Download or read book Improvisation and Social Aesthetics written by Georgina Born and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing a wide range of improvised art and music forms—from jazz and cinema to dance and literature—this volume's contributors locate improvisation as a key site of mediation between the social and the aesthetic. As a catalyst for social experiment and political practice, improvisation aids in the creation, contestation, and codification of social realities and identities. Among other topics, the contributors discuss the social aesthetics of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the Feminist Improvising Group, and contemporary Malian music, as well as the virtual sociality of interactive computer music, the significance of "uncreative" improvisation, responses to French New Wave cinema, and the work of figures ranging from bell hooks and Billy Strayhorn to Kenneth Goldsmith. Across its diverse chapters, Improvisation and Social Aesthetics argues that ensemble improvisation is not inherently egalitarian or emancipatory, but offers a potential site for the cultivation of new forms of social relations. It sets out a new conceptualization of the aesthetic as immanently social and political, proposing a new paradigm of improvisation studies that will have reverberations throughout the humanities. Contributors. Lisa Barg, Georgina Born, David Brackett, Nicholas Cook, Marion Froger, Susan Kozel, Eric Lewis, George E. Lewis, Ingrid Monson, Tracey Nicholls, Winfried Siemerling, Will Straw, Zoë Svendsen, Darren Wershler

Download or read book Social Aesthetics and Moral Judgment written by Jennifer A. McMahon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-13 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection sets forth a new understanding of aesthetic-moral judgment organized around three key concepts: pleasure, reflection, and accountability. The overarching theme is that art is not merely a representation or expression like any other, but that it promotes shared moral understanding and helps us engage in meaning-making. This volume offers an alternative to brain-centric and realist approaches to aesthetics. It features original essays from a number of leading philosophers of art, aesthetics, ethics, and perception, including Elizabeth Burns Coleman, Garrett Cullity, Cynthia A. Freeland, Ivan Gaskell, Paul Guyer, Jane Kneller, Keith Lehrer, Mohan Matthen, Jennifer A. McMahon, Bence Nanay, Nancy Sherman, and Robert Sinnerbrink. Part I of the book analyses the elements of aesthetic experience—pleasure, preference, and imagination—with the individual conceived as part of a particular cultural context and network of other minds. The chapters in Part II explain how it is possible for cultural learning to impact these elements through consensus building, an impulse to objectivity, emotional expression, and reflection. Finally, the chapters in Part III converge on the role of dissonance, difference, and diversity in promoting cultural understanding and advancement. Social Aesthetics and Moral Judgment will appeal to philosophers of art and aesthetics, as well as scholars in other disciplines interested in issues related to art and cultural exchange.

Download or read book Social Appearances written by Barbara Carnevali and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophers have long distinguished between appearance and reality, and the opposition between a supposedly deceptive surface and a more profound truth is deeply rooted in Western culture. At a time of obsession with self-representation, when politics is enmeshed with spectacle and social and economic forces are intensely aestheticized, philosophy remains moored in traditional dichotomies: being versus appearing, interiority versus exteriority, authenticity versus alienation. Might there be more to appearance than meets the eye? In this strikingly original book, Barbara Carnevali offers a philosophical examination of the roles that appearances play in social life. While Western metaphysics and morals have predominantly disdained appearances and expelled them from their domain, Carnevali invites us to look at society, ancient to contemporary, as an aesthetic phenomenon. The ways in which we appear in public and the impressions we make in terms of images, sounds, smells, and sensations are discerned by other people’s senses and assessed according to their taste; this helps shape our ways of being and the world around us. Carnevali shows that an understanding of appearances is necessary to grasp the dynamics of interaction, recognition, and power in which we live—and to avoid being dominated by them. Anchored in philosophy and traversing sociology, art history, literature, and popular culture, Social Appearances develops new theoretical and conceptual tools for today’s most urgent critical tasks.

Download or read book The Social Aesthetics of Human Environments written by Arnold Berleant and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across these essays Arnold Berleant demonstrates how aesthetic values and theory can be used to reappraise our social practices. He tackles issues within the built environment, everyday life, and politics, breaking down the dichotomy between the natural and the human. His work represents a fresh approach to traditional philosophical questions in not only ethics, but in metaphysics, truth, meaning, psychology, phenomenology, and social and moral philosophy. Topics covered include the cultural aesthetics of environment, ecological aesthetics, the aesthetics of terrorism, and the subversion of beauty. The corruption of taste by the forces of commercial interests as well as how aesthetics can advance our understanding of violence are also considered. Berleant's exploration is supported by his analysis of 19th-century art to the present day, starting with impressionism through to postmodernism and contemporary artistic interventions. By critically examining the field in this way and casting new light on social understanding and practice, this collection makes a substantive contribution in identifying and clarifying central human issues, guided by an understanding of aesthetic engagement as a powerful tool for social critique.

