Forthcoming events
Call for Papers “Aesthetics, Art, and Politics,” 6.5.-7.5.2010, University of Helsinki
The Finnish Society for Aesthetics together with the research project Artification and its Impact on Art will arrange a two-day seminar on the theme “Aesthetics, Art, and Politics” from the 6th of May to the 7th of May 2010 at the University of Helsinki. The keynote speaker of the seminar is Professor Aleš Erjavec (Slovenia).
Significant connections between aesthetics, art, and politics continue to exist in the new millennium. However, alongside traditional questions about art’s relationship to politics and the political aspects of aesthetic phenomena, a new set of issues has gradually arisen which are as much a result of changes occurring in aesthetics and art as they are a result of changes that have recently shaped politics. The criticism that different traditions of contemporary aesthetics have aimed against the idea of “pure aesthetics,” i.e., an aesthetics severed from political considerations, has been widely accepted. But what is the position of aesthetic theories which emphasize the social function of art and aesthetics today? Do the main traditions of contemporary aesthetics any longer manage to account for the current forms that the relationship between aesthetics, art, and politics takes or are novel approaches required for analyzing those connections?
Many other social practices besides art are to a growing extent characterized by features which have traditionally been associated primarily with art. What sorts of aesthetic and political consequences could this process known as “artification” involve? What are the effects of this development, for example, to the alleged autonomous nature of art or is this supposition a mere fallacy anyway? Different artistic traditions and movements embody different kinds of ideologies. How should one understand the relationship between art and politics in a world where faith in the impact of politics is increasingly diminishing? Changes of approach in recent art research also provide a new outlook on the theme of the seminar. Do the different research approaches articulate specific views of the connection between aesthetics and politics and what sorts of political underpinnings, if any, could these approaches themselves involve?
The organizers of the seminar kindly invite people interested in theme of the seminar to send an abstract of their paper (max. length 250 words) to the secretary of the Finnish Society for Aesthetics (kalle.puolakka [at] helsinki.fi). One of the two days of the seminar will be in English. It is also possible to offer a presentation in the form of an artistic presentation or a performance. The deadline for abstracts is the 28th of February 2010.
Call for papers: Islamic aesthetics October 27th – 28th 2008, Helsinki, Finland
The Finnish Society for Aesthetics and The Finnish Oriental Society organise a seminar on Islamic aesthetics in Helsinki 27th – 28th October 2008.
The seminar addresses the aesthetic thinking of the Islamic world and its appearance in the arts and in theories of art. The aim is to study the arts and aesthetics in relation to the Islamic worldview, religion and system of values. What is the role of arts and aesthetics in articulating and stabilizing a worldview and what, on the other hand, is their role with respect to cultural change? To what extent are aesthetic values culture-specific vs. universal? The main emphasis of the seminar is on classic Arabic culture, but in addition other Islamic traditions and contemporary phenomena can be brought to discussion.
The keynote speakers of the seminar are professor Robert Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh), a leading expert on Islamic art and Dr. Behzadi (University of Goettingen), who is a rising talent of Arabic literary research, addressing it from a theoretical viewpoint. In addition to the keynote speakers there will be presentations of Finnish researchers from the fields of Islamic studies and aesthetics.
The organisers welcome proposals for papers. The deadline for abstracts is June 10th and abstracts should be sent either to Saara Hacklin, secretary of The Finnish Society for Aesthetics, saara.hacklin [ät] helsinki.fi, or to Saana Teppo, secretary of the Finnish Oriental Society, saana.teppo [ät] helsinki.fi. The abstract should include the name of the presenter, the title of the presentation and an abstract of approximately 300 words. Notification of acceptance/rejection will be sent by June 30th.
On behalf of the organisers,
Pauline von Bonsdorff and Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila
Merleau-Ponty and the Arts, 9th May 2008
Centre culturel français, Cable factory, Tallberginkatu 1 C 135
Finnish Society for Aesthetics commemorates the 100th anniversary of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) by organising a symposium. The symposium discusses Merleau-Ponty’s thoughts, as well as researchers’ inspired by him, on the arts.
