Artifacts

2019 ◽  
pp. 138-154
Author(s):  
Robert Stecker

This chapter is about the aesthetics of everyday artifacts, in particular, on the role of an artifact’s function in aesthetically appreciating and evaluating it. First, I will argue that several distinguishable functions are relevant to the aesthetic appreciation of artifacts. Second, I will claim that, while we can identify something we might call functional aesthetic value or functional beauty, the aesthetic properties that contribute to this value neither need enhance the object’s performance of its primary function nor manifest that function. There are broader criteria for what properties are relevant to functional beauty. Finally, I suggest that the aesthetic appreciation of artifacts may contribute to a larger appreciative project: the understanding and evaluation of a way of life, or social, or cultural practices in which the artifact plays a role.

2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Stecker

In this paper, I ask: what is the role of function in appreciating artifacts? I will argue that several distinguishable functions are relevant to the aesthetic appreciation of artifacts, and sometimes more than one of these must be taken into account to adequately appreciate these objects. Second, I will claim that, while we can identify something we might call functional aesthetic value or functional beauty, the aesthetic properties that contribute to this value neither need to enhance the object’s performance of its primary function nor manifest that function. There are broader criteria for what properties are relevant to functional beauty. Finally, I suggest that the aesthetic appreciation of artifacts may contribute to a larger appreciative project: the understanding and evaluation of a way of life, or social or cultural practices in which the artifact plays a role.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 577
Author(s):  
Svantje T. Kähler ◽  
Thomas Jacobsen ◽  
Stina Klein ◽  
Mike Wendt

Visual attention can be adjusted to task requirements. We asked participants to switch between judging the symmetry of vertically presented three-letter strings and identifying the central stimulus (i.e., Eriksen task) to investigate anticipatory adjustment of attention. Our experiments provide evidence for anticipatory adjustment of visual attention, depending on the cued task (i.e., focusing and defocusing of attention after the Eriksen task cue and after the symmetry task cue, respectively). Although, symmetry judgments were, overall, considerably slower than the identification of the central letter, the effects of response congruency between tasks were comparable in the two tasks, which suggested strong response priming from concurrent symmetry judgment in Eriksen task trials. Symmetry judgment performance was best for homogeneous letter strings (e.g., HHH), worst for strings that were symmetrical and inhomogeneous (e.g., XHX), and intermediate for asymmetrical strings (e.g., HHX). The difficulty of categorizing symmetrical-inhomogeneous items markedly deviated from the aesthetic ratings of the stimuli, displaying a pronounced preference for symmetrical strings, but only little difference among the symmetrical items, and might be accounted by conflict with response priming based on inhomogeneity detection. Although our study provides little evidence for an effect of aesthetic appreciation in simple symmetry judgments, it demonstrates the strong role of contextual dependencies.


Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (516) ◽  
pp. 1127-1156 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Thi Nguyen

Abstract There seems to be a deep tension between two aspects of aesthetic appreciation. On the one hand, we care about getting things right. Our attempts at aesthetic judgments aim at correctness. On the other hand, we demand autonomy. We want appreciators to arrive at their aesthetic judgments through their own cognitive efforts, rather than through deferring to experts. These two demands seem to be in tension; after all, if we want to get the right judgments, we should defer to the judgments of experts. How can we resolve this tension? The best explanation, I suggest, is that aesthetic appreciation is something like a game. When we play a game, we try to win. But often, winning isn’t the point; playing is. Aesthetic appreciation involves the same flipped motivational structure: we aim at the goal of correctness, but having correct judgments isn’t the point. The point is the engaged process of interpreting, investigating, and exploring the aesthetic object. When one defers to aesthetic testimony, then, one makes the same mistake as when one looks up the answer to a puzzle, rather than solving it for oneself. The shortcut defeats the whole point. This suggests a new account of aesthetic value: the engagement account. The primary value of the activity of aesthetic appreciation lies in the process of trying to generate correct judgments, and not in having correct judgments.


Author(s):  
S. A. Afonsky

The article advances the idea about a drop in people interest in buying similar goods and services, especially in conditions of uncertainty, in particular corona-virus epidemic, when people care less about external things, such as their clothes for visiting public places. Today we observe the necessity in meeting aesthetic needs through different tools and artistic objects. Therefore, we can say that it is a certain return to those times, when in public places and even in the Underground you can see real works of art that were not made in a hurry, according to the principle ‘the cheaper the better', but those of full value. In spring 2021 we conducted a survey of students of the Russian Plekhanov University of Economics and the Arts College RGGU to find the role of the aesthetic (emotional, sensual) element - the art-object (in this case - a poster) - in conditions of uncertainty, i. e. COVID-19 epidemic. The findings of this research showed that aesthetic value of graphics takes a foreground, it should be connected with specialization of the trade enterprise, its historic and other factors. The author demonstrates that availability of aesthetic values can form a motivating platform for repeated visits to the store and thus shape its competitive advantage.


2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Cuckovic

Among the issues for which aesthetics today shows great interest belong those which will be discussed in this paper that are concerning: the position of art in culture, the origin and consequences of the process of aestheticization of everyday life, the role of the artist in a society, the nature of the creative process, relationship between inspiration and techniques of art, and the aesthetic value of the artifacts. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the historical development of the concepts of craft and skill, as the keys for understanding of creativity. Greeks understood the art as routine following of production rules, within the medieval theology art was interpreted with regard to a possible role in the celebration of divine creation, and in modern times it is seen as a way of expressing the creative power of man. When the man?s potentials become the pivot point of his trying to understand the world, the concept art has been rapidly differentiated into two key domains: art and technology. In the meanwhile, the separation of the autonomous domains and their mutual opposition have become the stereotypes of public opinion, and of numerous theoretical examinations, that have grounds only if it wasn?t forget their common origin and their internal kinship, or if the notion of its autonomy was relativized in the context of the whole life of a society.


