Building Better Aesthetic Agents

Author(s):  
Dominic McIver Lopes

A theory of aesthetic value should help us to make sense of how our aesthetic commitments matter to us as members of collectives. Aesthetic policies endogenous to aesthetic practices are directly justified by the network theory. The chapter looks at what aesthetic reasons we have to adopt exogenous aesthetic policies. Many argue that aesthetic practices deserve public support because aesthetic goods are public goods. A case is made for an aesthetic opportunity principle: larger social groups have reason to foster the aesthetic opportunities available to their members. The principle is applied to arts education and to communication technologies subserving aesthetic exchanges. The chapter ends with a discussion of how aesthetic opportunity interacts with—and can potentially counteract—oppressive social structures.

Author(s):  
Dominic McIver Lopes

Misgivings concerning the value of beauty are widespread. Outside the academy, beauty is often regarded as frivolous, and public support for aesthetic activities is often justified by appeal to their economic and cultural spillover effects, rather than their inherent value. Arts scholars who regard perceptions of beauty as contributing to oppressive social formations have come to emphasize non-aesthetic values in art. Meanwhile, philosophy has been stuck for some time with a consensus that aesthetic values are hedonic values—an item’s aesthetic value is its power to produce finally valuable experiences. The trouble is that aesthetic hedonism plays into misgivings about the value of beauty. A plan is laid out for working towards the network theory of aesthetic value as an alternative to aesthetic hedonism.


Extrapolation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-213
Author(s):  
Erin Mercer

Critical evaluation of Stephen King’s work is far from unanimous, with a handful of scholars producing monographs devoted to his fiction, while others dismiss him as a peddler of poorly written popular narratives motivated only by commercial success. King himself acknowledges that he is as much a brand name as an author, and that he might be considered “the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and a large fries from McDonalds.” Anxieties related to the aesthetic value of prolifically produced popular fiction appear to be validated by King’s novel, The Institute (2019), which treads the familiar terrain of the King brand by utilizing the genre of speculative fiction and focusing on a child with paranormal powers. Nevertheless, although The Institute repeats many of King’s abiding concerns and tropes, it represents a significant development in his work. Less a reiteration of King’s earlier speculative fiction depicting children with telekinetic, telepathic, and pyrokinetic powers, The Institute demonstrates significant complexity and nuance in its representation of power, good and evil, and the ethics underpinning American life in the twenty-first century. In addition to critiquing corrupt social structures, The Institute interrogates the assumed powerlessness of children and condemns the commodification of the human subject by late capitalist society and its militarized forms of order. In his novel, King proves his detractors wrong by not simply reproducing his particular brand of fiction but revising its previous representations in order to meaningfully engage with a rapidly changing world.


2018 ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Nikolai I. Shepetkov ◽  
George N. Cherkasov ◽  
Vladimir A. Novikov

This paper considers the fundamental problem of artificial lighting in various types and scales of industrial facilities, focusing on exterior lighting design solutions. There is a lack of interest from investors, customers and society in high­quality lighting design for industrial facilities in Russia, which in many cities are very imaginative structures, practically unused in the evening. Architectural lighting of various types of installations is illustrated with photographs. The purpose of the article is to draw attention to the aesthetic value of industrial structures, provided not only by the architectural, but also by a welldesigned lighting solution.


2014 ◽  
pp. 126-136
Author(s):  
Аndrey G. Velikanov

Considers the aspects of architecture as a language able to express the current state and to prophetically indicate the upcoming changes. The aesthetic value of a construction cannot be perceived just as a separate entity, but it can be cognized in the context and not only a visual one, in space. It is necessary to see the entire complex of the accompanying phenomena, all the flow of the unfolding metaphors and values. In the model in view the figure of the author-creator must be reconsidered as no longer conforming to today's reality. The development of the Stalinist Empire style, as well as its transformations, is considered as one of the specific phenomena in the history of well-known constructions


Author(s):  
Muhammad Apriliyanto ◽  
Miftachul Ulum ◽  
Koko Joni

<em>The process of folding clothes is one of the activities carried out in the laundry business or household. The activity is fairly easy but many people are still lazy to do it. As a result, clothes that have been washed will fall apart in certain rooms, thereby reducing the aesthetic value of a home. Semi Automatic T-Shirt Folding Machine is the right solution to make folding clothes easier and more time efficient. This tool is equipped with a servo motor that moves the folding board that has been designed in such a way that the user only needs to manghandle the shirt just once and simply push one button then the shirt will fold itself and will be neatly arranged through the clothes stacker board. The PID method is applied to DC motors that move under the clothes folder so that the buildup of clothes underneath will not be pressured upward when the clothes are piled up when they are folded. Ultrasonic sensor will measure the right height between the clothes with the door opening the stacking clothes with kp = 1, ki = 0.1, kd = 0.5 for thin clothes and kp = 5, ki = 1, kd = 2.5 for thick clothes so that the movement of the motor can adjust its speed . This tool can fold one shirt in 16.83 seconds 11 seconds faster than folding clothes manually</em>


