ESPES Journal (Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia)
Not a member yet
22 research outputs found
Sort by
In-determinism in Susanne Langer’s Philosophical Concept of Feeling and Eastern Thinking Tradition
Get PDFWestern centre-periphery concepts of experiencing art within current (neuro)aesthetics show the way Susanne K. Langer’s philosophy of art intersects with the non-Western mode of thinking. To find what is conceptualised as undetermined in Langer’s philosophical concept of feeling and, more generally, art, this paper offers a shortened review of her position explained in several neuroscientific studies. Additionally, it looks at how Western neuroscientific categories would possibly lead a dialogue with the conceptualisation of creation and art in the Eastern thinking tradition. The submitted study aims to open a possible untraditional vista for comprehension of, first and foremost, a communicative function of art employing non-reductive comprehension of its nature. In the way of such a constituting, it will present overlaps of the neuroscientific line, Langer’s work, and Eastern (Japanese) thinking tradition. Thus, to also be onto the importance of the unacknowledged significance of Susanne Langer’s work, bridging will appear at the centre of attention
Haptic Aesthetics as the Possibility of Haptic Epistemology
Get PDFThe denotative and theoretical indeterminacy make the sense of touch an ambiguous concept to work with. While materiality and relationality, traditionally assigned in philosophical discourses and acknowledged through scientific research, are considered as the inherent dimensions of touch, the paper additionally proposes ambiguity as one of its integral traits. The notion of ambiguity, which encapsulates the tension between contrasting notions in both, the conceptualizations of touch as well as the touch-derived phenomenological experiences, is suggested as epistemologically generative, and a vital condition for sensory knowing, especially in aesthetics. This represents the basis for discussing the significance of a non-discursive haptic epistemology in outlining haptic aesthetics and aesthetic experience, which are marked by the necessary openness and inconclusiveness, required for the particular epistemic potential of art
Touch and the Aesthetics of Food
Get PDFBoth food and the sense of touch mainly were ignored throughout the history of Western philosophy. Times have changed, and finally, research is done on touch and on food even in Ango-American aesthetics. This paper brings the topics together by looking into the importance of touch in our aesthetic experiences of and around food. Once one turns away from the exalted realm of art and other exceptional experiences, it is evident that cooking and eating can provide important aesthetic pleasures in our everyday lives. I will argue that touch plays a fundamental role in three different, aesthetically important dimensions around eating. The first one is sensory and concerns the pleasures of the mouthfeel of food. The second is cognitive and relates to touch being a source of information about what is eaten. The third is the role of touch in the actions of cooking and having a meal
Breaking Aesthetic Boundaries: Arthur Danto, Yuriko Saito, and the Challenge to Western Aesthetic Thought
Get PDFThis article examines how Arthur C. Danto and Yuriko Saito sought to expand the boundaries of aesthetics and art, challenging the inherited concepts of Western modernity. While Danto redefines art as an intellectual rather than a purely visual phenomenon, ultimately declaring the end of art to justify a pluralistic and self-reflective artistic landscape, Saito reclaims everyday life as a legitimate subject of aesthetic inquiry. Her approach challenges the separation between aesthetics and practice, demonstrating that aesthetic choices shape our surroundings, social relationships, and ethical commitments. By comparing these two perspectives, this article highlights the limitations of modern aesthetic paradigms, including Danto’s. Furthermore, by examining the reductions imposed by modern aesthetic history, it argues that Saito’s Everyday Aesthetics offers an alternative, transformative, and generative aesthetic framework—one capable of dismantling previous aesthetic barriers and opening new, underexplored paths for the discipline. More importantly, her approach possesses a profound transformative power, allowing individuals to engage with aesthetics in ways that shape both their perception of the world and their everyday lives
O del mio Dolce Ardor. Thermoaesthetics and the Phenomenology of Thermal Touch
Get PDFWith the aim of grasping the transformations the study of thermal touch from a phenomenological perspective could bring to the aesthetic field, in the first part of this paper, I introduce the general idea of a plastic sensorium in the context of the Aristotelian doctrine of life as dependant on haptic conditions of thermal homeostasis. In the second part, I explore some recent studies in the field of haptic aesthetics, as they root themselves in phenomenological tradition and ideas. In the third part, I present Husserlian considerations on thermal touch and the cosmological questions a thermoaesthetics raises. I conclude by highlighting two paradoxical concepts that, I consider, the aesthetic analysis of thermal experiences, as they relate especially to fire, should try to understand: counter-hormesis and pyrification
Just Like Home: Photo Album on the Edge of the Everyday
Get PDFIn the last few decades, we have observed an increased interest in photography as an object of study of the everyday, as well as of the formation of everyday habits and aesthetics. It is no longer understood strictly as an artistic entity, a document, or a personal commodity, but – under the impression of a material turn – it is experiencing a substantial renaissance as a complex tool for learning about the socio-cultural parameters of a given community or space-time with a specific aesthetics. The photographic history, rather than the history of photography, involves a series of tools and methodological procedures that make the photographic image not only a source of banal information but is understood as a saturated structure. Institutional practice becomes one of the key themes, with the archive establishing itself alongside collections. Or rather, and this is what the text focuses on, the photo album – is a complex tool on the borderline between active and passive perception, personal and shared experience, image, and text. How does this medium work in the context of contemporary art practice? What means does it have at its disposal when the author turns his attention to the problem of “everyday”? And can we truly talk about specific aesthetic attributes
Reconfiguring Realities: On the Intra-active Liminality of Bridges
Get PDFBridges, traditionally conceived as architectural structures, are examined in this study as complex aesthetic phenomena with distinct and significant ontological and epistemological dimensions. Drawing from Karen Barad’s intra–active realism and the rhizomatic ontology of Deleuze and Guattari, the research deconstructs the subject–object dichotomy and conceptualizes bridges as liminal entities with the capacity to form new relationships and meanings. Analyses of Kafka’s short story The Bridge and multimedia interventions by Svetlana Volic posit the bridge as a performative space that transcends its original utilitarian function to emerge as a dynamic platform for posthumanist inquiry. The study offers an alternative perspective on understanding space, subjectivity and the relationships between human and non–human actors
Towards a critical reading aesthetic texts: A new textbook for students of aesthetics at the University of Prešov
No full textBook review of Makky, L. (2024) Kritické čítanie estetických textov. Autor, text, čitateľ. Prešov: Vydavateľstvo Prešovskej univerzity. 164 s. ISBN 978-80-555-3360-5
Art is for the mind, not for the retina of the eye
No full textBook review of Dytrtová, K. (2024) Galerijní animace, tělo a prostor. Ústí nad Labem: Fakulta umění a designu Univerzity Jana Evangelisty Purkyně. ISBN 978-80-7561-468-1. ISBN 978-80-7561-444-5
Towards an Aesthetics of Touch: Challenges and Opportunities
Get PDFThe so-called “lower senses” of taste and smell have received some attention in philosophical aesthetics over the past two decades, but touch remains relatively neglected. This paper addresses some possible reasons for its neglect and indicates promising areas of exploration. Section 1 briefly reviews challenges to developing an aesthetics of touch, some ontological, some cultural, some historical. Section 2 indicates some aspect of the nature of touch relevant to aesthetics, Section3 addresses the question of whether touch qualifies as a vehicle for aesthetic experience and suggests a notions of the aesthetic appropriate to touch. Section 4 turns to selected opportunities for reflecting on the aesthetics of touch in three broad areas: 1) art, craft and design 2) everyday and nature aesthetics 3) interpersonal touch