Aesthetics and Ethics

Material Connectivity, the Immaterial and the Aesthetic of Eating Practices: An Argument for How Genetically Modified Foodstuff Becomes Inedible

by Emma Roe

Published in Environment and Planning A 2006.

Concern about eating biotechnologically produced foodstuffs is embedded within the complex relationship between food,... more Concern about eating biotechnologically produced foodstuffs is embedded within the complex relationship between food, science, politics, and everyday eating practices. In this paper I consider how this concern is expressed less at the reflexive level of opinions and attitudes and more at the nonreflexive level of eating practices. Therefore, I draw upon literatures that talk of a practical everyday aesthetic and literatures that assert the significance of the material to geographical work, and go on to argue for the significance of a material connective aesthetic within eating practices. This argument is developed empirically and theoretically by considering to what extent consumers can discuss the edibility of different types of carrots in terms of superficial material qualities, integral material qualities, and the immaterial. Crucially, the process of edibility formation is thus understood as relationally embedded in the material environment. This provokes a realisation for an ethics and a politics of (im)material connectivities. This work contributes to geographical work in which an embodied affective ethic is employed, by arguing that the transversal qualities of the material are as significant as the transversal qualities of `affect'. It is relevant to those studying consumption, biogeographies, and nonreflexive practices.

Understanding Manipulative Performance Art

by Christopher Bartel

Philosophical Frontiers, vol. 5 (1): pp. 43-54.

Some pieces of performance art are inherently manipulative—that is, they inherently involve the manipulation of... more Some pieces of performance art are inherently manipulative—that is, they inherently involve the manipulation of unsuspecting passersby. But what does it mean for a piece of performance art to be inherently manipulative? By distinguishing first-order from second-order kinds of attention, an inherently manipulative work is one that depends on an engagement with the second-order kind of attention for a proper understanding or appreciation of that work. Such works may be inherently manipulative, but it remains to be seen whether such qualities of the work should thereby count as moral or aesthetic flaws of the work.

Reflexive Prozesse bei der Jazzimprovisation (Draft)

by Alessandro Bertinetto

Forthcoming in Sinnliche Reflexivität. Zur sinnlichen Dimension der Künste, Hgg. von Georg Bertram, Daniel M. Feige und Frank Ruda, Berlin, diaphanes, c.s. (2012).

Individualität und Improvisation. Theoretische, praktische und ästhetische Zusammenhänge oder Toward a „Theory of Jazztice“ (Draft)

by Alessandro Bertinetto

The paper was presented at the 17ème Colloque  Philosophique Internationale d’Evian (17-­‐23 Juliet 2011)

“Nowadays It’s Like Remix World”: The Hidden Demography of New Media Ethics

by Aram Sinnreich

In submission at "Information, Communication & Society". Coauthored by Mark Latonero, Marissa Gluck and Nadia Riley.

The past decade has seen an explosion of new “configurable” cultural forms and practices, such as mashups, remixes and... more The past decade has seen an explosion of new “configurable” cultural forms and practices, such as mashups, remixes and machinima, enabled by rapidly proliferating global digital network technologies. While these new cultural forms, which blur the distinctions between traditional production and consumption, have come increasingly into contrast with the letter of copyright law, people around the globe have been developing their own ethical criteria to distinguish legitimate and illegitimate configurable practices. In the present article, we share longitudinal data from surveys fielded in 2006 and 2010, showing that not only have these practices become more prevalent, the ethical frameworks people employ to make sense of these practices have also become more complex. Finally, we analyze the demographic profiles of respondents employing each ethical framework, revealing hidden national, class and ethnic distinctions between the communities that employ these ethical frameworks.

Arte e terrore. La filosofia dell'arte di Félix Duque e il jazz, in “Tropos”, p. 67-78, 1/2011.

by Alessandro Bertinetto

Die Expressivität von Musik und ihre ethische Prägnanz (Review), in „Deutsche Zeitschschrift für Philosophie“, 60, 2012, pp. 14-20.

by Alessandro Bertinetto

‘Cuir Dhachaidh E’ (‘Send It Home’): The Gifts of the Little People, the Bob of Fettercairn and the aesthetics of a tale and a tune

by Tiber Falzett

2012 [Forthcoming]. In Proceedings of Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 6. Eds. Colm Ó Baoill and Nancy McGuire.

