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Esperienza estetica interattiva e individuazione Nota su U-DATInos
Get PDFStarting from the analysis of U-DATInos, an artistic project realised by Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico, the article intends to investigate the essential traits and conditions of possibility of the interactive aesthetic experience. In order to understand the phenomenon of interactivity from a philosophical point of view, it may be of some interest to take a closer look at the concept of relation. The topic will be developed by comparing the perspectives of Gilbert Simondon and Alfred N. Whitehead. The primacy of the relation is precisely the phenomenon that both Simondon and Whitehead, independently but not incompatibly, sought to highlight. A relationship rich in consequences is thus formed between art and philosophy. Philosophy is enriched by its contact with artistic practices, reconsidering the categories it has at its disposal or creating new ones; in doing so, it provides art theory with the conceptual tools it needs, without, however, claiming to reduce the meaning of art within the dimension of the concept.Starting from the analysis of U-DATInos, an artistic project realised by Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico, the article intends to investigate the essential traits and conditions of possibility of the interactive aesthetic experience. In order to understand the phenomenon of interactivity from a philosophical point of view, it may be of some interest to take a closer look at the concept of relation. The topic will be developed by comparing the perspectives of Gilbert Simondon and Alfred N. Whitehead. The primacy of the relation is precisely the phenomenon that both Simondon and Whitehead, independently but not incompatibly, sought to highlight. A relationship rich in consequences is thus formed between art and philosophy. Philosophy is enriched by its contact with artistic practices, reconsidering the categories it has at its disposal or creating new ones; in doing so, it provides art theory with the conceptual tools it needs, without, however, claiming to reduce the meaning of art within the dimension of the concept
The usual suspect: individuation, interpretation, and art
Get PDFSome objects and some things that happen are difficult to understand because they escape what one is used to find. When something cannot be explained by custom or the habitual rules of a society, a charitable reaction assumes things nevertheless make sense, but they demand that one finds explanations that may apply to them and therefore explain of the objects under observation. Changes in contexts and places where things are found modify how phenomena are expected to happen; associations, metaphors, and interpretation are some mechanisms of change that displace habits in place. Art ultimately is the suspect when phenomena in our everyday life manifest these changes.Some objects and some things that happen are difficult to understand because they escape what one is used to find. When something cannot be explained by custom or the habitual rules of a society, a charitable reaction assumes things nevertheless make sense, but they demand that one finds explanations that may apply to them and therefore explain of the objects under observation. Changes in contexts and places where things are found modify how phenomena are expected to happen; associations, metaphors, and interpretation are some mechanisms of change that displace habits in place. Art ultimately is the suspect when phenomena in our everyday life manifest these changes
Reality is the only genius. The America of Wallace Stevens
Get PDFThe devastation of truth today at work in the Western world forces those who follow the philosophical and poetic word to rethink the meaning of our stay on Earth and to found a new world in which everyone can live within the space and time opened by the relationship between man and the divine. In this perspective, the poetic work of Wallace Stevens lays the foundations for the birth of that new world America set out to be and which does not have its roots in the illusion of abundance that soon resulted in the most alienating consumerism, but in a reality that preserves in its apparent anonymity the trace of a possible new beginning. «The fundamental difficulty in any art – wrote Stevens – is the problem of the normal». The poet’s task, in fact, is to grasp «the full flower of the actual, not the California fruit of the ideal».The devastation of truth today at work in the Western world forces those who follow the philosophical and poetic word to rethink the meaning of our stay on Earth and to found a new world in which everyone can live within the space and time opened by the relationship between man and the divine. In this perspective, the poetic work of Wallace Stevens lays the foundations for the birth of that new world America set out to be and which does not have its roots in the illusion of abundance that soon resulted in the most alienating consumerism, but in a reality that preserves in its apparent anonymity the trace of a possible new beginning. «The fundamental difficulty in any art – wrote Stevens – is the problem of the normal». The poet’s task, in fact, is to grasp «the full flower of the actual, not the California fruit of the ideal»
Colorizzazione. Tanatoprassi e sopravvivenza delle immagini d’archivio
Get PDFThe anthropological desire to revitalize images runs throughout the history of cinema and is particularly linked to colour and colorization practices. But, as Barthes notes, any attempt to revitalize is nothing more than a cosmetic, the kind used to paint corpses. When we look at a colorized image, we cannot fail to see death beneath the opaque layer of colour. In this article, we highlight and analyse three colorization techniques corresponding to as many attempts to bring images to life (hand painted, rotoscope and AI automatic colour) before proposing colorization as a tactics for the archival image to satisfy algorithmic desire of «survivre».The anthropological desire to revitalize images runs throughout the history of cinema and is particularly linked to colour and colorization practices. But, as Barthes notes, any attempt to revitalize is nothing more than a cosmetic, the kind used to paint corpses. When we look at a colorized image, we cannot fail to see death beneath the opaque layer of colour. In this article, we highlight and analyse three colorization techniques corresponding to as many attempts to bring images to life (hand painted, rotoscope and AI automatic colour) before proposing colorization as a tactics for the archival image to satisfy algorithmic desire of «survivre»
Produzione emotiva di senso comune. Advertising a matrice estetica
Get PDFAesthetics and Economics, both immanent sciences producing sense, conciliate (find an agreement between) spirit and sense by making themselves privileged regulators of the effectiveness of a peculiar effect, produced by the significant cognitive bond established between them.
