Volume 45 February, 2015
From the President
We just enjoyed a beautiful and busy autumn, and now winter is here with its own kind of beauty. In Beijing these days you may hear mention of ‘APEC blue’ - an expression of hope that air pollution will be eventually controlled. In keeping with the spirit of this idea, many Beijing residents show pictures through We Chat, a micro-electronic communication channel, of the beauty of cities free of pollution. Recently, I visited Beihai Park (North Sea Park), and Summer Palace in Beijing, and found that without pollution, Beijing is indeed a very beautiful city.
Concerning the city, I recall Heinz Paetzold’s view that our interest in beauty began with the countryside while aesthetics as a subject originates from cities. Now more and more people come into cities across the world. This movement is even more obvious in China, where hundreds millions of people are moving to cities. The migration from countryside to cities has been and continues to be the greatest change in China. China began as a country traditionally consisting of farmers. In such a rapid development of cities, aesthetics becomes of crucial importance, since they should provide beautiful places for living. The beauty of cities should not just be the symbol of wealth, nor simply a place for the exhibition of science and technology. Cities are places for people to live, rather than merely places for enjoying the views of skyscrapers. We need the skylines of cities, but also livability.
Over the past several months, I have travelled to conferences both in China, and in Australia, Germany, Britain and Russia. I was happy to visit Yasnaya Polyana, home of Leo Tolstoy, and the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. In the respective conferences, we discussed issues including the news media, ecological aesthetics, and the aesthetics of cities.
In other news: the United States is now offering Chinese citizens a ten-year visa. Similarly, friends from US can also obtain a ten-year visa for visits to China. This change allows for much greater flexibility in making travel plans between the USA and China. I hope that our friends from Europe can also soon enjoy the same travel conveniences.
The IAA officers and our colleagues in Belgrade are now preparing our Executive Meeting and the IAA interim Conference in Belgrade (June 25-28, 2015). I will be happy to meet IAA delegates and guests in Belgrade where we will gather to discuss important issues in connection with our association and the pursuit of research in aesthetics.
Recently, the Chinese Society for Aesthetics elected new leadership, and I have been chosen as president of the society. Our next national congress is in the May in Chengdu (a city some of you visited in 2006). I hope we can all meet again soon at a conference in a beautiful Chinese city.
Gao Jianping, IAA President
IAA Conference 2015 Revisions of Modern Aesthetics
June 26-28, 2015. Belgrade, Serbia Call for papers
The University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture and the Society for Aesthetics of Architecture and Visual Arts Serbia (DEAVUS) are pleased to announce the Call for papers for the IAA Conference 2015.
The 2015 Interim meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Aesthetics (IAA) will take place June 26-28 2015 at the amphitheater of the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. The theme of the Conference is “Revisions of Modern Aesthetics”. We would like to invite all researchers and scholars interested in this topic to participate in the conference with a paper.
One of the important topics of contemporary global culture is the revision of modernism and its corresponding theories, aesthetics and philosophies. That is why we proposed for the Belgrade’s Conference the title “Revisions of Modern Aesthetics”.
Reviewing the history of modernity and especially aesthetic transformations in the 20th century are challenging issues for contemporary society and culture. We live in a world of permanent change; a world of desire to get out of the global crisis into the new world of unexpected modernity. Therefore, the project, research, emancipation and the new are the important questions. Through the paradigmatic models of modernity we will try to construct a theoretical, aesthetic and philosophical platforms for contemporaneity. The concept of the conference is developed in four sessions:
1. Modern Theories of Space and Architecture
The first session deals with the revision, reconstruction and research of modernist theories of space and architecture. The aim is to show the viability of space and architecture in the changing world.
Session chair: Dr. Jale Erzen, professor, Middle East Technical University Faculty of Architecture, Ankara.
2. The Status of Aesthetics Today
The second session deals with questions on the status of contemporary aesthetics that transformed the crisis of modern aesthetics into the expansion of aesthetic thinking, politicization of sensuality and discovering new aesthetic experiences and knowledges.
Session chair: Dr. Ales Erjavec, professor, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Institute of Philosophy at Scientific Research Center, Ljubljana.
3. Contemporary and Medieval Art
The third session, relying on the idea of “historical distance”, indicates a comparison of medieval and modern in arts.
Session chair: Dr. Vladimir Mako, professor, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade.
4. Art and Architecture at the Time of Spectacle and Media
The fourth session enters in the field of the fluidity, uncertainty and phenomenological transformation of the society of global spectacle and media totality.
Session chair: Dr. Misko Suvakovic, professor, University of Arts - Faculty of Music, Belgrade.
