A Transformation Theory Of Aesthetics

First Published in 1990. How we perceive and respond to the visual image has been a traditional concern of psychologists, philosophers and art historians. Today, where the visual image increasingly permeates our everyday life and consciousness, the question becomes ever more relevant. How do we, for instance, instinctively ‘know’ what it is that a picture represents without having to be taught? How is it that we experience (aesthetic) pleasure in looking at certain pictures? How is it that we often want to talk about the pictures we look at? Such questions are currently asked by a wide range of disciplines, including: semiotics, psychoanalysis, anthropology, neuropsychology, and in general, contemporary critical analysis of the visual arts. In A Transformational Theory of Aesthetics, Michael Stephan breaks new ground by linking the findings of these areas. Drawing on their common area of knowledge, he has developed a radically new theory of picture perception and aesthetic response, arguing that images can generate in us a complex pattern of mental changes, or transformations. This is because the left and right hemispheres of the brain do not always work in harmony, hence the wide-ranging nature of aesthetic response to distinct art forms. A Transformational Theory of Aesthetics is essential reading to those seriously involved in linking the arts and cognitive sciences.

This book develops a theory of picture perception and aesthetic response, arguing that images can generate in us a complex pattern of mental changes, or transformations. It is essential reading to those seriously involved in linking the arts and cognitive sciences.

OECD, UNESCO, the European Union, and the United Nations acknowledge that formal educational systems alone cannot respond to rapid and constant technological, social, and economic change in society and that they should be reinforced by non-formal educational practices. Examining a New Paradigm of Heritage With Philosophy, Economy, and Education is a critical scholarly publication that provides comprehensive research on the sustainability of identity and cultural heritage. The book establishes uniform and consistent conceptual criteria to identify and distinguish the different typological categories of heritage and discusses the concept of “cultural landscape” and environmental ethics. Moreover, connections between cultural heritage and natural heritage and the economy of heritage are explored. Finally, the book discusses cultural landscape as an educational resource with reading and interpretation of the cultural landscape as a basis for learning with a methodology of experimental science and its first metamorphosis of value. Featuring a range of topics such as curriculum design, ethics, and environmental tourism, this book is ideal for academicians, sociologists, biologists, researchers, policymakers, and students.

Aesthetic theory in the West has, until now, been dominated by ideas of effect, autonomy, and reception. Transformative Aesthetics uncovers these theories’ mutual concern with the transformation of those involved. From artists to spectators, readers, listeners, or audiences, the idea of transformation is one familiar to cultures across the globe. Transformation of the individual is only one part of this aesthetic phenomenon, as contemporary artists are increasingly called upon to have a transformative, sustainable impact on society at large. To this end, Erika Fischer Lichte and Benjamin Wihstutz present a series of fresh perspectives on the discussion of aesthetics, uniting Western theory with that of India, China, Australia, and beyond. Each chapter of Transformative Aesthetics focuses on a different approach to transformation, from the foundations of aesthetics to contemporary theories, breaking new ground to establish a network of thought that spans theatre, performance, art history, cultural studies, and philosophy.

Aesthetic sensibility rests on perceptual experience and characterizes not only our experience of the arts but our experience of the world. Sensibility and Sense offers a philosophically comprehensive account of humans' social and cultural embeddedness encountered, recognized, and fulfilled as an aesthetic mode of experience. Extending the range of aesthetic experience from the stone of the earth's surface to the celestial sphere, the book focuses on the aesthetic as a dimension of social experience. The guiding idea of pervasive interconnectedness, both social and environmental, leads to an aesthetic critique of the urban environment, the environment of daily life, and of terrorism, and has profound implications for grounding social and political values. The aesthetic emerges as a powerful critical tool for appraising urban culture and political practice.

Through a unique range of theoretical and practical case studies, this collection considers the relationship between the arts (understood as the visual arts, crafts, theatre, dance, and literature) and development, creating both a bridge between them that is rarely explored and filling in concrete ways the content of the “culture” part of the equation “culture and development”. It includes manifestations of culture and the ways in which they relate to development, and in turn contribute to such pressing issues as poverty alleviation, concern for the environment, health, empowerment, and identity formation. It shows how the arts are an essential part of the concrete understanding of culture, and as such a significant part of development thinking - including the development of culture, and not only of culture as an instrumental means to promote other development goals.

Exploring Art for Perspective Transformation discusses fundamental theories regarding the emancipatory learning potential involved in artworks. It also provides teachers, as well as adult and museum educators a method of exploring artworks with a view to challenge learners’ assumptions.