ARTic ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
Apsari Dj Hasan

This study aims to examine the decorative types of Gorontalo karawo fabrics in aesthetic and symbolic elements. Researchers want to know as made in the research design, aspects that are present in the decoration of fabrics in aesthetic and symbolic elements. This study uses a number of related theories to get results, and as a determinant, the authors use aesthetic theory, as well as historical approaches. With this theoretical basis, the author seeks to describe the aesthetic aspects and symbolic meanings that exist in Gorontalo karawo fabric. Through the data collection of the chosen motif and provide a classification of motives, the part is used as a reference for research material. The results showed that Gorontalo filigree had an aesthetic value consisting of unity formed from the overall decorative motifs displayed, complexity formed by complexity in the manufacturing process, and intensity of seriousness in the manufacturing process or the impression displayed on the filigree motif. The aesthetic form also reflects the diversity of meanings for communication, such as the symbol of a leader with his noble instincts, a symbol of cultural cooperation, which is worth maintaining, and ideas about nature conservation. This research proves that the decoration in Gorontalo filigree cloth (karawo) does not only act as a visual value, but also as a communication of cultural meanings and social status. Of all these distinctive motifs show a relationship between humans and humans and humans with nature. The influence of culture from the Philippines is also known to have a strong influence on the emergence of the Gorontalo filigree namely manila filigree.


Author(s):  
Dominic McIver Lopes

The main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains the facts about aesthetic activity than aesthetic hedonism. According to the network theory, an aesthetic value figures in a fact that lends weight to the proposition that it would be an aesthetic achievement for an agent to act in the context of an aesthetic practice. Each aesthetic practice has its own aesthetic profile, in which determinate aesthetic values are distinctively realized, and each has core aesthetic norms centred on its distinctive aesthetic profile. An account is given of the valence of aesthetic values. The theory explains why aesthetic experts disperse into almost all demographic niches, why they jointly inhabit the whole aesthetic universe, why they specialize by aesthetic domain, why they specialize by type of activity, why they specialize by activity and domain interacts, and why their expertise is rooted in relatively stable psychological traits.


Author(s):  
Dominic McIver Lopes

While the main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains the facts about aesthetic activity than does aesthetic hedonism, the two theories share some common assumptions. Aesthetic evaluations are mental representations that attribute aesthetic values to items. Aesthetic acts are acts based on aesthetic evaluations. Aesthetic values figure in aesthetic reasons, which are practical reasons. That is, an aesthetic reason lends weight to the proposition that an agent should perform some act—an act of aesthetic appreciation, for example. Hence, one task for a theory of aesthetic value is to state what makes some values aesthetic. A second is to state what makes it the case that an aesthetic property figures in a reason that lends weight to what an agent should do. Aesthetic hedonism and the network theory offer only to explain the practical normativity of aesthetic value.


Author(s):  
Dominic McIver Lopes

The main argument for the network theory of aesthetic value is that it better explains the facts about aesthetic activity than does its rival, aesthetic hedonism. Aesthetic activity is not limited to appreciation, and six case studies are presented of aesthetic agents whose expertise covers a range of aesthetic activities. From a survey of the case studies, we see that six facts need explaining. Aesthetic experts disperse into almost all demographic niches, they jointly inhabit the whole aesthetic universe, they specialize by aesthetic domain, they specialize by type of activity, they specialize by activity and domain interact, and their expertise is rooted in relatively stable psychological traits.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146879762110199
Author(s):  
Rodanthi Tzanelli

The article develops a theoretical framework for the critical examination of cinematic tourist design. Considering ‘film-induced tourism’ as part of a bigger system involving the design of mobilities, it interrogates the connection between the aesthetic and ethical principles that end up informing the engineering of national hospitality in media platforms. The design, which is managed by a ‘worldmaking authority’ or network encompassing the host nation state and international tourist and media markets, conforms to the rationalised rules of what Boltanski and Chiapello termed the ‘new spirit of capitalism’, which mobilises romantic ideals of individual freedom to sell landscapes and exotic cultural characters. The phased development of such mobilities conforms to contingency and is indifferent to the welfare of particular social groups. The model is exemplified through the phased design of mobilities out of two films with virulent sexist and antisemitic content centred on the journeys of the fictional Kazakh journalist Borat to the United States.


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