The event is organized together with Centre culturel français
12.15 Opening: Director of CCF Pascal Hanse & chair of FSE Pauline von Bonsdorff
12.30 Professor Pauline von Bonsdorff, University of Jyväskylä:
”Human aesthetic agency”
13.00 Dr., Research Fellow Leena Rouhiainen, Theater Academy:
“The moving body and perceptive dance”
13.30 Artist Marjatta Oja, Academy of Fine Arts interviewed by Hanna Johansson
14.00 Break
14.45 MA Juho Hotanen, University of Helsinki:
“Texture of the painting”
15.14 MA Helena Kallio, Theater Academy:
“Carnal consciousness and birth of a novel character”
15.45 Break
16.00 MA Saara Hacklin, University of Helsinki:
“Photography, movement, and animal: Christian Mayer’s Another city, not my own”
16.30 PhD Hanna Johannson, Academy of Fine Arts:
“Merleau-Ponty, the spatial turn of the art, and the question of representation”
The Limits of Aesthetics
Call for papers and participants
NOS-H in cooperation with Nordic Society for Aesthetics is hosting a conference from May 31 through June 3, 2007 Aarhus. The topic of the conference is “The Limits of Aesthetics”, also being a research programme under the Nordic Research Councils’ Cooperation (NOS-H).
Intensive discussions on the extension of the field of aesthetics have been going on during the historical lifetime of its concept. The very relation to art is but one example: In some traditions, aesthetics is simply philosophy of art (for instance in Hegel and on) whereas in others, the problems of art are merely a subordinate part of the sphere of action of aesthetics. However, aesthetics’ boundaries with art philosophy are far from being the only ones to be open. Aesthetics’ relations to ethics, to the political, to epistemology, to the social (cf. socialization) are other threshold problematics. Furthermore new disciplines and branches emerge under designations such as environmental aesthetics, empirical aesthetics, somaesthetics, to mention a few.
On the whole, aesthetics holds intensive and often fruitful borderline problematics to philosophy generally speaking, to art theory, to psychology, and of course to the artforms’ single disciplines (literature, drama, music, arthistory etc.). Ways of different nature, evaluative and descriptive, of approaching problems of aesthetics’ own position between philosophy and science are other examples of topics under heavy discussion.
In different contributions, a number of invited key-note speakers will review these problems of bor-derland. Invited speakers include Martin Seel (Frankfurt), Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford), Richard Shusterman (Florida), Andrea Kern (Berlin) and Jean-Marie Schaeffer (Paris).
Furthermore the conference here calls for papers wishing to discuss the problems in their very wid-est sense, directly or indirectly. It may be in terms of overall surveys on the history of science or on conceptualization within the field of problems of the borderland of aesthetics. But we also welcome contributions that on a basis of a specific empirical research project, for instance within an aesthetic single discipline, may enlighten the problematics of borderland relations indirectly.
We warmly welcome contributions from PhD students.
Please send your abstracts of proposals for presentations along with a brief presentation of yourself (1-5 lines) to the address at the bottom of this page. Deadline is on 15th February 2007 and should be sent preferably by e-mail as attachment in Word or compatible. Proposers will be notified around March 1st 2007 whether papers are accepted or not.
It is possible though to participate in the conference without a paper. Deadline for registration is February 15th 2007 accompanied by a short presentation of 1-5 lines.
Main language of the conference is English, but papers in Scandinavian languages are accepted. Please inform language on registration.
The Nordic Society of Aesthetics will hold its annual meeting in connection with the conference, but membership is not required for participating in the conference.
The research programme will host the conference, and participation is free of charge. This includes reception on the evening of opening, light lunches, coffee etc. during the three days of the confer-ence. For participation in the conference dinner, we charge DKK 250 (€ 30). Participants will pay themselves for board and lodging as well as travelling expenses. As of January 1st 2007, a website will render details on different prices levels of hotels available in con-nection with the conference.
Contact address: Aarhus Universitet, Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Langelandsgade 139, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark, e-mail aekag [ät-merkki] hum.au.dk (Annette Gregersen, conference secretary)
Responsible for the Conference is prof. Morten Kyndrup (e-mail kyndrup [ät-merkki] hum.au.dk)
Esittäjä tekijänä, taitaja taiteilijana
An interdisciplinary colloquim in Finnish
27th–28th October
2006, Sibelius Academy.
For more information, contact the society.