The Conference “Revisions of Modern Aesthetics” aims to initiate the discussion from the field of contemporary philosophical and applied aesthetics about who we are today compared to the past in relation to the future. Aesthetics has a right to these fundamental questions.
The contact address for the Conference isThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please use this address for submitting your abstract proposal, your paper once its abstract has been accepted, as well as for any inquiries regarding the conference.
www.arh.bg.ac.rs/2014/10/08/iaa-conference-2015-belgrade-revisions-of- mo dern-aesthetics
• Dr. Vladimir Mako, professor, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade
• Dr. Misko Suvakovic, professor, University of Arts - Faculty of Music, Belgrade
• Dr. Vladimir Stevanovic, assistant professor, Faculty of Media and Communications, Belgrade
• Dr. Aleksandar Ignjatovic, professor, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade
• Dr. Vladan Dokic, professor, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade
• Mr. Branko Pavic, professor, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade
• Dr. Ales Erjavec, professor, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Institute of Philosophy at Scientific Research Center, Ljubljana
• Dr. Jale Erzen, professor, Middle East Technical University - Faculty of Architecture, Ankara
• Dr. Raffaele Milani, professor, University of Bologna - Institute of research on the cities, Bologna
• Dr. Gao Jianping, professor, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences - Institute of Literature, Beijing
• Dr. Tyrus Miller, professor, University of California - Division of Humanities, Santa Cruz
Paper presentation and publishing
• All submitted papers will be presented during the Conference. More information will follow after paper submission.
• All accepted abstracts will be published in the Conference Proceedings book.
• A selection of papers will be published in the Serbian Architectural Journal (www.saj.rs).
• Abstract submission due: March 31, 2015.
• Paper submission due: May 31, 2015.
• Registration fee for participants: May 31, 2015.
• Registration fee for visitors: June 13, 2015.
Conference: June 26-28, 2015.
Call for Papers
Art in & of the Streets
Philosophy Conference
Date: March 5th - 7th, 2015
Location: New York City
Hosts: The Pratt Institute & New York University
Organizers:
- Christy Mag Uidhir (Houston)
- Nicholas Riggle (NYU)
- Gregg M. Horowitz (Pratt)
Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:
- What is street art, and who is its proper audience?
- How do the various forms of street art (graffiti, urban vinyl, poster art, street performance and installation) relate to their Fine-Art kin (painting, calligraphy, sculpture, fine-art prints, concert/theatre performance, performance/conceptual art)?
- How does street art relate to other “post-museum” and “post-studio” art forms?
- Is street art essentially site-specific? What are the implications for the restoration or conservation of works of street art?
- Is there such a thing as a street art “aesthetic”? What constitutes authenticity instreet art?
- Does legality/criminality (e.g., vandalism, trespassing, copyright, etc.) play an aesthetic or art-making role for works of street art?
- Do municipalities incur obligations (aesthetic or otherwise) to preserve works of street art?
- How do matters of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. figure differently within the world of street art as compared to the traditional artworld?
- What exactly is “the street” as employed in thought and talk about street art?
Papers should be roughly 3000 words and formatted for blind review. The deadline for all submissions is September 1st, 2014. Notifications of acceptance or rejection will be sent by Nov. 1st, 2014. Papers submitted by graduate students will be considered for a travel award—all graduate student submissions should be clearly marked as such. Papers, and any questions, should be sent to Christy Mag Uidhir (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
This conference is funded through generous gifts from:The American Society for Aesthetics and The Pratt Institute.
Paul Ricoeur: Thinker of the Margins?
University of Antwerp & VU-University Amsterdam
September, 18-20, 2014, Antwerp
Ricoeur can be called the philosopher of all dialogues. He engaged virtually all the great movements of thought, entered into debate with scientists, and voices his concerns in the public debate. He never sought to engage in polemics but tried to engage seemingly unbridgeable positions or thinkers in a fruitful dialogue. Ricoeur was not a radical thinker in search of extremes, but rather committed to mediate between conflicting philosophers and streams of thought, therein lies part of his originality and creativity. Where others sees dichotomy, he sees dialectic. In this regard one cannot but note how often Ricoeur uses the word between (entre) in the titles of his articles, always in search of connections, confrontations, and unexpected syntheses between thinkers who have preceded him. He really is a thinker of the between.
