scholarly journals Two Ambiguities in Object-Oriented Aesthetic Interpretation

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 599-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Taxier

AbstractThe aesthetic theory of Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) revolves around the concept of allure, a nonliteral experience of an object’s displacement from its qualities that draws attention to a deeper reality. But applying allure to aesthetic interpretation is hampered in two ways. First, OOO necessarily moves between the constrained viewpoint of experience and a more global perspective. Yet mixing these “inside” and “outside” views can risk ambiguity. Second, the phenomenological difference between the parts and qualities of an object must be clarified before Harman’s model of wholes and parts can be incorporated into OOO aesthetics. Addressing these two ambiguities will make it possible to further develop OOO’s resources for aesthetic commentary. For instance, one conclusion is that allure itself has two varieties: a tension between the object and its qualities (“allusion”) and a tension between the whole and its parts (“collusion”). These options parallel Harman’s twofold critique of reductionism. Another conclusion is that the literal needs an explanation within the framework of OOO insofar as it is a genuine feature of experience.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-57
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Vaillo

Abstract This article has two parts. The first one compares the ontological and epistemological implications of two main philosophical stances on how reality relates to appearance. I call the first group the “plane of superficiality,” where reality and appearance are the same; there is no gap between what a thing is and how it manifests itself. I call the second group “volume of representation,” in which reality is beyond appearances; there is an insurmountable gap between the thing and its phenomena. The second part of the article focuses on Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as the second group’s contemporary position. Within the OOO epistemological model of “knowledge without truth,” Harman’s schema of the observer’s participation in the object’s knowledge production is questioned. Alternatively, based on the notion proposed here of “flat representativity” in which each appearance is equally valuable to represent different aspects of the object, I argue for the full spectrum of the sensual as the basis for “knowledge without truth.” In particular, the aesthetic method, excluded from Harman’s concerns about knowledge, is suggested as another contribution to the episteme.


Reified Life ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
J. Paul Narkunas

The introduction outlines how we are living in an automated posthuman future with smart machines that blur boundary between human and non-human. The chapter also summarizes the general problems with humanism and posthumanism for instrumentalizing the human, and documents how both work too closely with neoliberalism and financial capital. How neoliberalism functions like culture and has created a world of economic ontology are also addressed. The author then traces problems with notions of agency based on subjectivity including the posthuman and object-oriented ontology, and proposes a different strategy for thinking agency along Gilbert Simondon’s notion of transindividuation that he calls ahuman. The ahuman is then defined as a stable figuration that embodies dynamic processes and forces that actually frame reality. The chapter ends with a discussion of the aesthetic as new figurations of existence that can be mobilized for alternative political purposes, as well as a brief outline of the chapters.


Author(s):  
Graham Harman

Object-oriented ontology (OOO) is an intellectual movement in the arts and humanities sharing certain affinities with both phenomenology and Actor-Network Theory (ANT). It is a philosophically realist position often at odds with existing currents in postmodernism and critical theory. The best-known idea of OOO is that objects “withdraw” from all direct human and non-human contact, so that relations between things are always indirect and must be accounted for rather than taken for granted. More broadly speaking, however, OOO is a theory of two kinds of objects (real, sensual) and two kinds of qualities (real, sensual). Real objects and qualities are not directly accessible to thought, perception, practical use, or even causal relation, and must be approached by more allusive means. Sensual objects and qualities, by contrast, exist only for some other entity, human or otherwise. Each type of object has troubled relations with each of the two forms of qualities, resulting in four basic tensions, the analysis of which is the heart of object-oriented method in every field and not just literature. OOO literary theory has a special fondness for the weird: especially the writings of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, whose work is taken to exemplify two of the key ontological tensions. Dante and Edgar Allan Poe are also key OOO figures, due to their manner of theatrically investing their characters and readers in sincere relations with objects. OOO’s relation with the formalist aesthetics of Immanuel Kant is ambivalent, since Kant is admired for cutting off the aesthetic object from its surroundings but challenged for his modernist assumption that the human and non-human must never be mixed.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 3344-3351
Author(s):  
Xinquan Ma ◽  
Xiaofang Yao ◽  
Kwon Hwan