Download or read book Beyond Feminist Aesthetics written by Rita Felski and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Felski presents a critical account of current American and European feminist literary theory, and analyzes contemporary fiction by women to show that no theorist can identify a specifically "female" or "feminine" kind of writing without reference to what gender means at a given historical moment. She argues that the idea of a feminist aesthetic is a non-issue needlessly pursued by feminists. She calls for a consideration of the social and cultural context in which these texts were produced and received, and demonstrates her method of an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of literature which can integrate literary and social theory. ISBN 0-674-06894-7: $25.00; ISBN 0-674-06895-5 (pbk.): $9.95.

Download or read book Abstractionist Aesthetics written by Phillip Brian Harper and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-12-25 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An artistic discussion on the critical potential of African American expressive culture In a major reassessment of African American culture, Phillip Brian Harper intervenes in the ongoing debate about the “proper” depiction of black people. He advocates for African American aesthetic abstractionism—a representational mode whereby an artwork, rather than striving for realist verisimilitude, vigorously asserts its essentially artificial character. Maintaining that realist representation reaffirms the very social facts that it might have been understood to challenge, Harper contends that abstractionism shows up the actual constructedness of those facts, thereby subjecting them to critical scrutiny and making them amenable to transformation. Arguing against the need for “positive” representations, Abstractionist Aesthetics displaces realism as the primary mode of African American representational aesthetics, re-centers literature as a principal site of African American cultural politics, and elevates experimental prose within the domain of African American literature. Drawing on examples across a variety of artistic production, including the visual work of Fred Wilson and Kara Walker, the music of Billie Holiday and Cecil Taylor, and the prose and verse writings of Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, and John Keene, this book poses urgent questions about how racial blackness is made to assume certain social meanings. In the process, African American aesthetics are upended, rendering abstractionism as the most powerful modality for Black representation.

Download or read book The Politics of Perception and the Aesthetics of Social Change written by Jason Miller and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-31 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In both politics and art in recent decades, there has been a dramatic shift in emphasis on representation of identity. Liberal ideals of universality and individuality have given way to a concern with the visibility and recognition of underrepresented groups. Modernist and postmodernist celebrations of disruption and subversion have been challenged by the view that representation is integral to social change. Despite this convergence, neither political nor aesthetic theory has given much attention to the increasingly central role of art in debates and struggles over cultural identity in the public sphere. Connecting Hegelian aesthetics with contemporary cultural politics, Jason Miller argues that both the aesthetic and political value of art are found in the reflexive self-awareness that artistic representation enables. The significance of art in modern life is that it shows us both the particular element in humanity as well as the human element in particularity. Just as Hegel asks us to acknowledge how different historical and cultural contexts produce radically different experiences of art, identity-based art calls on its audiences to situate themselves in relation to perspectives and experiences potentially quite remote—or even inaccessible—from their own. Miller offers a timely response to questions such as: How does contemporary art’s politics of perception contest liberal notions of deliberative politics? How does the cultural identity of the artist relate to the representations of cultural identity in their work? How do we understand and evaluate identity-based art aesthetically? Discussing a wide range of works of art and popular culture—from Antigone to Do the Right Thing and The Wire—this book develops a new conceptual framework for understanding the representation of cultural identity that affirms art’s capacity to effect social change.

Download or read book Cultural Aesthetics written by Patricia Fumerton and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1993-12-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant postmodern critique of Renaissance subjectivity, Cultural Aesthetics explores the simultaneous formation and fragmentation of aristocratic "selfhood" in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Patricia Fumerton situates the self within its sumptuous array of "trivial" arts—including the court literatures of chivalric romance, sonnet, and masque and the arts of architecture, miniature painting, stage design, and cuisine. Her integration of historicist and aesthetic perspectives makes this a provocative contribution to the vigorous field of Renaissance cultural studies.

Download or read book Art as a Social System written by Niklas Luhmann and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the definitive analysis of art as a social and perceptual system by Germany's leading social theorist of the late 20th century. It combines three decades of research in the social sciences, phenomenology, evolutionary biology, cybernetics, and information theory with an intimate knowledge of art history, literature, aesthetics, and contemporary literary theory.

Download or read book Everyday Aesthetics written by Katya Mandoki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Katya Mandoki advances in this book the thesis that it is not only possible but crucial to open up the field of aesthetics (traditionally confined to the study of art and beauty) toward the richness and complexity of everyday life. She argues that in every process of communication, whether face to face or through the media, fashion, and political propaganda, there is always an excess beyond the informative and functional value of a message. This excess is the aesthetic. Following Huizinga's view of play as an ingredient of any social environment, Mandoki explores how various cultural practices are in fact forms of playing since, for the author, aesthetics and play are Siamese twins. One of the unique contributions of this book is the elaboration and application of a semiotic model for the simultaneous analysis of social interactions in the four registers, namely visual, auditory, verbal and body language, to detect the aesthetic strategies deployed in specific situations. She argues that since the presentation of the self is targeted towards participants' sensibilities, aesthetics plays a key role in these modes of exchange. Consequently, the author updates important debates in this field to clear the way for a socio-aesthetic inquiry through contexts such as the family, school, medical, artistic or religious traditions from which social identities emerge.