But does Ricoeur’s ‘dialogical approach’ not result in a harmonization of often diverging positions? Is Ricoeur able to hear the radicalness of certain insights? Is it possible that his hermeneutical philosophy takes away the sharpness of certain problems in current religious, political and philosophical debates? Might it even be the case that he did not hear certain voices, precisely because they resist synthesis? This conference inquires what happens to Ricoeur’s hermeneutical approach if we confront it with its limits.
The conference will address topical philosophical, socio-political and religious issues, from a Ricoeurian perspective, but in conversation with other, more ‘radical’ thinkers
Possible topics include:
Justice and the Struggle for Recognition: Justice is an important concept in Ricoeur’s work, first of all, as an ethical concept. For Ricoeur, justice is a way of establishing peace, both in concrete relations to others, as on the level of institutions. In The Course of Recognition, Ricoeur however shifts the focus on political philosophy, and, in so doing he creates a tension in his understanding of justice. On the one hand, he agrees with Hegel and Honneth that justice is a justification for violence that is part of “the struggle for recognition”. On the other hand, Ricoeur also points again to the role of justice for peace. As he argues with Marcel Hénaff, in the exchange of gifts for instance, the parties involved proof their recognition to one another, and, in this sense, they maintain a peaceful relationship. This session aims at investigating the tension between justice and recognition in Ricoeur’s work, and especially in The Course of Recognition
- http://www.iaaesthetics.org/plugins/system/jat3/jat3/base-themes/default/images/bullet.gif) 20px 7px no-repeat;">
- http://www.iaaesthetics.org/plugins/system/jat3/jat3/base-themes/default/images/bullet.gif) 20px 7px no-repeat;">Ricoeur, the Religious Other and Interreligious Dialogue: In the vast collection of his writings Ricoeur only sporadically raised the issue of interreligious dialogue. Though Ricoeur was sensitive to issues of religious diversity, interreligious violence and the encounter between religions, he did not engage into a systematic debate on these issues. However Ricoeur’s hermeneutical philosophy may offer a framework enabling a thorough reflection on the challenges presented by the encounter between religions.
- http://www.iaaesthetics.org/plugins/system/jat3/jat3/base-themes/default/images/bullet.gif) 20px 7px no-repeat;">
- http://www.iaaesthetics.org/plugins/system/jat3/jat3/base-themes/default/images/bullet.gif) 20px 7px no-repeat;">Discourse, Normativity and Power : The reason that Ricoeur’s thinking is not often mentioned in the context of feminist, queer and race theory is perhaps his consideration of discourse as a “laboratory of thought experiments”, instead of as excluding and normative. On the other hand, his hermeneutics of suspicion, notions of critique and distanciation, and his ideas about the narrative and ethical self do seem interesting for thinking about alterity and difference. For this session, we invite papers that reflect upon Ricoeur’s notion of discourse, and address the question of normativity and power.
- http://www.iaaesthetics.org/plugins/system/jat3/jat3/base-themes/default/images/bullet.gif) 20px 7px no-repeat;">
- http://www.iaaesthetics.org/plugins/system/jat3/jat3/base-themes/default/images/bullet.gif) 20px 7px no-repeat;">Literature, Identity, Politics: Literary fiction plays an important role in Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of subjectivity, especially with regard to his concept of narrative identity, which enables him to synthesize different aspects of personal identity. Ricoeur is less explicit about the relation between literary fiction and politics. This relation entails, however, vital issues, like for instance the role of fiction in the constitution of a political entity, the (legitimizing, critical or anarchic) function of narratives in political discourse, the power dependency (and transformation) of the narrative imagination, the possibility of politic pluralism, etc. In this session, we intend to critically examine the contribution of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics to these issues.
Editor’s Note:
see also: http://www.eurosa.org/esa2014/
President’s Greetings
On behalf of the members of the Korean Society for Aesthetics, I am greatly honored to hold the 20th International Congress for Aesthetics in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea, under the auspices of the International Association for Aesthetics (L’Association Internationale d’Esthétique). The Congress will be held on the campus of Seoul National University from the 24th (Sunday) to the 29th (Friday) of July, 2016. SNU is the most prestigious university in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and home to the only Department of Aesthetics in the country.
The Korean Society of Aesthetics, the most authoritative nationwide society in the field, was established in September, 1968, being the first association for aesthetics in the Republic of Korea. With a 47-year tradition, the now more than 300 members of the KSA are actively engaged in a broad range of aesthetic subjects across the Asian, Analytic, and European traditions, including theories of painting, the aesthetics of music and film, and sociological aesthetics. Our members also play major roles in the various artistic and cultural fields in Korea. Many members of the KSA earned their Ph. D. degrees abroad, mainly from the USA, Germany, and France in the West, and China and Japan in the East. As a result, the academic climate of the KSA is comprehensive and well-informed, and the Society is very well-equipped to deal with aesthetics in an international context. With such broad backgrounds, we are confident in our ability to host a very successful Seoul ICA.
