GESTURE
The 2013 Annual Conference of the Nordic Society of Aesthetics
The Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Arts and Ideas welcome you to the 2013 Annual Conference of the Nordic Society for Aesthetics. The theme of the conference is “Gesture” and it will take place at the University of Oslo from May 30 – June 1, (Thursday noon through Saturday evening).
The use of gesticulation has always been a means by which human beings have expressed themselves. Being bodily rather than conceptual, its logos lie outside language. Within the fields of art and aesthetics, gesture implies an opening process as a distinctive way of cognition as well as an approach to the particular qualities of artworks. While Jean-François Lyotard associates the artwork with the processuality of gesture, Roland Barthes thinks gesture in terms of the event, and its production of effects, thus seeing gesture at once as a part of the artwork and as transgressing the work “itself”. For Theodor Adorno the gestural in music was a central topic and Ludwig Wittgenstein spoke of architecture as a gesture. Part of our aesthetic experience and of our “answer” to artworks is always gestural.
The conference calls for papers on both contemporary and historical issues: suggested topics of interest would include questions related to aesthetic experience in general as well as visual art, architecture, music, and literature.
Keynote speakers: Gottfried Boehm, Basel, Julian Johnson, London, Rainer Nägele, Santa Barbara, John Ricco, Toronto, Lilian Munk Rösing, Copenhagen.
Abstract proposals of no more than 200 words should be sent before February 15 to Bente Larsen, bente.larsen@ifikk.uio.no
N.B. Participation without paper is welcome as well – however we kindly ask that you register via the above e-mail address. PhD students are strongly encouraged to submit a proposal.
Conference venue: Georg Morgenstiernes hus, Blindernveien 31, University of Oslo