This original effect that, in its interactive comparison with the subject, usefully covers the object, places the ‘product’ on a market regulated by economic laws, but on the sole condition that it is not ‘consumed’ within it, that is to say that it maintains itself poietically operative in the recreational act of the relationship with the consumer.
It produces non-objects, sensuous prototypes of sense, able to make themselves attractive products (with the double value of both use and exchange) before which the subject mimics – without distorting it – its own nature, putting it at the service of commerce (that is of its being with the product: cum merx).
It is the Halo Effect. It necessarily precedes the formulation of any judgment because it is the regulatory precondition of every emotional production of common sense, which becomes an eminent contemporary device regulating the interaction between subject and object in the pre-vision of a possible knowledge of the world.Aesthetics and Economics, both immanent sciences producing sense, conciliate (find an agreement between) spirit and sense by making themselves privileged regulators of the effectiveness of a peculiar effect, produced by the significant cognitive bond established between them.
This original effect that, in its interactive comparison with the subject, usefully covers the object, places the ‘product’ on a market regulated by economic laws, but on the sole condition that it is not ‘consumed’ within it, that is to say that it maintains itself poietically operative in the recreational act of the relationship with the consumer.
It produces non-objects, sensuous prototypes of sense, able to make themselves attractive products (with the double value of both use and exchange) before which the subject mimics – without distorting it – its own nature, putting it at the service of commerce (that is of its being with the product: cum merx).
It is the Halo Effect. It necessarily precedes the formulation of any judgment because it is the regulatory precondition of every emotional production of common sense, which becomes an eminent contemporary device regulating the interaction between subject and object in the pre-vision of a possible knowledge of the world
La questione del colore oltre i generi fotografici. Temi e linguaggi trasversali per una fotografia contemporanea.
Get PDFThe issue of color in photography constitutes one of those issues that have characterized and enlivened, especially since the post-war period, the debate around a fundamental aspect of the language of photography. I have limited myself to just hinting at the more dated aspects of this discussion (e.g., whether color photography is to be considered authentic photography in a vision that identifies its chromatic language with pure black and white) while trying to outline a reflection that is more attentive to current issues. In particular – the subtitle of this essay pinpoints this aspect – I have inserted the topic of color in the phase of transformation that photography is undergoing. Specifically, photography is considered and practiced not only in a documentary and mimetic function, but also as a multifaceted tool strongly linked to the experiences of the other visual arts. From this perspective, I have added my personal experience as a photographer to some historicized practices, of which I give a few examples.The issue of color in photography constitutes one of those issues that have characterized and enlivened, especially since the post-war period, the debate around a fundamental aspect of the language of photography. I have limited myself to just hinting at the more dated aspects of this discussion (e.g., whether color photography is to be considered authentic photography in a vision that identifies its chromatic language with pure black and white) while trying to outline a reflection that is more attentive to current issues. In particular – the subtitle of this essay pinpoints this aspect – I have inserted the topic of color in the phase of transformation that photography is undergoing. Specifically, photography is considered and practiced not only in a documentary and mimetic function, but also as a multifaceted tool strongly linked to the experiences of the other visual arts. From this perspective, I have added my personal experience as a photographer to some historicized practices, of which I give a few examples
The Carnal Specter: The Virtual Reality User Against Fragmentation