The theme of the Seoul Congress is “Aesthetics and Mass Culture.” The Congress will focus on the various aesthetic aspects of mass culture, which, due to the rapid development of information technology, has become one of the most prominent of contemporary cultural phenomena. We are all familiar with the idea of globalization and with developments in information technology. We have been told that, thanks to the internet and other modes of information technology, there are a few, if any, places isolated from the rest of the world today. The importance of globalization, one of whose symptoms is the overwhelming flow of information, is not just that we can learn more about other countries, other people, and other cultures, but also that we become more likely to be influenced by other cultures, especially their ways of life. To try to understand and, in some cases, to accept other cultures and life styles often results in a change of one’s own view of life, even one’s own view of the world, which also includes one’s conception of the arts and sensibilities to the aesthetic. But the revolution of information technology also raises the philosophical or aesthetic issue of mass art and mass culture, which, we think, deserves serious discussion. We hope that the Congress will achieve many fruitful results from the many urgent aesthetic questions arising as a result of these phenomena.
In addition to these questions, the Seoul Congress, as with all other Congresses, will be open to every traditional subject of aesthetics and we welcome papers and panel proposals devoted to all fields of aesthetics. The Congress will consist of several panels and round tables, along with dozens of sessions, including sessions for individual artistic genres. The Organizing Committee will choose the topics for some events, but the rest will be open to the general members of the IAA.
It is my promise that we will devote all our efforts to the success of the Seoul Congress. In the name of all the members of the Korean Society for Aesthetics, I hope to see you all in Korea next summer.
Prof. Chong-hwan Oh
(President of the Organizing Committee for 2016 ICA,
Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)
International Conference “Literary Theories and Critiques of Our Time” & 11thAnnual Conference of China Association of Sino-Foreign Literary and Arts Theories (CASFLAT), August 15-19, 2014
Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan Province, China co-sponsored by CASFLAT, Henan University College of Humanities, Section of Literary Theories of Institute of Literature, CASS, and International Association for Aesthetics
The 11th Annual Conference of CASFLAT on “The Literary Theory and Critique of Our Times” concentrates on the relationship of literary theory and critique to the times, society and contemporary living condition. Theme of 2014 is to restate the commitment of relating literary theoretical studies with the presence of contemporary China, in the hope of exploring the ways to rectifying the separation between theories and practices, and the inadequate introductions and interpretations of the foreign and classical literary theories.
Editors Note: As we look forward to upcoming events in Belgrade Serbia, June 2015, and the next International Congress of Aesthetics to be held in Seoul, Korea, Summer 2016, it may be informative to review the conference report of the organizing committee of the centennial Congress entitled Aesthetics in Action that was held in Krakow, Poland last summer. This report was inadvertently omitted from IAA Newsletter #43 published in January 2014 and its belated inclusion here reminds us of the professionalism required to plan and execute our association’s related meetings. Sebastian Stankiewicz and Lilianna Bieszczad co-authored this Organizers Report.
After meetings in Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Ankara, and Beijing, the International Congress of Aesthetics (ICA) returned to Europe for the first time in 21st century. Krakow, Poland was the site of the centennial Congress (19. ICA 2013) and its theme, Aesthetics in Action, emphasized the dynamic changes in the discipline of aesthetics.
The Congress was organized by Polish Society of Aesthetics, Jagiellonian University, and International Association for Aesthetics. Organizing an international event of this stature required the cooperation not only of Poland’s aesthetic circles and academic communities but also government institutions including the Ministry of the Culture and National Heritage of Republic of Poland, the Ministry of the Science and High Education Republic of Poland, and the Office of the Mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski. The Honorary Committee included professors representing all of Poland’s aesthetic communities: Grzegorz Dziamski, Bohdan Dziemidok, Maria Go?aszewska, Leszek Koczanowicz, Teresa Kostyrko, Alicja Kuczy?ska, Iwona Lorenc, Teresa P?kala, Ewa Rewers, Piotr J. Przybysz, Tadeusz Szko?ut, Grzegorz Sztabi?ski, Irena Wojnar, and Anna Zeidler-Janiszewsk?. The Organizing Committee, under direction of Prof. Krystyna Wilkoszewska, directly participated in the preparations of all the many and varied the Congress events included: Rafa? Delekta (Academy of Music in Krakow), Antoni Porczak (Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow), Krzysztof Lenartowicz (Tadeusz Ko?ciuszko Krakow University of Technology), Alicja Panasiewicz (Pedagogical University of Krakow), Stanis?aw Hry? (Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University), and from the primary host institution Jagiellonian University, Jaros?aw Górniak, Micha? Bohun, Lilianna Bieszczad, Jakub Petri, Sebastian Stankiewicz and Ewa Chudoba.
