2023
Aesthetics and Systems of Representation
Name: Aesthetics and Systems of Representation
Code: FIL12722L
6 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours
Scientific Area:
Philosophy
Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese
Regime de Frequência: Presencial
Sustainable Development Goals
Learning Goals
The knowledge of the systemic embedment of the phases of aesthetic theory, and of the successive artistic
paradigms across time, within the historical depth of the epistemic and cultural fields, and within the
philosophical, societal and technoscientific evolutive contexts which encompass the temporal arch from
Modernity to the present day.
Understanding the deep connexions between aesthetic-artistic issues and the worldviews that shape the
historical-existential horizon, alongside a complex thread leading from the anthropocentric priority of the Modern
representational subject, through the phenomenological and the dialectical crises of such a foundationalism, to
the current post-human and post-real supreme vertigo.
The skill to recognize, amongst the various artistic exhibitions bearing witness to the contemporary creative
scene, the historical accumulation of those big aesthetic-epistemological models as a force field in action.
The competence to manage their public agency.
paradigms across time, within the historical depth of the epistemic and cultural fields, and within the
philosophical, societal and technoscientific evolutive contexts which encompass the temporal arch from
Modernity to the present day.
Understanding the deep connexions between aesthetic-artistic issues and the worldviews that shape the
historical-existential horizon, alongside a complex thread leading from the anthropocentric priority of the Modern
representational subject, through the phenomenological and the dialectical crises of such a foundationalism, to
the current post-human and post-real supreme vertigo.
The skill to recognize, amongst the various artistic exhibitions bearing witness to the contemporary creative
scene, the historical accumulation of those big aesthetic-epistemological models as a force field in action.
The competence to manage their public agency.
Contents
1 Objectual Aesthetics: under the Modern paradigm of representation
1.1 the Guttenberg Galaxys occularcentrism, perspetive as «symbolic form», the Cartesian vision de survol and
the age of the [technoscientific] world picture
1.2 the Kantian aesthetic judgment, instrumental to the representation of reality
2 Aesthetics of immersion: the phenomenological paradigm of the being-in-the-world
2.1 painting and the priority of perception (Ponty)
2.2 sensation-image and plane of immanence (Deleuze)
2.3 the naked-image: revisiting contemporary art and aesthetics in Gil
3 Negative Aesthetics: the historical-critical function of art within the dialectical paradigm
3.1 nominalism and enigma: from Malraux to Adorno
3.2 the Orphic myth and the avatars of the negative beautiful
4 Interactive and dialogical Aesthetics: the cybernetic and posthuman paradigm
4.1 Kac, bio-artist of the coevolutive processualism: the overcoming of an essencialist ontology of identity
4.2 Digital and imaterial Aesthetics
1.1 the Guttenberg Galaxys occularcentrism, perspetive as «symbolic form», the Cartesian vision de survol and
the age of the [technoscientific] world picture
1.2 the Kantian aesthetic judgment, instrumental to the representation of reality
2 Aesthetics of immersion: the phenomenological paradigm of the being-in-the-world
2.1 painting and the priority of perception (Ponty)
2.2 sensation-image and plane of immanence (Deleuze)
2.3 the naked-image: revisiting contemporary art and aesthetics in Gil
3 Negative Aesthetics: the historical-critical function of art within the dialectical paradigm
3.1 nominalism and enigma: from Malraux to Adorno
3.2 the Orphic myth and the avatars of the negative beautiful
4 Interactive and dialogical Aesthetics: the cybernetic and posthuman paradigm
4.1 Kac, bio-artist of the coevolutive processualism: the overcoming of an essencialist ontology of identity
4.2 Digital and imaterial Aesthetics
Teaching Methods
TP classes: The didactic dimension of the lectures will be carefully designed and provided with the adequate
visual and audiovisual support. Debates and Q & A will help explore and clarify the abundant textual sources
whose reading is deemed crucial for the success in the UC. Two written tests (75% of the continuous
assessment) will take place during the semester.
TC classes: in the later course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to test and to clarify the
conceptual tools and the theoretical frameworks they have been assimilating and will now put into practice
within the actual context of the artworld. As a result from close tutorial work with the student, two written
reports, either individual or coauthored, will be produced by the end of the semester (25%).
Alternatively, the student may prefer to sit a single final exam (100%).
visual and audiovisual support. Debates and Q & A will help explore and clarify the abundant textual sources
whose reading is deemed crucial for the success in the UC. Two written tests (75% of the continuous
assessment) will take place during the semester.
TC classes: in the later course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to test and to clarify the
conceptual tools and the theoretical frameworks they have been assimilating and will now put into practice
within the actual context of the artworld. As a result from close tutorial work with the student, two written
reports, either individual or coauthored, will be produced by the end of the semester (25%).
Alternatively, the student may prefer to sit a single final exam (100%).
Teaching Staff
- José Manuel Barrisco Martins [responsible]
