Next to the journals published by the National Societies of Aesthetics, this list also contains the names of journals in the domain of aesthetics and philosophy of art edited by individual members of the IAA, as well as journals of other organizations.
A Parte Rei. Revista de Filosfia
Aesthetics (ed. by Japanese Society for Aesthetics)
Aisthesis: Revista Chilena de Investigaciones Estéticas
Aisthesis: Rivista de Estetica Online
Art+Media – Journal of Art and Media Studies
Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image
College Art Association On-Line Reviews
Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Critical Studies in Improvisation
Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics
Esthetica: Tijdschrift voor kunst en filosofie
Espes: Journal of the Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia
Figures de l'Art: Revue d'Etudes Esthetiques
International Yearbook of Aesthetics
Journal of Aesthetic Education
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
Journal of Aesthetics and Culture
Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology
Journal of the Canadian Society for Aesthetics
Laocoonte. Journal of the Spanish Society for Aesthetics
Paroli-Quaderni d'Arte e di Epistemologia
Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics
Proceedings of the 1997 Sydney Conference on Comparative Aesthetics
Proceedings of the European Society for Aesthetics
Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind
Proteus: Cahiers des Théories de l’Art
Sztuka i Filozofia – Art and Philosophy
The Polish Journal of Aesthetics
Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft
The International Association of Aesthetics/Association Internationale d’Esthétique formally came into existence in 1988 at the XIth International Congress of Aesthetics in Nottingham, England. However, the history of international association in aesthetics goes back many years. It began with the First International Congress of Aesthetics organized by Max Dessoir in Berlin in 1913. A second congress took place in Paris in 1937. Interrupted by the Second World War, the congresses resumed in 1956, when the third congress was held in Venice. From that time until 1992 with the meeting in Madrid, congresses took place at four-year intervals: in Athens in 1960, Amsterdam in 1964, Upsala in 1968, Bucharest in 1972, Darmstadt in 1976, Dubrovnik in 1980, Montreal in 1984, and in Nottingham in 1988.
Before 1984 these meetings were arranged by the Comité International d'Esthétique. Its members included many of the most eminent scholars in aesthetics representing countries with a strong tradition in aesthetics, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Japan, and the United States. At various times the Comité included Etienne Souriau, Mikel Dufrenne, Harold Osborne, Luigi Pareyson, Tonomobu Imamichi, Milan Damnjanovic, Thomas Munro, and many other distinguished scholars.
As interest in aesthetics increased throughout the world, this committee, which was self-appointed and self-perpetuating, became at the same time less active and unable to respond to the needs of the growing community of aestheticians. At the IXth International Congress in 1980 in Dubrovnik, the decision was made to establish an international association. A committee, partly appointed by the Comité and partly elected by the delegates present, was charged with drafting a constitution. The work of that committee was presented at the next congress at Montreal in 1984. A constitution that included membership for both national societies and individual scholars was adopted by the delegates present, and a provisional Executive Committee was elected to begin organizing the Association. Harold Osborne, who had been a member of the Comité and was instrumental in encouraging the organization of an international association, became our first President, planning was begun for future congresses and proposals made for additional activities of the Association. He has since been followed in office by Göran Hermerén, Arnold Berleant, Aleš Erjavec, Ken-ichi Sasaki, Heinz Paetzold, Jos de Mul, Curtis Carter, Gao Jianping and Jale Erzen.
Since the election of officers at its formal inauguration in 1988, the IAA/AIE has carried on its activities on a regular basis. It has continued to organize international congresses, following the meeting in Nottingham with a congress in Madrid in 1992. Increasing interest in aesthetics and a greater concern for international communication and association led the Association to enlarge the geographical scope of the congresses and to arrange them at three-year intervals, first in Lahti, Finland in 1995, in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1998, in Tokyo, Japan in 2001, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2004, Ankara, Turkey in 2007, Beijing, China in 2010, Krakow, Poland in 2013 and Seoul, Korea in 2016. The Association also expanded its activities to include publication of the IAA Newsletter and, beginning in 1996, the International Yearbook of Aesthetics. In 2019, the international congress will be held in Belgrade, Serbia.
CONSTITUTION
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR AESTHETICS
ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE D'ESTHÉTIQUE
Article I. Aims
To give institutional recognition, world-wide, to aesthetics as a field of humanistic knowledge, to encourage and promote inquiry in aesthetics, and to disseminate its findings.