International and intercultural atmosphere of the Congress assured the number of abstract submissions received would be high. There were over 500 submissions from 56 countries. Congress attendance was 460 which included aestheticians who presented their papers as well as participated in the Congress events.
The Opening Ceremony on June 22,2013 was held in the Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University. Guest and participants were welcome by the organizers and representatives of cooperating institutions: Rector of the Jagiellonian University Prof. Wojciech Nowak, President of the IAA Curtis L. Carter, President-Elect Prof. Gao Jianping, Dean of the Department of Philosophy of Jagiellonian University, Prof. Jaros?aw Górniak, President of the Polish Society of Aesthetics Prof. Krystyna Wilkoszewska, and Vice-Mayor of Krakow, Magdalena Sroka, s well as Vice-Rectors of Jagiellonian University, Prof. S. Kistryn and Prof. A. Mania, and members of the Honorary Committee. Rector of Jagiellonian University announced the Congress to be open, was followed by the Presidential Lecture of Curtis L. Carter entitled, Aesthetics and the Arts in Action. This theme continued in round table discussion: Past and Future of the ICAs – a Hundred Years. In the afternoon, the ceremony continued in the Krakow Philharmonic Hall, starting with Arnold Berleant’s plenary panel and culminating with the Inaugural Concert performed by Beethoven Academy Orchestra conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk. During the concert there were presented two compositions arranged in one work: Aisthesis Symphony (2013) by Karol Nepelski and Ignacy Feliks Dobrzy?ski’s Overture to the opera Monbar (1838). The Opening Ceremony concluded with reception in Krakow City Hall, Wielopolski Palace, where participants were greeted by Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Krakow. Jacek Majchrowski and Curtis L. Carter responded as representatives of the Congress.
The Organizing Committee formed several types of sessions including two new kinds of sessions: first innovation were plenary panels, organized by invited by the Committee scientists and secondly, panel sessions, which were submitted by participants. In addition, participants presented papers in sessions and there were numerous other round-table discussions as well as poster sessions. The most popular plenary panels highlighted the new important directions in the development of aesthetics. These panels were Arnold Berleant’s Aesthetic Engagement , Wolfgang Welsch’s Aesthetics Beyond Aesthetics, Richard Shusterman’s Somaesthetics, and Aleš Erjavec’s Aesthetics and Politics.
Other sessions and round-table discussions included: Past and Future of the ICAs – a Hundred Years, with chair: Aleš Erjavec (Slovenia) with Curtis L. Carter (USA), Gao Jianping (China), Miško Šuvakovi? (Serbia), Bohdan Dziemidok (Poland), Chong-hwan Oh (Korea), Arnold Berleant (USA), Zsolt Batori (Hungary). The second round-table discussion, Aesthetics in 20th Century Poland, included Polish representatives Zofia Rosi?ska and Krystyna Wilkoszewska, with participants from other countries including: Zdenka Kalnicka (Czech Republic), Gao Jianping (China) and Joseph Margolis (USA). The last discussion was accompanied by a publication of a great interest of Congress participants, presenting achievements of Polish aesthetics, 20th Century Aesthetics in Poland, Edited by Krystyna Wilkoszewska.
Particular interest attracted panel sessions. Among 20 submitted, six panels were connected in pairs creating bigger theme units: interpretation panels (organized by Joseph Margolis and Noel Carroll, both USA); bio-art panels (organized by Polona Tratnik, Slovenia and Ingeborg Reichle, Germany); changes in culture and arts (Marcin Rychter, Poland, and Kenneth Stikkers, USA). Other sessions and their organizers included: Global Aesthetics and Chinese Aesthetics (Eva Wah Man, Hong Kong); Applied Social Art: The Potential of Art and Criticism after March 11, 2011 (Akiko Kasuya, Japan); Aesthetic Accounts on Japanese Pop-culture (Hisashi Muroi, Japan); The Artful Species: Aesthetics, Art, and Evolution (Stephan Davies, Australia, Jerzy Luty, Poland); Aesthetics and Landscape (Raffaele Milani, Italy, Yuko Nakama, Japan); Spatial Perception and Aesthetics of Court and Garden (Jeongil Seo, Korea); Cyberaesthetics – the Phenomena of Electronic Art (Michal Ostrowicki, Poland); Art in Action (Maja Piotrowska-Tryzno, Poland); Participatory Art: Ethics and Politics (Michael Kelly, USA); Artification (Yrj? Sep?nmaa, Finland); The Perfomativity of Images in the Social Context (Aleksandra ?ukaszewicz-Alcaraz, Poland); Between Loss and Repetition. Creativity as Response to Death as the Negative Muse (Bogna J. Obidzinska, Poland); Polish Music and Modernity (Teresa Ma?ecka, Poland); Rediscovering Susanne Langer’s Relevance for Contemporary Aesthetics and Theory of Art (Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin, Great Britain).
