the experiential: re-reading aesthetics

 

Image: Alexander Baumgarten's 1750 'Aesthetica' which claimed that: "Aesthetics is the science of sensate cognition." Baumgarten further characterised aesthetics as an 'analogon rationis'. In Baumgarten's usage the term appears to cover the general range of sense-perception. Terry Eagleton has asserted in relation to Baumgarten's work that: "Aesthetics is born as a discourse of the body. In its original formulation by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten, the term refers not in the first place to art, but as the Greek Aisthesis would suggest, to the whole region of human perception and sensation, in contrast to the more rarefied domain of conceptual thought." (Eagleton, 1990, p.13) This is one of several competing accounts of aesthetics. This seminar series will examine several competing constructions of aesthetics.

 

Since Spring 2009, the group have examined texts including Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Nietzsche and Kristeller. See below for a comprehensive list of these along with a number of supplementary texts that participants have identified as pertinent to the issues raised in the seminars. The core reading for the next seminar, resuming on 27th January 2010, is Alain Badiou’s Handbook of Inaesthetics.

 

This seminar is convened by Clodagh Emoe, gradcam research scholar. Contact emoe(at)Ireland.com

 

First meeting of new series in Autumn 2010 begins on Wednesday 22/9/2010 at 10:00

 

introducing kant: special session on thursday [7/10/2010] 17:00 - 19:00

 

Connell Vaughan (Philosophy Dept. UCD) will lead a special meeting of the seminar group to review the Kantian contribution to aesthetics. This session provides an overview of key terms within Kantian discourse to unpack concepts such as the structure of knowledge and it’s limits and ideas surrounding freedom and universalism. Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790) is considered significant in the configuration of aesthetics as a philosophical discourse on art. This session focuses on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1781) and Critique of Judgment (1790) to enable a comprehensive engagement with the concepts introduced in his aesthetic theory.

 

This introduction to Kantian discourse will be of particular interest to those interested in attending the Kojin Karantani public lecture organised by the Praxis Seminar Group is scheduled to take place October 26th 2010. For more information see: www.gradcam.ie/speaking_matters/karatani.php

 

This event has been organised by The Experiential: Re-Reading Aesthetics Seminar Group and GradCAM. As seating is limited booking is essential – emoe(at)ireland.com

 

original call for participation

 

This seminar series will begin with an investigation of the recent re-emergence of aesthetics as a critical discourse and examine its relevance to contemporary art. Through close readings of key texts participants will develop a greater understanding of the different definitions and uses of aesthetics and modes of aesthetic discourse. There are two key objectives addressed here:

  1. to explore how aesthetics has been historically defined and practiced; and
  2. to reflect upon the current - variously valorised and contested - role of aesthetics in the conception, creation and reception of art.

Participants are welcome from a range of disciplinary backgrounds including philosophy; contemporary art practice, theory, and criticism; curatorial studies; art history; cultural and intellectual history; cultural studies and the broader space of the humanities. The series is targeted at masters and doctoral level students and researchers interested in a contemporary re-reading of aesthetics which attends to both the historical and the contemporary in aesthetic discourse. We welcome other participants with a demonstrable engagement with these concerns.

 

recommended readings

 

BADIOU Alain, (2005) Handbook of Inaesthetics, California, Stanford University Press.

Cahn, Steven M. and Aaron Meskin (eds.) (2008) Aesthetics, A Comprehensive Anthology, Blackwell Publishing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/1405154357/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-page

 

For additional information on the collaborating institutions consult www.dit.ie, www.ncad.ie, www.iadt.ie and www.ulster.ac.uk.