Get PDFSince Virtual Reality (VR) is characterised by the absence of the frame, the VR user has the impression of being immersed into the image, thus overcoming the distinction between spectacle and spectator. Therefore, the user becomes herself part of the work of art, exposing the limits of the Cartesian dualisms dominating the Western thought and raising critical questions about traditional aesthetic categories. Hence, my paper aims at pondering on the ontological status of the VR user. In opposition to Simon Penny’s argument, which proposes that VR fragments the viewer into a physical body versus a virtual one, my research goal is to clarify that the participant’s physical body and virtual body are inseparable and firmly intertwined. In order to do so, I analyse the VR documentary Send me Home (Evanisko, 2019). The point of departure is the acknowledgment that the VR user is invisible both to herself and to the other characters with whom she shares the virtual space. Following Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx, I argue that this invisibility reveals the ontological status of the VR participant as a specter. However, my goal is to show that the spectrality of the user is not in contradiction with her carnality: on the contrary, even when one tries to bracket the body, the body remains vigilant, interpreting the world through its flesh. To conclude, then, I argue that the body is the condition of possibility for the user to feel immersed into the virtual world, and that, contrary to the fragmentation argument, physical body and virtual body cannot be thought as separate.Since Virtual Reality (VR) is characterised by the absence of the frame, the VR user has the impression of being immersed into the image, thus overcoming the distinction between spectacle and spectator. Therefore, the user becomes herself part of the work of art, exposing the limits of the Cartesian dualisms dominating the Western thought and raising critical questions about traditional aesthetic categories. Hence, my paper aims at pondering on the ontological status of the VR user. In opposition to Simon Penny’s argument, which proposes that VR fragments the viewer into a physical body versus a virtual one, my research goal is to clarify that the participant’s physical body and virtual body are inseparable and firmly intertwined. In order to do so, I analyse the VR documentary Send me Home (Evanisko, 2019). The point of departure is the acknowledgment that the VR user is invisible both to herself and to the other characters with whom she shares the virtual space. Following Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx, I argue that this invisibility reveals the ontological status of the VR participant as a specter. However, my goal is to show that the spectrality of the user is not in contradiction with her carnality: on the contrary, even when one tries to bracket the body, the body remains vigilant, interpreting the world through its flesh. To conclude, then, I argue that the body is the condition of possibility for the user to feel immersed into the virtual world, and that, contrary to the fragmentation argument, physical body and virtual body cannot be thought as separate
Morfologia e Modernismo. Riflessioni sull’estetica fotografica di Karl Blossfeldt e László Moholy-Nagy
Get PDFThe article aims to shed light on the peculiar relationship between Blossfeldt’s photographic aesthetics and that of Moholy-Nagy in a novel way. I intended to show, starting with the essay “Short History of Photography” and the review “News about flowers” by Walter Benjamin, the peculiar character of Blossfeldt’s photographs collected in his book Urformen der Kunst (1928). What emerges from this photo-collection is first and foremost a fundamental ontological difference between photo-graphs and pictorial chrome-graphs, which I have developed through comparison with Gadamer’s reflection on the portrait. I then showed the profound affinity of Blossfeldt’s photography with Riegl’s reflection on ornamentation, Goethean morphology and Klee’s painting. Despite the apparent proximity of Blossfeldt’s work to traditional photography and the so-called Neue Sachlichkeit, I have argued, in the last part of the contribution, the affinity of this work to certain aspects of Moholy-Nagy’s Neue Sehen. Like Moholy-Nagy, Blossfeldt intends to implement the perceptual possibilities of the human being, giving him access to a new “optical unconscious”.The article aims to shed light on the peculiar relationship between Blossfeldt’s photographic aesthetics and that of Moholy-Nagy in a novel way. I intended to show, starting with the essay “Short History of Photography” and the review “News about flowers” by Walter Benjamin, the peculiar character of Blossfeldt’s photographs collected in his book Urformen der Kunst (1928). What emerges from this photo-collection is first and foremost a fundamental ontological difference between photo-graphs and pictorial chrome-graphs, which I have developed through comparison with Gadamer’s reflection on the portrait. I then showed the profound affinity of Blossfeldt’s photography with Riegl’s reflection on ornamentation, Goethean morphology and Klee’s painting. Despite the apparent proximity of Blossfeldt’s work to traditional photography and the so-called Neue Sachlichkeit, I have argued, in the last part of the contribution, the affinity of this work to certain aspects of Moholy-Nagy’s Neue Sehen. Like Moholy-Nagy, Blossfeldt intends to implement the perceptual possibilities of the human being, giving him access to a new “optical unconscious”
