Nothing Left to See

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorn-R. Kray
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Linguistic Argument

Warum ist die Sprache der gegenwärtigen Kunstkritik so gesättigt mit Theorie und klingt zugleich so inhaltlich leer? Ausgehend vom Beispiel einer computergenerierten Künstlerbiographie sucht dieser Beitrag die gestellte Frage zu beanworten, indem er auf die soziologische Ästhetik Arnold Gehlens zurückgreift. Um den Gegenstand des Kunstkommentares richtig zu greifen, diskutiert er nach dem generellen Problemaufriss die Tradition der Ekphrasis, der Übertragung visueller in textuelle Repräsentationsformate, und isoliert dabei drei Entwicklungen – Professionalisierung, Ökonomisierung und Abstraktion – in ihrer Produktionsgeschichte. Mit dem Hinweis auf die ›Krise der Ekphrasis‹, bedingt durch das Erscheinen nicht-repräsentationaler Kunst, wendet sich der Beitrag seinem Kronzeugen Arnold Gehlen zu. Dessen Philosophische Anthropologie wird umrissen und mit den Gedanken aus Zeitbilder (1960) kurzgeschlossen, deren zentrale Hypothese die »Kommentarbedürftigkeit« (insbesondere) der zeitgenössischen Malerei ist. Im Kontext von Gegenwartsdebatten der Kunsttheorie kombiniert der Artikel dieses Konzept Gehlens mit linguistischen Untersuchungen über den heutigen Zustand der Sprache der Kunstkritik und bietet im letzten Abschnitt eine kritische Erklärung und (pessimistische) Diagnose des Kunstkommentars wie man ihn heute in Fachmagazinen, Feuilletons und Vernissagen findet. <br><br>Why does the language of art commentary often seem so theoretically sophisticated while jargonistically empty? Introducing the puzzle of a computer generated artistic biography, this essay uses the sociological aesthetics of German theorist Arnold Gehlen to answer this question and account for the ‘algorithmic example.’ Since art commentary deals with the translation of images into words, the first section discusses the tradition of ekphrasis and isolates three developments – professionalization, marketization, abstraction – in its conditions of production. Emphasizing the ‘crisis of ekphrasis,’ set off by non-representational art, the essay continues with its key witness Arnold Gehlen. Adumbrating his approach of ‘philosophical anthropology,’ the article connects (t)his wider circle of thought to his aesthetic theory with the idea of modern and contemporary art’s “Kommentarbedürftigkeit” (need of commentary) in the center. The conclusion uses this concept, combines it with a linguistic argument concerning International Art English, and thus offers a critical explanation for and a pessimistic diagnosis of the language of art commentary today.

Kenotic Gestures

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 198-218
Author(s):  
Michelle Voss Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Gender Norms ◽  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Christian Love ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
Shed Light

Christians sometimes take Christ's ken?sis, or self-emptying, as the pattern for Christian love of God and neighbor. Feminist critics suspect that this model reinforces unhealthy gender norms and oppressive power structures and contest the nature and extent of this template. Interreligious study can shed light on the debate. The Gau??ya Vai??ava tradition employs the categories of Indian aesthetic theory to explain how types of loving devotion (bhakti rasa) toward Krishna are evoked and expressed. The subordinate and peaceful modes of love for Krishna can serve as a heuristic for understanding Sarah Coakley's and Cynthia Bourgeault's retrievals of ken?sis in spiritual practice. A comparative reading suggests that objections to Coakley's version, which resembles the subordinate love of God, are more intractable due to the rootedness of its aesthetic in oppressive human experiences, while Bourgeault's reclamation of ken?sis aligns with a peaceful or meditative mode of love that feminists may more readily appreciate.

Kraft des Leeren

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Voss
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
Physical Changes ◽  
Personal Registers