My research on the nature of Scottish Gaelic performance culture has focused mainly around seanchas or discourse on... more My research on the nature of Scottish Gaelic performance culture has focused mainly around seanchas or discourse on tradition and the semiotics of words contained in such discourse (Falzett 2007-2010; 2010; 2012).  However, as John Shaw has argued, much can be learned by applying such contextual knowledge from the field to the analysis of verbal art forms (i.e. songs, stories, etc.) themselves: “Ideally, informants’ perceptions may eventually be correlated with analysis of texts—permitted variants and other materials—to form a coherent description” (1992/1993: 40). Therefore, this paper hopes to provide insights regarding the dynamic relationships between language and music in varied performative contexts of Scottish Gaelic cultural expression. This will be done by examining the role of ‘genre reinforcement’ (Shaw 1992/3: 38-40) in two Scottish Gaelic versions of ATU  503 (The Gifts of the Little People): one from Kate Dix of Berneray, Uist and the other from Donald (Danny) Cameron of Malden, Massachusetts, who grew up in Beaver Meadow, Antigonish County on the Nova Scotia mainland. In turn, the association of these two versions to the dance-tune ‘The Bob of Fettercairn’ and a related port-à-beul  version of it, beginning with the phrase “Cuir dhachaidh e,” will form the basis of our examination here.

The second part of this paper looks more abstractly at the symbolic nature of the narrative and examines the language contained within various Scottish Gaelic recitations of it. The Gifts of the Little People is well attested throughout the Gaelic-speaking regions of Scotland, Ireland and Nova Scotia. Lillis Ó Laoire’s (2009) groundbreaking discussions on the semiotic significance of this popular narrative have elucidated our understanding of its relevance to the inner mechanics of Gaelic aesthetic criteria and modes of transmission. Following Ó Laoire’s approach, the narrative’s aesthetic symbolism will be further explored through the lenses of emerging theoretical trends in the study of metaphor and other tropes from various scholarly disciplines, including cognitive linguistics and anthropology. This will incorporate a discussion concerning embodied understandings of abstract thought as demonstrated by the seemingly intangible nature of the aural and its ability to be made sense of through its associations with more concrete forms of sensory-motor experience, including vision, motion, and taste.

Displaced feelings: On Aesthetic Optimism and Pessimism

by Rodrigo Duarte

Screening the Disabled Body: Documentary, Actuality, and the Ethical Disencounter.

by Angelo Muredda

Health, Embodiment, and Visual Culture: Engaging Publics and Pedagogies conference. McMaster University. November 18-20, 2010.

Interpretative methodology from art and literary criticism: a humanistic approach to advertising imagery

by Jonathan Schroeder

"What's an artist to do?" - Adorno, Stelarc, and the (pre)Conditions of Successful Aesthetic Praxis

by Jacob Morris

RETURNING THE RADIANT GAZE: Visual Art and Embodiment in a World of Subjects

by Beth Carruthers

Art, Place and the Meaning of Home

by Beth Carruthers

A commissioned essay for The Stanley Park Environmental Art Project at Vancouver, Canada

Moralistische Lektürepotentiale in der deutschsprachigen Literatur der frühen Neuzeit

by Cornelia Rémi

In: Volker Kapp, Dorothea Scholl (eds.): Literatur und Moral. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2011 (Schriften zur Literaturwissenschaft 34), 157-174.

Die deutschsprachige Literatur gilt auf dem Gebiet der Moralistik als Nachzüglerin, da sie erst im 18. Jahrhundert die... more Die deutschsprachige Literatur gilt auf dem Gebiet der Moralistik als Nachzüglerin, da sie erst im 18. Jahrhundert die anthropologischen Impulse aus den romanischen Literaturen aufnimmt und beginnt, in komplexer, unsystematisch-offener Form zu beobachten und kritisch zu hinterfragen, was der Mensch sei und wie er sein Leben gestalte. Der Aufsatz prüft anhand verschiedener Beispiele aus der deutschsprachigen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts, ob bereits hier moralistische Literatur vorliegen könnte. Selbst wenn ein Text deutlich moraldidaktische Züge trägt, könnte er 'moralistische Lektüren' anregen, indem er seine Leser dazu disponiert, simple moralische Anweisungen abzuwägen und kritisch zu hinterfragen. Besprochen werden Texte von Julius Wilhelm Zincgref (Facetiae Pennalium, Apophthegmata), Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (Ars Apophthegmatica, Schauplätze) und Friedrich von Logau (Sinn-Getichte).

