Conferenze ART - Adam Andrzejewski (Uniwersytet Warszawski)
Two lectures of ART (Aesthetics Research Torino) Philosophical Seminar will be delivered by Prof. Adam Andrzejewski (Uniwersytet Warszawski) on January 13th at 10 a.m. and on January 14th at 6 p.m
Improvisation and Everyday Aesthetics
January 13.10am; Palazzo Venturi, Ex Sala Lauree, Via Verdi 25 - Torino
The paper aims at researching the role of improvisation in everyday aesthetics. Everyday aesthetics is focused on mundane and daily activities such as cooking, transporting, cleaning, clothing and the like. It is often claimed that what makes the mentioned activities aesthetic is deeply (but surely not only) rooted in the fact that they are repetitive. That is, they happen regularly and almost automatically in our daily life. Such a view seems to clash with the basic intuitions concerning improvisation as something creative, spontaneous and unrepeatable. Yet, we do improvise a lot in the everyday: not everything can and should be planned. In the paper I shall argue that the phenomenon of improvisation plays an important role in our everyday as well as brings new approach into everyday aesthetics as a field of philosophical inquiry. I support the hypothesis that improvisation is a useful tool in detecting the “content” of someone’s everyday. By improvised actions and decisions we are able to reach (and cross) the boundaries of our everyday. This often has important aesthetic and non-aesthetic consequences. I will also sketch how improvisation could be incorporated in the different models of everyday aesthetics: relation-oriented account and object-oriented account.
The Ontology of Atmospheres
January 14./6pm; Palazzo Nuovo, Aula 6 - Torino
The atmosphere is one of the key ideas in contemporary aesthetics. The category of atmosphere proves to be exceptionally useful whenever particular spaces, such as interiors or urban spaces, are concerned. The goal of the paper is to reconsider how an ‘urban atmosphere’ may be understood. In order to do that, I would like to shed light on the ontological nature of atmospheres by revisiting the concept of atmosphere as recently presented by some influential proponents of the aesthetics of atmospheres. Contrary to the widespread view within the aesthetics of atmospheres, I argue that ‘an atmosphere’ is not an entity itself. It is not a ‘quasi-thing’ or ‘half-thing’ as usually stated, but rather a relational feature of a given site, which exists only when we experience it. Th discussion of the metaphysics of atmospheres will at the same time provide us with a better understanding of the idea of urban atmosphere as characteristic of a particular site. Moreover, the ontology I am going to sketch also allows us to consider the idea of an atmosphere of a whole city.
Bio
Adam Andrzejewski is a philosopher and Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw. His research is focused on everyday aesthetics, popular culture, and ontology of art. He has authored several articles devoted to analytic aesthetics and philosophy of art published or accepted in e.g. Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetic, Rivista di estetica, Brill Research Perspectives on Art and Law, The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, The Journal of Somaesthetics and Contemporary Aesthetics. He is the Associate Editor of Popular Inquiry as well as the Treasurer of the European Society for Aesthetics.
www.art.unito.it
ART (Aesthetics Research Torino) is a periodic philosophical seminar organized by the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the University of Turin and the PhD Program FINO. It is coordinated by Prof. Alessandro Bertinetto.
ART addresses different topics of the contemporary debate in Aesthetics: philosophy of beauty, philosophy of the arts, theory of sensory experience, philosophy of image and imagination, and history of aesthetics.
ART is supported by:
Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sulla Morfologia Francesco Moiso (CIM)
Centro di Ricerca Interdipartimentale di Logica, Linguaggio e Cognizione (LLC)
Centro Studi Arti della Modernità
Centro Studi Filosofico-religiosi "Luigi Pareyson"
Laboratorio di Ontologia (Labont)
ART is sponsored by:
Italian Society for Aesthetics (SIE)
European Society for Aesthetics (ESA)