Traditionell wird Einfühlung anthropozentrisch und figurenbezogen behandelt. Demgegenüber arbeitet dieser Text, anknüpfend an die ästhetische Einfühlungstheorie von Theodor Lipps und neuere Bild- und Filmtheorien, eine ästhetische Form dingbezogener Einfühlung heraus. Mit Bezug auf die dramaturgische Funktionsweise sogenannter McGuffins, wie Alfred Hitchcock sie für den Film eingeführt hat, rückt ein ganzes Genre filmischer Dinge exemplarisch ins Zentrum, die die Aufgabe übernehmen, eigenständig filmische Spannung und damit Immersion zu erzeugen. McGuffins treten meist in Form von konkreten Gegenständen wie Koffern oder Behältern auf, die physischen Ortswechseln unterzogen werden und Faszination auf sich ziehen, ohne dafür auf psychologische und personenbezogene Register Bezug nehmen zu müssen. Die Spannung und Zeit antreibende Kraft von McGuffins, welche sich stets als bedeutungsleere Motive am Ende einer Geschichte erweisen, ist eine Funktion ihrer geradezu kontaktmagischen und kausalen Übertragungsmöglichkeiten. McGuffins organisieren narrative Bewegungen diesseits von Sinn und Bedeutung. Der Bezug auf dingbezogene Einfühlung weist in philosophischer Hinsicht auf die Notwendigkeit hin, nicht-semiotische und materielle Formen dramaturgischer Bewegung in ästhetischen und narrativen Theorien begrifflich stärker zu berücksichtigen. Empathy is traditionally treated anthropocentrically and figure-related. In contrast, this text, based on Theodor Lipp’s aesthetic theory of empathy and more recent image and film theories, works out an aesthetic form of thing-related empathy. With reference to the dramaturgical functioning of so-called McGuffins, as Alfred Hitchcock introduced them for film, an entire genre of cinematic things, which take on the task of independently creating cinematic suspense and thus immersion, takes centre stage. McGuffins usually appear in the form of concrete objects such as suitcases or containers which undergo physical changes of location and attract fascination without having to refer to psychological and personal registers. The suspense-and time-driving force of McGuffins, which always prove to be meaningless motifs at the end of a story, is a function of their almost contact-magic and causal transmission possibilities. McGuffins organize narrative movements instead of meaning and significance. In philosophical terms, the reference to material empathy points to the need to take greater account of non-semiotic and material forms of dramaturgical movement in aesthetic and narrative theories.

STUDY OF DECORATIVE VARIETY IN GORONTALO KARAWO FABRIC IN AESTHETIC AND SYMBOLIC ELEMENTS

ARTic ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
Apsari Dj Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Process ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
Decorative Motifs ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
The Aesthetic

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.

Neo-Aesthetic Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miško Šuvaković
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Theory

Hegel's Antiquity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will D. Desmond
Keyword(s):  
World History ◽  
Historical Thinking ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Classical World ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
Greek World

Hegel’s Antiquity aims to summarize, contextualize, and criticize Hegel’s understanding and treatment of major aspects of the classical world, approaching each of the major areas of his historical thinking in turn: politics, art, religion, philosophy, and history itself. The discussion excerpts relevant details from a range of Hegel’s works, with an eye both to the ancient sources with which he worked, and the contemporary theories (German aesthetic theory, Romanticism, Kantianism, Idealism (including Hegel’s own), and emerging historicism) which coloured his readings. What emerges is that Hegel’s interest in both Greek and Roman antiquity was profound and is essential for his philosophy, arguably providing the most important components of his vision of world history: Hegel is generally understood as a thinker of modernity (in various senses), but his modernity can only be understood in essential relation to its predecessor and ‘others’, notably the Greek world and Roman world whose essential ‘spirit’ he assimilates to his own notion of Geist.

Hegel's Interpretation of the Religions of the World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
First Century ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Historical Material ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century

In his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel treats the religions of the world under the rubric “the determinate religion.” This is a part of his corpus that has traditionally been neglected, since scholars have struggled to understand what philosophical work it is supposed to do. The present study argues that Hegel’s rich analyses of Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Egyptian and Greek polytheism, and the Roman religion are not simply irrelevant historical material, as is often thought. Instead, they play a central role in Hegel’s argument for what he regards as the truth of Christianity. Hegel believes that the different conceptions of the gods in the world religions are reflections of individual peoples at specific periods in history. These conceptions might at first glance appear random and chaotic, but there is, Hegel claims, a discernible logic in them. Simultaneously a theory of mythology, history, and philosophical anthropology, Hegel’s account of the world religions goes far beyond the field of philosophy of religion. The controversial issues surrounding his treatment of the non-European religions are still very much with us today and make his account of religion an issue of continued topicality in the academic landscape of the twenty-first century.

The Emergence of Subjectivity in the Ancient and Medieval World

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Cultures

This work represents a combination of different genres: cultural history, philosophical anthropology, and textbook. It follows a handful of different but interrelated themes through more than a dozen texts that were written over a period of several millennia. By means of an analysis of these texts, this work presents a theory about the development of Western Civilization from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The main line of argument traces the various self-conceptions of the different cultures as they developed historically. These self-conceptions reflect different views of what it is to be human. The thesis is that in these we can discern the gradual emergence of what we today call inwardness, subjectivity and individual freedom. As human civilization took its first tenuous steps, it had a very limited conception of the individual. Instead, the dominant principle was that of the wider group: the family, clan or people. Only in the course of history did the idea of what we know as individuality begin to emerge. It took millennia for this idea to be fully recognized and developed. The conception of human beings as having a sphere of inwardness and subjectivity subsequently had a sweeping impact on all aspects of culture, such as philosophy, religion, law, and art. Indeed, this conception largely constitutes what is today referred to as modernity. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that this modern conception of human subjectivity was not simply something given but rather the result of a long process of historical and cultural development.

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