Other participants presented their papers ordered in ten diverse topics: Aesthetics – Visions and Revisions; Changes in Art – Past and Present; Aesthetics in Practice – the Aesthetic Factor in Religion, Ethics, Education, Politics, Law, Economy, Trade, Fashion, Sports, Everyday Life etc.; Aesthetics and Nature: Evolutionism, Ecology, Posthumanism…; Body Aesthetics – Soma and Senses; Art and Science; Technologies and Bio-technologies in Aesthetics and Art; Architecture and Urban Space; Cultural and Intercultural Studies in Aesthetics; The Sphere of Transition – Transections, Transformations, Transfigurations in Culture, Aesthetics and the Arts.
According to the number of submissions, it can be pointed out that the dominant interests were within the contemporary field of aesthetics. The largest number of submissions were in the theme of Vision and Revision and Aestetics in Practice (100 and 64 respectively). There was also great interest in new phenomena in the arts, such as bio-art. All of the presentations were performed simultaneously in nine areas of the Auditorium Maximum, and also – during two Congress days – in Collegium Maius of Jagiellonian University, and in the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art.
ART IN ACTION: The Krakow Congress was held under the banner of Aesthetics in Action, supplemented by the Organizing Committee in artistic part of the Congress, by analogical phrase Art in Action. The last slogan marked almost all artistic events organized during the Congress. The two most important events were to be: Inaugural Concert, which was held in Opening Day in the Krakow Philharmonic Hall and the projection of Krzysztof Wodiczko’s War Veterans Projection held in the night at the Main Market. During the Inaugural Concert, prepared by the Academy of Music in Krakow, City Hall Office, and Philharmonic Hall, there have been heard a composition of a young composer Karol Nepelski’s Aisthetic Symphony (2013) put together with Ignacy Dobrzy?ski’s Overture to the opera Monbar (1838). The works have not been performed one after the one, but arranged by Nepelski in one piece, and supplemented by elements of performance art. The word “aesthesis” and “aesthetics” were encoded in melodics and harmonics of the composition. The work have been performed by Beethoven Academy Orchestra conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk,.
The second event initiated by the Organizing Committee, have been realized, thanks to the support of the City Hall Office, by team of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK). The Wodiczko’s projection consisted of white words display on the wall of the City Hall Tower, armored car as a source of the displayed images and sounds effects, and the very sound effects. Words displayed on tower wall were extracts from statements of war veterans and members of their families. All statements were played simultaneously as an audible material supplemented by light flashes and sounds of explosions or gunshots. It should be added, that next day after projection, Wodiczko presented his lecture concerning more theoretical issues.
Another artistic event very popular among Congress participants and Krakow citizens and tourists, was an exhibition of Eduardo Kac Lagoglyphs in Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art. The theoretical issues were undertaken by the artist and Wolfgang Welsch on two occasions; the first time during a meeting in Bunkier Sztuki Gallery mediated by its director, Piotr Cyprya?ski, and secondly, in an entirely academic environment of a plenary panel held in Auditorium Maximum. The exhibition in Bunkier Sztuki Kac developed some ideas derived from his work of the transgenic rabbit, centered around visual and poetic dimensions of a language presenting his graphic and multimedia works. Within media works the artist employed the Google Earth application and, next to ready-made graphic works, he decided to make a site specific mural for the occasion.
