The course aims to analyze the processes of aestheticization of contemporaneity: pop, postmodern and diffuse aesthetics. Through the reading of texts, each related to each phase, an in-depth survey of the main themes will be carried out: object and work of art, the aesthetics of pop; postmodernism, the aesthetics of fake and kitsch; the aestheticization of reality and the overcoming of art.
1) A. Mecacci, Dopo Warhol. Il pop, il postmoderno, l'estetica diffusa, Donzelli 2017.
2) One text of your choice among these books:
a) D. Hume, La regola del gusto, Abscondita 2017;
b) C. Baudelaire, Il pittore della vita moderna, Abscondita 2015;
c) W. Benjamin, L'opera d'arte nell'epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, Donzelli 2019 o Einaudi 2014;
d) A. Danto, L'abuso della bellezza, Postmedia Books, 2008;
e) U. Eco, Viaggio nell'iperrealtà, in Dalla periferia dell'impero, La nave di Teseo 2016 o Bompiani 2003;
f) J. Baudrillard, La sparizione dell'arte, SE 2017 (se questo testo risulta irreperibile deve essere sostituito con J, Baudrillard, Il complotte dell'arte, SE 2013).
Learning Objectives
Knowledge: acquisition of an appropriate historical and critical framing of the main theories of contemporary aesthetics.
Competence: acquisition of an appropriate critic frame regarding aesthetic theories and their possible operative implications; focus on the relationship between aesthetics and disciplines like fashion and design; bibliographic and documentary equipment.
Behaviour: development of the skills of conceptual elaboration, critical analysis, confidence with the philosophical lexicon and with the bibliographic instruments useful to the further exploration of contemporary aesthetics' themes.
Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
Frontal classes with the support of slideshow, focusing on the development of a dialogic interaction.
Further information
Attendance is not mandatory although highly recommended.
Type of Assessment
The final exam will be a written test. The session will verify the level of knowledge the students reached after the completion of the course. The test also aims at verifying the development of critical and conceptual competences.
Course program
Title: Contemporary Aestheticization. This course aims at analyzing the processes of aestheticization in contemporaneity. After an overview of modern aesthetics (David Hume and taste, Baudelaire and artifice, Benjamin and the work of art in the age of its mechanical reproduction), three major phases will be investigated: pop, postmodern and diffuse aesthetics. The analysis of three essays, each related to each phase, will allow an in-depth reconnaissance of the main themes: object and work of art, the aesthetics of pop (Arthur Danto); postmodernism, the aesthetics of fake and kitsch (Umberto Eco); the aestheticization of reality and the overcoming of art (Jean Baudrillard). Particular attention will be paid to the operational implications (fashion and design) of these processes.