Sumários
The aesthetic experience of the Landscape
11 Março 2024, 14:00 • Filipa de Almeida Afonso
Why is the experience of art different from the experience of nature? Be it the high mountain or the countryside, the landscape presents itself as a fertile ground for a peculiar kind of aesthetic experience, different from the aesthetic experience of gardens or from that which the representation of nature arouses. Georg Simmel (1858-1918) and Rosario Assunto (1915-1994) will help us understand what is so different about the landscape and why we should protect it, also from an aesthetic viewpoint.
Critical Theory on Art and Ideology: Adorno and Horkheimer on Culture Industry
26 Fevereiro 2024, 14:00 • Filipa de Almeida Afonso
It is impossible to talk about art without talking about the society that produced it. This is one of the main tenets of the philosophers associated with Critical Theory, a diversified group of intellectuals also usually called “the Frankfurt School”. Influenced by Hegel, who introduced time and historicity as a crucial element for any philosophical enterprise, and Marx, who laid the basis for a systematic analysis of capitalist societies, critical theorists sought to analyse the aesthetic realm in its connections with contemporary social conditions, rather than as an isolated, autonomous sphere. At the same time, however, they also sought to avoid a deterministic or mechanistic approach (present for instance in simplistic versions of Marxism) that considers works of art to be merely a reflection of the social conditions in which they were produced. Art is both a product of and has impacts on society as a whole. What can these impacts be? When is art a form of emancipation from domination, and when does it revert into ideology in favour of the status quo? What is the place of art in a society where everything is turned into a commodity? Can art change the world? We will discuss these questions based on two of the main approaches within Critical Theory: Walter Benjamin’s analysis of the technological reproducibility of the work of art and Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s critique of the culture industry. We will explore the key concepts of this debate – such as aura, cult value and exhibition value, shock effect, aestheticization of politics and politicization of art, mass culture, primacy of identity, massification and reification – and discuss whether these approaches can help us understand the rapid changes we are experiencing with the increasing mediation and commodification of culture by social media and corporate platforms.
Critical Theory on Art and Ideology: Benjamin on Technological Reproducibility
19 Fevereiro 2024, 14:00 • Filipa de Almeida Afonso
It is impossible to talk about art without talking about the society that produced it. This is one of the main tenets of the philosophers associated with Critical Theory, a diversified group of intellectuals also usually called “the Frankfurt School”. Influenced by Hegel, who introduced time and historicity as a crucial element for any philosophical enterprise, and Marx, who laid the basis for a systematic analysis of capitalist societies, critical theorists sought to analyse the aesthetic realm in its connections with contemporary social conditions, rather than as an isolated, autonomous sphere. At the same time, however, they also sought to avoid a deterministic or mechanistic approach (present for instance in simplistic versions of Marxism) that considers works of art to be merely a reflection of the social conditions in which they were produced. Art is both a product of and has impacts on society as a whole. What can these impacts be? When is art a form of emancipation from domination, and when does it revert into ideology in favour of the status quo? What is the place of art in a society where everything is turned into a commodity? Can art change the world? We will discuss these questions based on two of the main approaches within Critical Theory: Walter Benjamin’s analysis of the technological reproducibility of the work of art and Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s critique of the culture industry. We will explore the key concepts of this debate – such as aura, cult value and exhibition value, shock effect, aestheticization of politics and politicization of art, mass culture, primacy of identity, massification and reification – and discuss whether these approaches can help us understand the rapid changes we are experiencing with the increasing mediation and commodification of culture by social media and corporate platforms.
James Pearson: Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on Creativity
6 Fevereiro 2024, 13:00 • Filipa de Almeida Afonso
What is artistic creativity? And why do we hold it in such high esteem? What’s more, given its value, how might we go about cultivating more of it? Schopenhauer and Nietzsche offer us markedly different answers to this thorny set of questions. This module will survey the continuities and discontinuities between their respective views. The first lecture will give an overview of Schopenhauer’s standpoint, focusing on his central claim that artistic creativity, in generating great works of art, grants beholders a temporary means of transcending the suffering intrinsic to everyday life. The second lecture will reconstruct how Nietzsche rejects Schopenhauer’s position, instead insisting that artistic creativity can help us affirm and enhance, as opposed to transcend, our quotidian existence.
James Pearson: Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on Creativity
5 Fevereiro 2024, 14:00 • Filipa de Almeida Afonso
What is artistic creativity? And why do we hold it in such high esteem? What’s more, given its value, how might we go about cultivating more of it? Schopenhauer and Nietzsche offer us markedly different answers to this thorny set of questions. This module will survey the continuities and discontinuities between their respective views. The first lecture will give an overview of Schopenhauer’s standpoint, focusing on his central claim that artistic creativity, in generating great works of art, grants beholders a temporary means of transcending the suffering intrinsic to everyday life. The second lecture will reconstruct how Nietzsche rejects Schopenhauer’s position, instead insisting that artistic creativity can help us affirm and enhance, as opposed to transcend, our quotidian existence.