There were also other artistic events in the building of Auditorium Maximum available for Congress participants. Mostly there have been events marked in their structure by such notions like interaction, activity, being in process. One of such event was an audio-visual installation Behind the Wall by Marek Cho?oniewski, artist connected with two Krakow universities: the Academy of Music in Krakow and Academy of Fine Arts. The installation have been a most noticeable artistic action, because it was performed in a space of the Auditorium Maximum underground where met participants during lunch, coffee breaks, and a the Congress reception. Other artistic events were performed by masters and their students of two universities: the Department of Arts of Pedagogical University of Krakow and Academy of Arts in Szczecin. Events organized by the former were: an exhibition of bio-art Plantomorphs, held partly in medial form in the Auditorium and partly concerning live forms on the roof of the main building of the Pedagogical University (Laboratorium Gallery); and also Garage Sale organized by students from the Roombook group, who realized an idea of artistic interventions taken upon objects exchanged with people visiting their workshop in the Auditorium underground. Instead Academy of Arts events consisted of: students’ films screening on TV monitors in halls of the Auditorium, an exhibition of sculptures made as copies of objects depicted on the photos above them, an action Rest for Hours with fully equipped tent providing a rest space for participants of the Congress, and finally, an installation activated in an elevator made by artist ?ukasz Sk?pski, whose title Music from Trash meant music taken from the artist’s trash folder on his computer. Actions of both universities were supervised by curators: Prof. Halina Cader-Paw?owska, from the Pedagogical University, Prof. ?ukasz Sk?pski and Aleksandra ?ukaszewicz-Alcaraz, PhD, from the Academy of Arts in Szczecin.
INSTITUTIONAL COOPERATION: The 19. ICA Krakow 2013 became a great challenge for both Polish communities, academic and cultural. According to the tradition of ICAs, Congress of Aesthetics have always been an opportunity to present an artistic and cultural heritage of the country which organized the event. In fulfilling this tradition the Organizing Committee engaged all Polish aesthetic academic communities and both the scientific and cultural institutions of the city of Krakow. Thanks to the organizers efforts, the Congress received also very broad support from institutions of the state, as well as, from local authorities. In particular, the most fruitful cooperation was with the office of the Mayor of Krakow and Krakow City Hall. The Organizing Committee was given a support in producing the two most important artistic events: the Inaugural Concert with participation of the Beethoven Academy Orchestra conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk in the Krakow Philharmonic Hall and Krzysztof Wodiczko’s War Veteran Projection. Moreover, Jacek Majchrowski, the Mayor of Krakow, invited the Congress participants for the reception held in Krakow City Hall, the Wielopolski Palace, and the Mayor Office made possible promotion of the Congress among citizens of Krakow and great number of tourists, printing posters of the centennial conference and giving them public space. Film clips announcing the conference event were seen on the television monitors included on city-wide trams and buses.
The organizers engaged many of Krakow’s scientific and cultural institutions thus fulfilling all organizers intentions to make the Congress fully representative of Poland’s and Krakow’s aesthetic, scientific, and cultural communities. One result of this cooperation was the publication, 20th Century Aesthetics in Poland, edited by Krystyna Wilkoszewska. It has received broad interest from all the participants of the Congress.
Among universities involved in cooperation with the Organizing Committee, before others it should be underlined the Academy of Music in Krakow and its very important contribution to the organization of the Inaugural Concert and a plenary panel held in the Philharmonic Hall. Other universities participation in the organization of the Congress include: Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University and the Dean of the Department of Architecture and Arts Prof. Stanis?aw Hry? who announced a student contest for Congress visual identification (won a student of painting, Joanna Krzempek), the Department of Arts of the Pedagogical University of Krakow, and also the Academy of Arts in Szczecin. The last two participated mainly in the organization of artistic events.
Among Krakow cultural institutions very important role played the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK) with its director, Masza Potocka, who took the care of the practical production of Wodiczko’s projection, and who also invited Congress participants for cocktail party in the museum building and to visit all open exhibitions.
Equally important role played the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art with its director Piotr Cyprya?ski. The result of the cooperation have been the exhibition Lagoglyphs by Eduardo Kac, held during the Congress week, and also the meeting with Wolfgang Welsh and the artist. There were also held some of the scientific sessions of the Congress, making Bunkier Sztuki one of the three scientific spots of the Congress, among Auditorium Maximum and the oldest Jagiellonian University building of Collegium Maius.
In addition to Congress participants having the opportunity to visit Krakow’s near-by historical sites, the Museum of the Japan Arts and Technology also took a part organizing an afternoon reception and guided tour of the museum.
Other Krakow cultural institutions and museums opening their institutions to Congress participants included Director Zofia Go?ubiew invitation to the National Museum in Krakow and Director Micha? Niezabitowski invitation to see the Undergrounds of the Main Market which is part of the Historical Museum of City of Krakow.
The Organizing Committee of the 19. ICA 2013 Krakow hopes that the Congress contributed to strengthening the connection among all the aesthetic communities from around the world, to further the exchange of ideas among young and experienced scholars and also to increase our mutual academic and professional contacts with the hope that this connection will enhance cooperation among individuals and institutions.