2019 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-396
Author(s):  
Karla K. McGregor ◽  
Timothy Arbisi-Kelm ◽  
Bogi Perelmutter ◽  
Jacob Oleson

This article characterizes the aesthetic properties of English words. One thousand adult speakers of American English reported their favorite words and justified their selections. Each word was coded for phonological characteristics, valence, and frequency of occurrence and compared with words from a corpus of everyday English from Reader’s Digest. The participants’ stated reasons for their selections were categorized as utilitarian (meaning, use) or aesthetic (form). Compared to the word types in the Reader’s Digest corpus, the favorite words were longer and lower in frequency of occurrence. They were less likely to include a sonorant consonant but more likely to include a repeated consonant. Consonant clusters were sparser among the favorite words. The majority of people justified their favorite words on utilitarian grounds, suggesting some difficulty considering form apart from meaning. The best predictors of aesthetic justifications were lower valence, lower frequency, longer length, higher sonority, and a higher density of lax vowels. People value words for the work they do—the meanings they convey. Nevertheless, people can appreciate words as objects, and when they do, novelty and musicality are privileged. This study informs our understanding of the aesthetic function of language and situates that function into a broader consideration of aesthetic appreciation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 156-170
Author(s):  
Vera Yu. Bal ◽  
◽  
Elizaveta E. Gutkevich ◽  

Modern technological conditions make it possible to create, quickly replicate and use audio books conveniently. Audio books are one of the fastest growing segments of the global publishing market. Informative issues of creating audio books, not technological ones, are in the research focus of the article. The content of an audiobook is a voiced text that refers to the “auditory literature”. Assessments of the quality of the auditory literature are polar. On the one hand, it is considered secondary to the original literary text; on the other hand, it is a self-contained artistic phenomenon with its own aesthetic nature. In this article, an audiobook is considered precisely in the aspect of its artistic value, which is highlighted when speaking about the genre nature of the voiced text. The genre features of the voiced text in this study are identified taking into account the communicative features of its formal-stylistic features. The communicative nature of the audiobook genre is associated with two types of reading, which reflect the opposite positions of the two participants in communication. On the one hand, this is an expres-sive reading aloud, which can also be defined as staged reading. Genetically, this type of reading is associated with public performances of artists and initially assumed live reading. Further, this type of reading is transformed into the genre of radio plays, called “theater at the microphone”. In modern communicative practices of creating and repli-cating audio content, including one related to the actor’s readings of works of art, there is no binding to time and place. On the other hand, this is auditory reading, a modifica-tion of which is audio reading in modern technological conditions. If auditory reading is the first reading practice of a child mastering books from the voice of a parent, then audio reading is the choice of an adult who can read. The acoustic representation of a literary work is associated not only with the performance of elementary technical characteristics of sound, but also with the introduction of a certain aesthetic value into it. The creative translation of a literary text from verbal to acoustic should preserve its value in the aesthetic plane, without reducing it to a purely pragmatic one. Actualization of the aesthetic value of an audiobook outside of its paper format is associated with the principles of its directing and editorial preparation – the principles associated with the implementation of the stylistic characteristics of the genre form of an audiobook. Translation of a verbal literary text into an audio one is carried out as a result of comparing reading a book to dramatic action. In this case, the forming element of the genre becomes the sounding text itself. In the case of audio books, the reader’s voice as a performer’s instru-ment and the musical noise accompaniment of the text read is a style-forming genre element. The article traces the publishing strategies for the embodiment of the formal-stylistic features of the audiobook genre in the context of modern audio cultural practices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Arief Budiman ◽  
Ardy Aprilian Anwar

The presence of character visualization becomes part of the aesthetic value in video games, with its presence making events in the video game become interwoven and have a narrative flow. In the end it creates a fantasy as well as the occurrence of increasing emotion in playing video games, where players are expected to feel an understanding of indigo - value. Seeing the magnitude of the role of the presence of character visualization in video games. Then through the study of reading visual signs, it is done as a means to find out the sign construction on character visualization in the Harvest Moon Back to Nature video game. Descriptive Interpretative research methods using the semiotics approach with qualitative data analysis as an instrument to describe and interpret the object of study. Researchers use the Peirce semiotic approach as a signatory analysis theory can read visual signs in the form of icons, indices, and symbols contained in the visualization of characters oriented to aspects of the story in the Harvest Moon Back to Nature video games. Overall the existence of character visualization presented by the construction of visual signs (icons, indices, symbols) in the Harvest Moon Back to Nature video game has been able to describe the characteristics of each character in the game world that suits the personality and profession of the character played in the the Harvest Moon Back to Nature video game.  


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Parsons

Much recent discussion in the aesthetics of nature has focused on Scientific cognitivism, the view that in order to engage in a deep and appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature, one must possess certain kinds of scientific knowledge. The most pressing difficulty faced by this view is an apparent tension between the very notion of aesthetic appreciation and the nature of scientific knowledge. In this essay, I describe this difficulty, trace some of its roots and argue that attempts to dismiss it fail. I then develop a response to the problem, drawing on the notion of the theory-ladenness of observation. I conclude by considering the relationship between this response and one common approach to the problem, the appeal to expressive qualities in nature.


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