To expedite exchange between national societies and regional societies of aesthetics; to promote the creation of national societies in countries where none are in existence; to provide a forum for aestheticians who are not members of any national society.
"Aesthetics" embraces all studies of the creation and appreciation of the arts, of the aesthetic values of art and nature, of industry and everyday life, and of the relations of those activities and values to economic, political, and social life and other modes of human culture.
Article II. Membership
The Association shall be made up of the following:
Constituent Societies: every national and regional society of aesthetics that seeks admission to the Association and that, having been admitted, remains active and in good standing. Any society applying for or enjoying membership in the International Association for Aesthetics/Association international d'esthetique (IAA/AIE) shall have at least twenty (20) active members. Each constituent society is to furnish the Secretary-General a list of the names and mailing addresses of that society's President and Secretary-General.
Individual Members: individual aestheticians who seek admission to the Association, and who, having been admitted, remain in good standing.
Student Members: students, undergraduate or graduate, who seek admission to the Association.
Article III. Officers
The officers of the Association shall be the President, the First and Second Vice-Presidents, the Secretary-General, and the Assistant Secretary-General. The First Vice-President or, when unavailable, the Second Vice-President, shall deputize for the President when necessary.
A Treasurer will be appointed and voted upon by the EC members after the newly elected officers take over. The President shall act as Vice-Treasurer or shall appoint a Vice-Treasurer.
No country shall be represented by more than one officer at any one time.
Article IV. Executive Council
The Executive Council shall be made of
- the Officers
- delegate members of national and regional societies, one from each constituent society, selected by that society,
- non-delegate members, five in number, elected by the individual members,
- the Publication Committee made of three people. Its responsibilities are to oversee and assist the editors of the IAA Yearbook and the IAA Newsletter, and the webmaster of the IAA Website,
- the Treasurer, whose responsibilities are to oversee the IAA bank account, deposit dues, and report to the EC at every EC meeting,
- the Vice-Treasurer who will assist the Treasurer when necessary or will act on her behalf
- the Congress Liaison Committee made up of three members of the EC.
All members of the Executive Committee shall be individual members of the Association who are recognized and established scholars in aesthetics. No country shall be represented by more than two members of the Executive Council at any one time, excluding delegate members.
Each member of the Executive Council shall hold office from one Congress to the next. The President of the IAA/AIE shall serve for one term and shall not be eligible for re-election. The Secretary-General shall serve for no more than two consecutive terms.
Incoming members shall be seated at the first General Meeting of the International Congress. The out-going President shall open that meeting and introduce and turn over its chairmanship to his or her successor.
In order to ensure continuity on the Executive Council, the out-going President and Secretary-General shall be ex officio members until the next congress.
A meeting of the Executive Council shall be called by the President of his or her own accord or upon request by one-third of its membership. One-third of the membership of the Executive Council shall constitute a quorum.
The Executive Council shall rule on all applications for admission to the Association. It shall authorize international congresses, appoint organizing committees and congress liaison committees, and make policy decisions in the name of the Association.
Article V. Congresses
An international congress shall be held every three or four years.
There shall be a Congress Liaison Committee, made up of the officers and three other members of the Executive Committee appointed by the President when the site of the next congress has been decided. This Committee shall be charged with working in close conjunction with the host Organizing Committee, to report annually to the Executive Committee concerning preparations for the Congress, and to transmit to the Organizing Committee recommendations from the Executive Committee concerning these preparations.
There shall be at least one General Meeting at each congress open to all members of the Association in attendance. The time of the meeting shall be fixed by the Congress Liaison Committee. A second General Meeting may be called by the Executive Committee or by majority vote at the first meeting.
Article VI. Elections
The Executive Committee shall draw up a slate of no more than five candidates for the positions of President and Vice-President and a slate of no more than three candidates for the positions of Secretary-General and Asistant Secretary-General. There shall be no more than one candidate from any single country among these eight candidates.
Election from this slate shall be by mail ballot by all individual members. The three candidates receiving the most votes on the Presidential slate shall be elected President, First Vice-President, and Second Vice-President, respectively. The two candidates receiving the most votes on the Secretary-General slate shall be elected Secretary-General and Assistant Secretary-General, respectively.