On Felt, Mice and Moths Change and Permanence in a Work by Joseph Beuys
Get PDFIn November 1970, Joseph Beuys and Terry Fox performed Isolation Unit in Düsseldorf in the cellar of the Kunstakademie, an hour-long performance in front of an audience of about thirty people. As in many of Beuys’s performances, the relation with (live or dead) animals and the use of natural materials played a crucial role. This is evident by the title he later used for the work: Action the dead mouse. During this performance, Beuys wore, for the first time, the felt suit that would later become one of his most iconic art-objects. Felt, like fat, is one of those organic matters recurring in his actions and refers to the warmth of the body, the energy of life. Shortly after the performance, the Felt Suit was (re)produced as a multiple in an edition of 100 copies by the Galerie René Block in Berlin. This essay starts with Isolation Unit and analyzes strategies for dealing with the organic and inorganic transformations of the multiple that originated from it. In doing so, it investigates contemporary approaches to the preservation of ‘ephemeral’ works and performance
remains and discusses their consequences for the epistemology and ontology of the arts.In November 1970, Joseph Beuys and Terry Fox performed Isolation Unit in Düsseldorf in the cellar of the Kunstakademie, an hour-long performance in front of an audience of about thirty people. As in many of Beuys’s performances, the relation with (live or dead) animals and the use of natural materials played a crucial role. This is evident by the title he later used for the work: Action the dead mouse. During this performance, Beuys wore, for the first time, the felt suit that would later become one of his most iconic art-objects. Felt, like fat, is one of those organic matters recurring in his actions and refers to the warmth of the body, the energy of life. Shortly after the performance, the Felt Suit was (re)produced as a multiple in an edition of 100 copies by the Galerie René Block in Berlin. This essay starts with Isolation Unit and analyzes strategies for dealing with the organic and inorganic transformations of the multiple that originated from it. In doing so, it investigates contemporary approaches to the preservation of ‘ephemeral’ works and performance
remains and discusses their consequences for the epistemology and ontology of the arts
The Aesthetic Experience of Sublime in Butoh Dance in Communication with Wild Nature
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This article proposes a reflection on the aesthetic experience of the sublime, today, in the practice of butoh dance performed in wild environments, and how this experience can help us to appreciate nature, something very important due to the ecological catastrophe which we face and for which we are responsible. First, we will approach to the category of the sublime from Longinus, Burke, and Kant. Second, we will review and update this category by applying it to a contemporary artistic context: butoh dance. We will be guided by three ideas to establish the relationship between the sublime and butoh: absolute, dissolution and death. Third, in order to get closer to the meeting space between butoh and sublime experience, we will offer a definition of «wild environment», trying to overcome the dichotomy between nature and artifice, thus bridging the separation between human and nature. Precisely, we will come to the conclusion that the communication or union of the body with the environment (both wild) is the gateway to the experience of the sublime as part of a state of consciousness and perception that entails admiration for the mystery of the forces that animate the world.
This article proposes a reflection on the aesthetic experience of the sublime, today, in the practice of butoh dance performed in wild environments, and how this experience can help us to appreciate nature, something very important due to the ecological catastrophe which we face and for which we are responsible. First, we will approach to the category of the sublime from Longinus, Burke, and Kant. Second, we will review and update this category by applying it to a contemporary artistic context: butoh dance. We will be guided by three ideas to establish the relationship between the sublime and butoh: absolute, dissolution and death. Third, in order to get closer to the meeting space between butoh and sublime experience, we will offer a definition of «wild environment», trying to overcome the dichotomy between nature and artifice, thus bridging the separation between human and nature. Precisely, we will come to the conclusion that the communication or union of the body with the environment (both wild) is the gateway to the experience of the sublime as part of a state of consciousness and perception that entails admiration for the mystery of the forces that animate the world