become exclusionary when modes of address presume and perpetuate social hierarchies. This paper explores this notion in works where moral and aesthetic precepts seem to conflict and whose address induces attitudes that one would reject in “reality” but that are required for the full appreciative grasp of a narrative.

Report On The Xxth International Congress Of Aesthetics " Aesthetics And Mass Culture" Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, 24-29 July 2016, Michael Ranta, Jale N. Erzen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Photos of the Congress.

The Plight Of Aesthetics In Iran, Majid Heidari

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Richard Rorty believes that philosophy in the West is the result of a conflict between religion and science. In fact, philosophy seeks to clarify the border between religion and science, so neither of them would be able to overstep its explanatory or predictive potentialities. He remarks that we do not have such a thing as philosophy in the East. This paper intends to ask two questions: what is the nature of the comparable conflict in an Eastern country, Iran, and what are its effects on aesthetic studies? I will draw on the idea of the conflict between theology and mysticism. …

Humor And Enlightenment, Part Ii: The Theory Applied, Peter H. Karlen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Part I of this article advanced a new theory of humor, the Enlightenment Theory, while contrasting it with other main theories, including the Incongruity, Repression/Relief/Release, and Superiority Theories. The Enlightenment Theory does not contradict these other theories but rather subsumes them. As argued, each of the other theories cannot account for all the aspects of humor explained by the Enlightenment Theory. Part II shows how the Enlightenment Theory meets challenging issues in humor theory where other theories falter, including failed humor, motivation for humor, tickling, laughing gas, and sadistic humor. Also mentioned are the Enlightenment Theory's application to literary and …

No-Media: Against The Coming Singularity, Gavin Keeney

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

A summary of the possible persistence of so-called useless humanistic research against the diktat of the Edufactory, the essay “No-media – Against the Coming Singularity” problematizes the complex field of forces and factors currently leading the life of universities toward the servicing of reduced aspirations for scholarship in an ultra-monetized society – plus neo-liberal academia’s penchant for the manufacturing of events and reputations at the expense of impersonal (confraternal) intellectual inquiry proper. An oblique critique of “vertical integration” strategies derived from corporate business models, foremost in media empires, and as applied to the production and management of knowledge, the essay …

Humor And Enlightenment, Part I: The Theory, Peter H. Karlen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Part I of this article advances a new theory of humor, the Enlightenment Theory, while contrasting it with other main theories, including the Incongruity, Repression/Relief/Release, and Superiority Theories. The Enlightenment Theory does not contradict these other theories but rather subsumes them. As argued, each of the other theories cannot account for all the aspects of humor explained by the Enlightenment Theory. The discussion is illustrated with examples of humor and explores the acts and circumstances of humor, its literary and artistic expressions, and its physical reactions. Part II shows how the Enlightenment Theory meets challenging issues in humor theory where …

The Aesthetic And Its Resonances: A Reply To Kathleen M. Higgins, Carolyn Korsmeyer, And Mariana Ortega, Monique Roelofs

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay offers replies to the critical commentaries on The Cultural Promise of the Aesthetic presented by Kathleen M. Higgins, Carolyn Korsmeyer, and Mariana Ortega. The essay shows how the probing questions and criticisms that the three commentators raise bring out details in the framework of relationality, address, and promises through which the book theorizes the aesthetic.