Objectives: Cigarettes are not goods that have existed in China since ancient times, but consumer goods that were introduced into China by western countries and accepted and developed by Chinese people in modern times. The application of Chinese soil smoke culture in Li gonglin’s landscape painting is studied in this paper. Methods: From the perspective of art history, landscape painters in the Northern Song Dynasty, as a prosperous period of Chinese art history landscape painting, thought deeply about painting from the artistic form of nature, and integrated their own view of environment into their creation, forming many landscape aesthetic paradigms. Results: This paper focuses on the interactive dialogue between the literati and the environment with the involvement of how space planning and governance are allocated. It is aimed at the global perspective in the Anthropocene and a local position in the Northern Song Dynasty. Localization is not only the exploration of the ecological approaches of China and the West in space, but also the integration of the past and the present, observing its ecological image from the perception and practice of traditional environmental aesthetics to the harmonious coexistence of modern cities and nature. Conclusion: Local tobacco is not a traditional local consumer product. Under the public’s praise, it has gradually formed a unique thing in China - cigarette culture. People in the society are not only the observers of the environment, but also the participants of the environment. Through the aesthetic configuration of the classification of environmental belonging space and the transformation of the image and vision into such realistic or ideal landscapes as “Longmian Villa”, it goes towards ecological holism. Therefore, from the perspective of environmental aesthetics research, Li Gonglin’s paintings have research value.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-149
Author(s):  
Tymon Adamczewski

Autor omawia w artykule współczesne osiągnięcia dyskursów ekokrytyki, próbując odczytać je przez pryzmat słabej myśli. Główna uwaga poświęcona jest intrygującym propozycjom teoretycznym Timothy‟ego Mortona dotyczącym hiperobiektów, które ukazane zostają w kontekście OOO (object-oriented ontology), a które uznać można za przykłady innego sposobu uprawiania teorii i praktyki akademickiej. Wykorzystując pojęcie veering (skołowacenia) Nicholasa Royle‟a, autor wskazuje zalety osadzenia rozważań w „osłabionej”, nieantropocentrycznej perspektywie, która stanowi alternatywę dla bardziej dydaktycznych i opartych na poczuciu winy dyskursów krytycznych.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 215-234
Author(s):  
Federica Matelli

A partir del concepto de traducción y de comunidad de humanos y no – humanos de Bruno Latour, y retomando algunos conceptos estéticos centrales en la OOO (Ontología Orientada a los Objetos), este articulo expone un tipo de traducción post-humana estrechamente relacionada con la situación global del capitalismo computacional. En este orden extremo del capitalismo global, que está gobernado por algoritmos y condicionado por techno - políticas, la difusión transnacional de las tecnologías digitales instaura un lenguaje sensorial único que traduce, uniformándolas, culturas distintas y al mismo tiempo garantiza el control sobre el presente y el futuro por medio del Big Data, así como nos advierte Armen Avanessian. Su máximo agente es el design de objetos tecnológicos y servicios. A partir de esta constatación se aporta el ejemplo de un proyecto artístico que, trabajando con la traducción de datos por medio de un diseño alternativo, desvela este estado de la cultura digital actual, traduciendo y explicitando las funciones ocultas de algunos objetos digitales de uso cotidiano –como el teléfono móvil– en una instalación con objetos tecnológicos y mapas de datos. Based on the Bruno Latour’s concept of translation and community of humans and non - humans, and retaking some central aesthetic concepts in the OOO (Object Oriented Ontology), this article exposes a type of post-human translation closely related to the global situation of computational capitalism. In this extreme order of global capitalism, which is governed by algorithms and conditioned by techno - policies, the transnational diffusion of digital technologies establishes a unique sensory language that translates, unifying them, different cultures and at the same time guarantees control over the present and the future through Big Data, as Armen Avanessian warns us. Its maximum agent is the design of technological objects and services. From this finding, the example of an artistic project is provided that, working with the translation of data through an alternative design, reveals this state of the current digital culture, translating and explaining the hidden functions of some digital objects for everyday use –Like the mobile phone– in an installation with technological objects and data maps.


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