ESPES Journal (Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia)
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Bodily Engagements with Film, Images and Technology: Somavision - A Book Review
Get PDFBook review of Ryynänen, M.: (2022) Bodily Engagements with Film, Images and Technology. Somavision. New York – London: Routledge
Beyond Distance: The Aesthetic and Ethical Impact of Touch in Art
Get PDFThis paper explores the aesthetic and ethical implications of touch in contemporary art, challenging the Kantian notion of aesthetic distance, which has long privileged vision and hearing as the primary senses for experiencing art. Through the analysis of selected works of art, the paper argues that participatory and haptic art redefines aesthetic experience by engaging the body directly, transforming the viewer from a passive observer into an active participant. This shift not only expands the boundaries of aesthetic theory but also introduces new ethical challenges concerning bodily proximity, consent, and participant agency. Drawing on the concept of informed consent from medical ethics, the paper examines whether similar ethical guidelines—focusing on disclosure, comprehension, voluntariness, competence, and the right to withdraw—should be applied to participatory art. The paper concludes that while informed consent could provide a useful ethical framework, it also raises tensions between protecting participants and preserving artistic freedom, highlighting the need for a nuanced approach to the ethics of contemporary art
Polyaesthetic Education in Slovakia after 1990 – Resources, Concepts, and Prominent Figures (Juraj Hatrík)
Get PDFThe present study chronologically surveys innovative processes in aesthetic education and the impact of music educators who, after the political and cultural changes in Slovakia in 1989, embarked on the path of developing the concept of polyaesthetic education in line with the ideas of its founder, Wolfgang Roscher, and those of the Salzburg School (Mozarteum), Austria. The aim of the study is to clarify how the ideas of 1990s’ polyaesthetic education were applied to the aesthetic education subjects, primarily music education. Theoretical foundations, their adaptation to the Slovak educational environment, and analytical insights into Juraj Hatrík’s (1941–2021) creative work advancing the theory and practice of polyaesthetic education are presented in the section on his projects and music workshops. Hatrík’s projects, due to their originality and authentic affinity to a child’s spiritual world, managed to abandon the space of integrative music pedagogy and consistently followed the principles of polyaesthesis
When Touch Is Refused or Accepted in Art: A Comparison of Van Gogh’s The Sunflowers and Maurizio Cattelan’s The Comedian
Get PDFMoments of crisis are always worth analysing. When confronted by visitors’ hands, The Sunflowers and The Comedian represent contrasting attitudes. This divergence is determined by differences in their modes of existence, durations, irreproducibilities, and ways of being experienced. The existence of The Sunflowers depends upon the permanence of its physical substance; however, The Comedian is an ephemeral event, inhering in fluid relationships and forms of interactions. From the former to the latter, artworks have embodied a detachment from their Objecthood and are transforming from products into processes. The spectator’s experience also changes from the pure gaze to corporeal, emotional and behavioural engagement. Traditional museum provides a distanced space, reinforcing the untouchability of artworks by maintaining a separation between the spectator and the work, while The Comedian created an interactive space, where the sense of touch is not only corporeal, but also affective
Art, Aesthetics, and the Sense of Touch: Introduction
Get PDFoai:ojs2.espes-new.ff.unipo.sk:article/1Introduction for a thematic symposium Art, Aesthetics, and the Sense of Touch of ESPES. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics
Delectable Knowledge-How the Sense of Touch illuminates the Ontological Status of AI-Recipes
Get PDFThe ongoing digital transformation has significantly altered our access to cooking recipes, introducing AI-generated outputs from Large Language Models (LLMs). This paper examines the ontological status of such AI-generated recipes, arguing that neither recipe Platonism nor Constructivism can fully account for them, as both rely on the existence of a prepared dish as a condition for validation. Yet, some AI-generated recipes are treated as successful, suggesting that their acceptance is not purely abstract, but rooted in embodied culinary knowledge. Drawing on Andrea Borghini’s concept of apprenticeship, I argue that recognising a recipe involves both abstract cognition within a type-token framework and sensory engagement through cooking and tasting. This analysis is supported by insights from Alva Noë and Matthew Ratcliffe, who conceptualise perception not as passive reception, but as a skilled and bodily situated mode of interaction with the world. Perceiving, in this sense, becomes a form of doing and touch and taste play a crucial role in how we validate recipes through practice.
By shifting the focus from what is a recipe? to how do we recognise a recipe?, I propose a broader account that accommodates both human and AI contributions. Ultimately, recipe validity is not merely a matter of cognitive classification, but an experiential process grounded in sensory interaction, highlighting cooking as a vital mode of understanding recipe ontology
Internationalism Hits the Opera Stage: Nixon (and Dewey) in China
Get PDFJohn Adams’s Nixon in China (1987) is one of the most iconic operatic works of the end of the 20th century. It is also an interesting case to study the relationship between aesthetics and politics. In this paper, I offer a reading of the political and aesthetic sides of the work in light of John Dewey’s philosophy. Central to my account is to examine the effect that Dewey’s own trip to China had on his political philosophy. I argue that Nixon is not just a series of anecdotes related to Nixon’s 1972 visit to China, as has been claimed by some critics, but that the Deweyan perspective I take particularly on Nixon‘s third act shows that the opera has genuine political substance, which is also tied to the work’s aesthetic features
A Subtle Aesthetic Touch in the Experience of Art
Get PDFThe absence of ‘tactual art’ in Western culture is often associated with a marginalization of the sense of touch in the aesthetic experience of art. This paper considers several explanations for the apparent historical neglect of touch as an aesthetic sense. While dismissing the idea that the relevance of touch for aesthetic engagement with art depends on there being an art of touch, it also explores how tactual experiences might contribute to the aesthetic appreciation of artworks across a variety of media. It argues that touch plays a crucial role in our engagement with artworks. Ultimately, it aims to enrich aesthetic theory by foregrounding the subtle yet significant influence of touch in art, proposing a broader, more inclusive understanding of sensory engagement in artistic practices
Patina of Sound: Valuing Vinyl Records as Relics of Aged Interaction
Get PDFIn Things: In Touch with the Past (2019), Carolyn Korsmeyer builds on her earlier work in which she argues that our tactile interactions with objects connect us to the past, enriching our aesthetic experiences and imbuing artifacts with deeper meaning. Building on these insights, our paper addresses the puzzle of why some individuals prefer vinyl records despite the availability of music in sonically superior and cheaper digital formats. We argue that the physical act of handling records with care, being in touch with objects with unique histories, the traces of use and age that manifest in how they sound, and the extra effort involved in playing them contribute aesthetic dimensions to the experience of listening to music on vinyl that digital formats lack, which accounts for vinyl’s unique appeal
Original Vinyl Only! Records, Touch, Auras, and the Past
No full textTouch has recently gained attention in aesthetics. Carolyn Korsmeyer argues that touchable artefacts offer valuable aesthetic encounters with genuineness, rarity, and connection to the past. She employs Walter Benjamin’s argument that a unique work has an authenticity and aura that copies cannot have. Yet Benjamin undermines his own argument in another essay on the aesthetic value of collecting books, surely products of mechanical reproduction. This reintroduces questions concerning whether copies can have auras and if they involve a sense of touch relevant to aesthetic appreciation. I argue that vinyl records are copies that can have auras and better demonstrate the aesthetic value of touch because they require it, unlike Korsmeyer’s examples. Records can have auras in three senses: collections can be unique, they can have cult value, and records in play have a ‘surrounding glow’. The aesthetic value of touch, aura, and connection to the past is revealed by situating records within a practice of collecting and the material relationship between collector and collection