The Executive Council shall draw up a slate of no more than four candidates, at least one of whom shall be from a country that does not have a national society, for the election of two non-delegate members. There shall be no more than one candidate from any single country on this slate. Election from this slate shall be by mail ballot by all individual members. The two candidates receiving the highest votes shall be elected.
The Secretary-General shall be charged with supervising these elections and is authorized to employ the secretaries of the constituent societies to assist in doing so. The voting shall take place at such a time that the results can be announced at the first General Meeting.
Those present and voting at the first and second General Meeting shall be entitled to nominate a slate of no more than five candidates, at least one of whom shall be from a country that does not have a national society, for the election of three additional non-delegate members. There shall be no more than one candidate from any single country on this slate. Election shall be by all those present and voting at the General Meeting at which the nominations are submitted for balloting. The candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected.
Article VII. Nominating Committee
A Nominating Committee composed of three members of the Executive Council shall be appointed by the Executive Committee. In advance of each election, the Nominating Committee shall canvass the membership and submit a slate of officers and nominees for delegates-at-large to the Executive Council for approval.
Article VIII. Unexpired Terms of Office
The Executive Council shall appoint a suitable member to fill any office made vacant by resignation or death. If the unexpired term is longer than one year, that term shall be considered as a full term in meeting restrictions on consecutive terms.
Article IX. Dues
The amount of the annual dues to be paid to the Association by the individual members shall be determined by the Executive Committee.
The Constituent Societies (National and Regional) are asked to contribute an amount determined by the EC based on the number of their active members (e.g. 1 USD per person). In special circumstances, the constituent society can be exempt from the payment of dues by the consent of the elected officers of the Association (President, Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Secretary General, Assistant Secretary-General, and elected delegates.)
Dues for student members shall be one-half the dues of individual members.
Article X. Removal from Membership
An individual or society may, for reasons communicated to the party concerned, be suspended temporarily from membership or reinstated to active membership by a majority vote of the Executive Council.
An individual or society may, for reasons communicated to the party concerned, be removed from membership by a two-thirds vote of the Executive Committee.
Article XI. Honorary President
The office of Honorary President shall be established and shall be filled on the recommendation of the Executive Council. Ordinarily a single Honorary President will be appointed at any time but, under special circumstances, more than one may be named. The office of Honorary President shall be for one term, a term being from one Congress to the next, but an Honorary President may be reelected. The Honorary President shall not serve on the Executive Council in any capacity.
Article XII. Honorary Life Member
The Executive Committee may designate an individual Honorary Life Member upon retiring from the office of Honorary President or as any other appropriate recognition of distinction. Honorary Life Members are exempt from the payment of dues.
Article XIII. Amendments
Amendments to this Constitution may be proposed either at a general meeting of the Association, at any time by the Executive Council, or by at least fifteen members of the Association in good standing. They shall take effect when approved by two-thirds of the members participating in a mail ballot.
Article XIV. Bylaws
The Executive Council shall have the right to make and amend bylaws that implement this Constitution, consistent with the aims of the Association. These bylaws shall be communicated to the membership.
The IAA currently consists of 30 collective members, i.e. national and regional societies for aesthetics, and hundreds of individual members. The main aim of the IAA is to give institutional recognition to aesthetics as a field of humanistic knowledge, to encourage and promote inquiry into aesthetics, and to disseminate its findings. The IAA does this by publishing the IAA Newsletter (published on this website), an IAA Yearbook, and organizing international congresses: the last ones being those in Rio de Janeiro in 2004, Ankara in 2007, Beijing in 2010, Krakow in 2013 and Seoul in 2016. The 2019 congress will be in Belgrade, Serbia. All scholars interested in philosophical or other kinds of aesthetics and in related areas such as art history, comparative literature, musicology, visual arts, cultural studies. etc., are invited to become members of our Association, thus joining a community of aestheticians which has institutionally existed for a century.
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Newsletter No.39 is available! You can download it here.
The International Congress of Aesthetics is held every three years under auspices of the International Association for Aesthetics and is a main event in aesthetics worldwide. The 19th, Jubilee Congress will take place in Krakow, July 21-27, 2013. For additional information, subscription etc., please visit the congress website. The final Congress Program is now available!
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.