German literature is considered a latecomer in the field of moralist literature; anthropological impulses from the Romance literatures that lead to complex, unsystematical and open forms discussing human nature and behaviour were taken up only in the 18th century. This article examines inhowfar already German texts from the 17th century might have inspired "moralist readings" by making their readers ponder or question simple moral instructions. Authors discussed include Julius Wilhelm Zincgref (Facetiae Pennalium, Apophthegmata), Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (Ars Apophthegmatica, Schauplätze), and Friedrich von Logau (Sinn-Getichte).

Aesthetics and Transcendence in the Arab Uprisings

by Ebrahim Moosa

Middle East Law and Governance 3 (2011) 171–180

Politics is regarded as a science for it tells us what to do, when it deals with measurable concepts. But politics is... more Politics is regarded as a science for it tells us what to do, when it deals with measurable concepts. But politics is also an art—a form of practice, telling us how and when to do things. Lest we forget, the arts of persuasion and inspiration are part of politics. And, every art also produces an aesthetic. By aesthetics I mean, the ways by which we think about art: recall, art is what we do and how we do things. Those things and acts that become visible when we do and produce certain
actions—jubilation, conversations, speeches, greetings, protests, banners, deaths, wounds and other expressions—all constitute the means by which thought becomes visible, effective, and sensible. Th ese forms and visible expressions of the sensible constitute the aesthetics of politics.
Only the patient will know where the momentum for change in the Arab world is heading.

But, if the outcome of the Arab uprisings is unclear, then there is one certainty: the people have changed the order of the sensible. Thanks to peaceful protests in the face of regime brutality, tens of millions of people have performed change in myriads of expressions: aesthetics. Their feelings have cumulatively changed, and how people feel about governance is ultimately what politics is all about.

Shadows of Being in Sombre: Archétypes, Wolf-men and Bare life

by Jenny Chamarette

Book chapter published in The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe eds. Tanya Horeck and Tina Kendall (Edinburgh: EUP, 2011)

Two Tales of One City: Cultural Understanding and the Parthenon Scupltures

by Constantine Sandis

Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 23, No. 1, March 2008,5-21

Comments by Ford. W. Bell, Neil G.W. Curtis, B.L. Murphy, and Anthony M. Snodgrass.

Followed by by reply:... more Comments by Ford. W. Bell, Neil G.W. Curtis, B.L. Murphy, and Anthony M. Snodgrass.

Followed by by reply: "universal museums and the Parthenon sculptures"

Integral Sustainable Design: transformative perspectives

by Mark DeKay

New book. Available from Amazon, Earthscan, or Routledge web sites

This book offers practical and theoretical tools for more effective sustainable design solutions and for communicating... more This book offers practical and theoretical tools for more effective sustainable design solutions and for communicating sustainable design ideas to today's diverse stakeholders.

It uses integral theory to make sense of the many competing ideas in this area and offers a powerful conceptual framework for sustainable designers through the four main perspectives of: behaviours; systems; experiences; cultures.

It also uses human developmental theory to reframe sustainable design across four levels of complexity present in society: the Traditional, Modern, Postmodern, and Integral waves. Profuse with illustrations and examples, the book offers many conceptual tools including:

• twelve principles of integral sustainable design
• sixteen prospects of sustainable design
• six perceptual shifts for ecological design thinking
• five levels of sustainable design aesthetics
• ten injunctions for designing connections to nature.

Max Ophuls and the Limits of Virtuosity: On the Aesthetics and Ethics of Camera Movement

by Daniel Morgan

Critical Inquiry 38 (Autumn 2011)