From the President
Springtime in Beijing was, this year, too short. Short and very busy. Some of our good friends visited here, including Ken-ichi Sasaki, Curtis, Carter and Ales Erjavec, and I was very happy to meet them. I will enjoy seeing all of you in between the regular meetings of our Congresses.
Recently, I have attended several conferences in China and elsewhere. In early April, I went to Hangzhou for a symposium on the theoretic significance of Chinese ink-wash painting hosted by Pan Gongkai. We had a very good discussion there on the famous West Lake garden, a place traditionally called "Paradise on Earth" in China. Our friends, Curtis Carter, Richard Shusterman and Peng Feng, gave excellent presentations there. We also met other scholars including François Jullien and Cheng Chung-ying. Two topics discussed were especially interesting and deserve mention here: first, the physical brushwork as the traces of human action to signify the feeling and emotion, or states of mind of the painters, and second, the brushwork as the evidence of the painter's character as a morally exemplary human being. These two concepts represent two interrelated ways of thinking about and interpreting Chinese ink-wash painting.
A little later in April, I went to Chengdu (The city where many of us met in 2006. I hope you still remember this city where the Executive Committee meeting of IAA voted to approve Beijing as the venue for the 2010 IAA Congress). At this 2014 Chengdu conference, two key concepts attracted the attention of the participants. First, contemporary literary theory and secondly, its trans-cultural travel. "Contemporary" and "contemporarity" are important concepts because people are considering the possibilities to go beyond the post-modern and post-modernism. The introduction of so many different theories into China has contributed to confusion among Chinese scholars. They now wish to return to their own ways of living and artistic practices. Their aim is to find possibilities for focusing on their own practices while continuing to introduce the theories from abroad. Secondly, the matter of the trans-cultural travel of theories is important. During the 20th century, many theories have become influential internationally. Most of them originated from Europe and became internationally influential by way of their reception and development in the USA. Now, as theories travel to China, it is hoped that their reception and development here can become theoretically significant and fruitful in the future as well.
Jale Erzen & Raffaele Milani (eds.) Nature and the City. Beauty is Taking on a New Form. International Yearbook of Aesthetics. Volume 17. Sassari: Edzione Edes 2013
Contents
The city, too, is landscape. We can leave it by going into nature exchanging the urban for the rural, but we can also enter the city to live within the architecture and contemplate its forms. Every architectural structure is a landscape and promotes an educational or paedeumatic relationship between the spirit and the environment. Our gaze and our bodies activate a certain way of contemplating that promotes the interchange between the external perception of the physical world and an internal seeing, which is the psychic perception of the visual image. There is a close relationship between the aesthetic experience of the natural environment and that of the urban landscape. In the same way that humankind lives on the earth so, too, it lives in the city.
The theme could be approached from various perspectives such as ‘nature/culture’, ‘city as human nature’, ‘ecology and the city’, symbols and metaphors, domesticated nature, nature interiorized, parks and natural environments, and other related issues.
About the Editors
Jale Nejdet Erzen (Izmir University), painter and art historian, publications on Ottoman architecture, painting and aesthetics. Vice president of IAA. Founder and long-time president of Turkish Association of Aesthetics, SAN ART. Affiliations, Middle East Technical University-Ankara and izmir University Izmir Turkey. Recent publications on urban aesthetics, contemporary art.
Raffaele Milani is Professor of Aesthetics and the author of numerous books, including The Aesthetic Categories, The Adventure of Landscape and The Faces of Grace. Philosophy, Art, and Nature. Director of the Laboratory of Research on the Cities (Institute for Advanced Studies), University of Bologna. Member of the European Commission at the French Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development on: De la connaissance des paysages à l’action paysagère.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology aims to encourage and promote research in aesthetics that draws inspiration from the phenomenological tradition as broadly understood, where “phenomenology” is inclusive of, but goes beyond the limits of, intellectual practices associated with the tradition and its well-known representative thinkers. Unique in the English speaking world, the journal welcomes scholarly articles written in a phenomenological vein as well as analyses of aesthetic phenomena by researchers working on phenomenology within analytic philosophy.
The field of the Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology is further defined by its close connections with the arts and culture, including the reality of human experience and its environment. Besides philosophical rigor, the journal puts emphasis on both creativity of ideas and precision of language. It provides a platform for new innovative ideas crossing the boundaries of both philosophical traditions and traditionally accepted fields of research in aesthetics.
See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/journal/journal-of-aesthetics-and-phenomenology/#sthash.uYYkvy29.dpuf
