Twenty Years of Contemporary Aesthetics Introduction Yuriko Saito Contemporary Aesthetics was established twenty years ago by Founding Editor, Arnold Berleant. As the first, exclusively online, open-access journal in aesthetics, it provided an academic space for intellectual discourse unencumbered by various restrictions observed by print and subscription-only publications. More importantly, it encouraged and continues […]
Category: Special Volume 10 (2022)
Celebrating 20 years of Contemporary Aesthetics. Looking back. Looking Forward.
Twenty Years of Contemporary Aesthetics
Special Volumes
Contemporary Aesthetics: What’s in a Name?
Contemporary Aesthetics – What’s in a Name? Kathleen Higgins Abstract Drawing on Ossi Naukkarinen’s analysis of the meaning of “contemporary aesthetics,” this article considers several layers of meaning that make the title of this journal appropriate to its mission. After two decades, the journal is doing much to fulfill the promise of its name. […]
Special Volumes
Going Global: A Cautiously Optimistic Manifesto
Going Global: A Cautiously Optimistic Manifesto Bence Nanay Abstract In this article I aim to identify a number of points at which Western[1] aesthetics is atypical in comparison to almost all other aesthetic traditions. If we take the pull of global aesthetics seriously, then we need to be extremely skeptical towards these often unquestioned […]
Special Volumes
Living Aesthetics in China: Confucian Aesthetics as a New Direction
Living Aesthetics in China: Confucian Aesthetics as a New Direction Liu Yuedi Abstract Living Aesthetics (生活美学, Sheng-huo-mei-xue) is a popular key term in Chinese society and culture today. The aestheticization of living, originally rooted in Chinese soil, is authentic Chinese wisdom and now is being fully revitalized. Confucian aesthetics can be classified as Living […]
Special Volumes
Place, Race, Gender and Materiality: Bisa Butler Making the Last, First and the First, Last in the Modern Museum
Place, Race, Gender, and Materiality: Bisa Butler Making the Last, First and the First, Last in the Modern Museum A.W. Eaton and Charles Peterson Abstract Bisa Butler is a contemporary artist who creates stunning portraits composed entirely of textiles. In this article, we argue that one significant aspect of Butler’s oeuvre is the […]
Special Volumes
Decoloniality, Identity, and Aesthetic Publicity
Decoloniality, Identity, and Aesthetic Publicity Monique Roelofs Abstract This essay explores how the decolonial practices of Latina poet Alicia Borinsky in Frivolous Women and Other Sinners (2009) and British filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien in Lessons of the Hour (2019) occasion open-ended conceptions of the public that engage economic and technological developments in […]
Special Volumes
Reshaping Aesthetics and Aesthetic Sensibility in a Hybrid Environment
Reshaping Aesthetics and Aesthetic Sensibility in a Hybrid Environment Aleksandra Łukaszewicz Jakub Petri Abstract The contemporary environment in developed countries is highly urbanized and technologized. It is not only physical but also virtual, created with the use of cyber-techniques and the internet. The two layers of the environment are: the physical places, persons, […]
Special Volumes
A Big Disenchantment
A Big Disenchantment Wolfgang Welsch Abstract For millennia, aesthetic activities were expected to improve the world and ourselves. Aesthetics was to hone humanity. We find this conviction in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, and throughout Modern Times and Modernity, from Plato via Leonardo da Vinci and Schiller to Dewey and Rorty. […]