Aesthetic Engagement*

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Pagis ◽  
Erika Summers‐Effler
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Engagement

Video Games and Aesthetic Contemplation

2020 ◽  
pp. 155541202091472
Author(s):  
Paul Atkinson ◽  
Farzad Parsayi
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Sufficient Time ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement

Video games present incredibly rich visual environments that can be studied from a variety of perspectives including those germane to the visual arts. The medium has evolved to such a degree that evaluation should not rest on whether an individual game can be considered art, but what types of aesthetic engagement the medium affords. A key figure in the study of the visual arts is aesthetic contemplation, in which extended attention reveals aesthetic differences. Although the video game presents many sites and scenes worthy of such contemplation, this mode of spectatorship requires sufficient time and space to attend to a visual object. In order to open up a space for aesthetic engagement, many of the ludological and narrative demands of the game must recede. In this article, we will investigate the degree to which players have choice in how, or how long, they attend to a game’s visual environment.

Aesthetic engagement as health and wellbeing promotion

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 240-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Jensen ◽  
Wenche Torrissen
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Peace Of Mind ◽  
Personal Involvement ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Moderate Depression ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement

Purpose Evidence shows that participating in arts activities can increase wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to explore connections between aesthetic engagement and the wellbeing of participants on a ten weeks Arts on Prescription programme (AoP). Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants (with mild to moderate depression, stress or anxiety). A thematic analysis was used to identify themes in the data. Findings The findings illustrate that the participants in the AoP programme showed increased levels of motivation, and it opened up new worlds for connection with sensory experiences such as: relief, joy and peace of mind. The themes identified were: engagement and pleasure, deep emotional experiences and expanding worlds. Originality/value Aesthetic engagement through an AoP programme has the potential to stimulate the senses, motivate personal involvement and connect individuals with parts of themselves that has been neglected through illness. The participants experienced new possibilities through aesthetic engagement; offering connections to sensory, cognitive and emotional tools that can boost wellbeing. In this way, facilitated programmes such as AoP can contribute positively to public health. However, further studies are necessary in order to explore and establish the complex connections between aesthetic engagement and wellbeing.

Aesthetic Value, Nature, and Environment

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Brady
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Environmental Aesthetics ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Natural Objects ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Cognitive Approaches ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement ◽  
Critical Pluralism

This chapter discusses key issues and questions about aesthetic experience and valuing of natural objects, processes, and phenomena. It begins by exploring the character of environmental, multisensory aesthetic appreciation and then examines the central debate between “scientific cognitivism” and “noncognitivism” in contemporary environmental aesthetics. In assessing this debate and the place of knowledge, imagination, and emotion in aesthetic valuing, it is argued that non-cognitive approaches have the advantage of supporting a critical pluralism that recognizes the variety and breadth of aesthetic engagement with nature. Interactions between aesthetic and ethical values are also discussed, especially with respect to their role in philosophical positions such as “aesthetic preservationism” and the call for developing aesthetic theories that are consistent with environmentalism.

Schiller on Freedom and Aesthetic Value: Part II

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Matherne ◽  
Nick Riggle
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Education ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Friedrich Schiller ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement ◽  
The Aesthetic

Abstract In his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, Friedrich Schiller draws a striking connection between aesthetic value and individual and political freedom, claiming that, ‘it is only through beauty that man makes his way to freedom’. However, contemporary ways of thinking about freedom and aesthetic value make it difficult to see what the connection could be. Through a careful reconstruction of the Letters, we argue that Schiller’s theory of aesthetic value serves as the key to understanding not only his view of aesthetic engagement, but also his distinctive account of individual and political freedom. Whereas in Part I, we developed a reconstruction of Schiller's view that aesthetic value is the only path to individual freedom, in Part II we analyze how Schiller connects aesthetic value to political freedom. In the end, we show that Schiller defends a non-hedonic, action-oriented, communitarian theory of aesthetic value and a theory of freedom that makes the aesthetic not just supererogatory but fundamental for any fully autonomous life. Although we have lost touch with this way of thinking about aesthetic value and freedom, we submit that it is illuminating for contemporary thinking about both.

scholarly journals The Aesthetic Engagement Theory of Art

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Grafton-Cardwell
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Value ◽  
Engagement Theory ◽  
Functionalist Account ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Ultimate Purpose

I introduce and explicate a new functionalist account of art, namely that something is an artwork iff the fulfillment of its function by a subject requires that the subject aesthetically engage it. This is the Aesthetic Engagement Theory of art. I show how the Aesthetic Engagement Theory outperforms salient rival theories in terms of extensional adequacy, non-arbitrariness, and ability to account for the distinctive value of art. I also give an account of what it is to aesthetically engage a work that relies on our agential capacity to treat an object as having non-instrumental value, even while the ultimate purpose for our engaging the object is to get something from it.

scholarly journals Museums, Socio-Ecological Thinking, and Activist Pedagogies of Imagination

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Lauren Spring ◽  
Darlene E. Clover
Keyword(s):  
Contact Zone ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement ◽  
And Control ◽  
Ecological Thinking

This article explores the complex, “contact zone” nature of museums within the context of the current environmental crisis threatening our planet. Historically and even today, museums have engaged in a practice of “monocultural” thinking which is mired in a pretext to neutrality that has advanced the patriarchal capitalist neoliberal status quo and maintained a vision of a human/non-human binary of power, dominance, and control. However, there is also growing evidence that museums are shifting their approaches. Focusing on examples from Canada, we discuss how museums are using exhibitions and pedagogical and community outreach strategies to render visible deeply problematic and global “technofossil” practices, encourage activism through aesthetic engagement, encourage dialogue between community and industry as well as engage in imaginative decolonising initiatives that remap our understandings of who we are and where we need to go. We argue that in taking up environmental issues in politically intentional ways, museums create “oppositional views” that act as pedagogical sites of resistance.

scholarly journals Individual differences in aesthetic engagement are reflected in resting-state fMRI connectivity: Implications for stress resilience

NeuroImage ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 156-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula G. Williams ◽  
Kimberley T. Johnson ◽  
Brian J. Curtis ◽  
Jace B. King ◽  
Jeffrey S. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Stress Resilience ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement
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