I wrote last year’s editorial in the heat of the pandemic. I expected then that the situation would improve by now. With vaccines available and mitigation protocols in place, I had hope, and still do hope, that we would put the virus behind us. The operations of Contemporary Aesthetics, as an exclusively online publication, have […]
Category: 20 (2022)
NOTICES
CA welcomes notices of interest to our readers. These include announcements and reviews of conferences, news items, forthcoming events, etc. Please send them using the submission guidelines. Call for Papers Designing Everyday Experience Objects, Environments, Habits Maholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Hungary 11-13 May 2023 Deadline: December 31, 2022 EVANET – Everyday Aesthetics […]
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Contemporary Aesthetics does not publish book reviews. However, to inform our readers of new publications of interest, we do publish brief descriptions extracted from information provided by the publishers. These notices do not necessarily represent the views or judgment of this journal. Readers are invited to send us such information about books they think will interest […]
SHORT NOTES
Machizukuri (Neighborhood Making): Collective World-Making in Traditional Japanese Neighborhoods
Machizukuri (Neighborhood Making): Collective World-Making in Traditional Japanese Neighborhoods Paul Haimes Machizukuri (literally “neighborhood making”) is a recent approach to community development in Japan, beginning in the 1960s, that aims to empower local communities in the development of their built environments through “more participation, independence in the decision-making process, and the establishment of […]
SHORT NOTES
Reflections on Beauty
Reflections on Beauty Miklos Nicolaus Legrady Beauty is a blessing and curse, at times superficial yet also bred in the bone. Beauty has a particularly bad reputation right now so merely to mention the subject might cost the writer some credibility in the art community: “What is the matter with you? Get with the […]
ARTICLES
Resonance and Atmosphere in Architectural Aesthetics
Resonance and Atmosphere in Architectural Aesthetics Joona Markus Hulmi Abstract The present paper is concerned with the experience of architecture as analyzed through the concepts of atmosphere and resonance. I suggest that the experience of architecture occurs by means of atmospheres that consist of numerous factors, including architectural qualities, interpersonal aspects, and the subject’s […]
ARTICLES
Three Dimensions of Intimacy in Literary Reading
Three Dimensions of Intimacy in Literary Reading Kalle Puolakka Abstract While numerous literary researchers, readers, authors, and philosophers have tried to articulate the peculiar feeling of intimacy they have sensed in literary reading, new angles can still be brought to bear on this issue. This paper develops an account of the intimacy of literary […]
ARTICLES
Aphorism and Anti-Aphorism: Language and Aesthetics
Aphorism and Anti-Aphorism: Language and Aesthetics Nicholas Romanos Abstract Karl Kraus, the great Viennese satirist, poet, and aphorist, is still little read in the Anglophone world. This article argues that Kraus’ innovative ideas about aesthetics and language, generated in response to the problems of modernity, are of great interest to the contemporary philosopher of […]
ARTICLES
Post-postmodernism and the Emergence of Heterolinational Literatures
Post-postmodernism and the Emergence of Heterolinational Literatures Mehdi Ghasemi Abstract Following the challenge by Linda Hutcheon inviting readers to name the era after postmodernism, several scholars have attempted to conceptualize the aftermath of postmodernism through introducing some successors. To join the challenge, I also introduce “heterolinationalism” as another successor to postmodernism and draw upon […]
ARTICLES
The Aesthetic Impact of the Garden of Eden
The Aesthetic Impact of the Garden of Eden David Fenner Abstract No garden in the history of the world has had a greater impact on gardens and gardening than the Garden of Eden, as expressed in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions, regardless of whether the Garden of Eden ever existed. Yet, given evidence […]
SYMPOSIUM
Symposium on Thinking with Images: An Enactivist Aesthetics by John Carvalho
Symposium on Thinking with Images: An Enactivist Aesthetics by John Carvalho The commentaries collected in this symposium were first developed at the “Author Meets Critics” session on John Carvalho’s Thinking with Images: An Enactivist Aesthetics at The American Society for Aesthetics Eastern Division Meeting in Philadelphia on April 17, 2021. We thank Deborah Knight for organizing the […]
SYMPOSIUM
Against Theory—Again (Though with Reservations)
Against Theory—Again (Though with Reservations) Ivan Gaskell Abstract In Thinking with Images (2019), John Carvalho proposes an “aesthetics without theory,” a phrase to be taken rhetorically rather than literally, for he accepts that percipients of artworks bring a theoretical knowledge to their encounters. He seeks to balance appropriate theoretical knowledge, notably Gibson’s theory of […]
SYMPOSIUM
Thinking with Film: On John Carvalho’s reading of Godard’s Le Mépris
Thinking with Film: On John Carvalho’s reading of Godard’s Le Mépris Deborah Knight Abstract In Thinking with Images, John Carvalho is especially interested in situations where we do not know what to think about a work of art — where it perplexes us, where we cannot find answers to the questions it raises. I […]
SYMPOSIUM
John Carvalho’s Thinking with Images, An Enactivist Aesthetics
John Carvalho’s Thinking with Images, An Enactivist Aesthetics Sonia Sedivy Abstract John Carvalho’s Thinking with Images, an Enactivist Aesthetics argues that puzzling artworks can draw us into a special activity – thinking when we don’t know what to think – which is valuable because it takes us beyond our skills and understanding. Enactivism is […]
SYMPOSIUM
More Thinking About Thinking with Images: A Response to Ivan Gaskell, Deborah Knight and Sonia Sedivy
More Thinking About Thinking with Images: A Response to Ivan Gaskell, Deborah Knight and Sonia Sedivy John M. Carvalho Abstract I want to start by thanking my critics for reading my book and coming to so many insightful comments and challenging observations about it. I especially want to thank Deborah Knight for suggesting a […]