Download or read book A Hunger for Aesthetics written by Michael Kelly and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title examines the motivations for the critiques that have been applied to the idea of aesthetics and argues that theorists and artists now hunger for a new kind of aesthetics, one better calibrated to contemporary art and its moral and political demands. The book shows how, for decades, aesthetic critiques have often concerned art's treatment of beauty or the autonomy of art. Collectively, these critiques have generated an anti-aesthetic stance that is now prevalent in the contemporary art world.

Download or read book Handbook of Research on Aestheticization of Violence Horror and Power written by Erdem, M. Nur and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2020-10-02 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Individuals seek ways to repress the sense of violence within themselves and often resort to medial channels. The hunger of the individual for violence is a trigger for the generation of violent content by media, owners of political power, owners of religious power, etc. However, this content is produced considering the individual’s sensitivities. Thus, violence is aestheticized. Aesthetics of violence appear in different fields and in different forms. In order to analyze it, an interdisciplinary perspective is required. The Handbook of Research on Aestheticization of Violence, Horror, and Power brings together two different concepts that seem incompatible—aesthetics and violence—and focuses on the basic motives of aestheticizing and presenting violence in different fields and genres, as well as the role of audience reception. Seeking to reveal this togetherness with different methods, research, analyses, and findings in different fields that include media, urban design, art, and mythology, the book covers the aestheticization of fear, power, and violence in such mediums as public relations, digital games, and performance art. This comprehensive reference is an ideal source for researchers, academicians, and students working in the fields of media, culture, art, politics, architecture, aesthetics, history, cultural anthropology, and more.

Download or read book The Aesthetics of Development written by John Clammer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a unique range of theoretical and practical case studies, this collection considers the relationship between the arts (understood as the visual arts, crafts, theatre, dance, and literature) and development, creating both a bridge between them that is rarely explored and filling in concrete ways the content of the “culture” part of the equation “culture and development”. It includes manifestations of culture and the ways in which they relate to development, and in turn contribute to such pressing issues as poverty alleviation, concern for the environment, health, empowerment, and identity formation. It shows how the arts are an essential part of the concrete understanding of culture, and as such a significant part of development thinking - including the development of culture, and not only of culture as an instrumental means to promote other development goals.

Download or read book Gandhian Socio Aesthetics written by Mohit Chakrabarti and published by M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd.. This book was released on 1997 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world of socio-aesthetics is the serene world of human ascent and excellence. To Mahatma Gandhi, a poignant aesthetic visionary par excellence, the orbit of socio-aesthetics incorporates careful and cautions cultivation of nobler sentiments and finer sensibilities like Truth, Goodness, Beauty and so on for endless advancement of man in the efforescence of myticism. The fusion of Sarvodaya, Non-violence, religion, education and symbolism for the desirable end-in-view of socio-aesthetics as Gandhi advocates and translates till the last day of his life, bears ample testimony to the socio-aesthetic fullness of vision of humankind.

Download or read book The Aesthetics of Everyday Life written by Andrew Light and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection explores the aesthetic qualities of human relationships, sports, taste, smell, food, and natural and built environments.

Download or read book The Aesthetics of Image and Cultural Form written by Yi Chen and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering an alternative mode of visual cultural analysis to the prevalent discursive model, this book proposes to situate analysis of Image within ‘formal’ analyses of culture experience. Specifically, the discussion draws on theories of affective aesthetics with the view of addressing the sensual form of culture (i.e. ‘cultural form’). Therefore, the volume puts forward a mode of formalist analysis in visual cultural research which takes purchase on the idea of ‘cultural form’. A continuum of formalist attention between Image analysis (visual media, industrial design) and probing of ‘cultural forms’ establishes the theoretical underpinning of the book. These concepts are expounded through a case study which looks at formal experimentations and debates arising from 1960s avant-garde artistic practices in London.

Download or read book Social Aesthetics and the School Environment written by Adam I. Attwood and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book theorizes aesthetic classroom management through a hermeneutical approach with three fields of literature: history and philosophical foundations of chivalry, chivalry’s promulgation through the Victorian Age, and parallel issues of identity in twenty-first century teacher education. The aim of the book is to examine the relationship between chivalric ethos and education. The presented case study addresses more specifically the following question: how can chivalry be re-imagined or theorized in an educational setting? Few studies address the concept of aesthetics and hermeneutical context in American classroom management and classroom life, and Attwood pinpoints and traces the medieval social concept of chivalry through the centuries and argues it has manifested itself in classroom social construction in the twenty-first century.