Thesis: Aesthetic resources contribute broadly to the human endeavor of progress, self-understanding, and science, beyond the immediate experience of art. Aesthetic Resources are frameworks, concepts, and modes of expression in art, literature, and philosophy that capture the imagination and the intellect through the senses. The role of art is to inspire the future: the romance of the sea, the open road, space. The arts are a hallmark of civilization, but can their benefit be crystallized as aesthetic resources that can be mobilized to new situations? How can aesthetic resources help in moments of crisis? A worldwide social identity crisis has been provoked by pandemic recovery, politics, equity, and environmental sustainability. Philosophical and aesthetic resources can help. Understanding art as a reflection of who we are as individuals and groups, this talk explores conceptualizations of art, with examples, in different periodizations from the 1800s to the present. A marquis definition as to what constitutes an artwork is Adorno’s, for whom the work must promulgate its own natural law and engage in novel materials manipulation. For many theorists, art is the pressing of our self-concept into concrete materiality (whether pyramids, sculpture, or painting). What do contemporary periodizations of art mean to our current and forward-looking self-concept? Recent eras include the neo-avant-gardes of 1945, the conceptual art of the 1960s, and post-conceptual art starting in the 1970s, produced generatively with found materials, the digital domain, and audience interactivity. What is the now-current idea of art? Is today’s Baudelairian flâneur and Balzacian modern hero incarnated in the quantum aesthetic imaginary and the digital cryptocitizen? Far from an “end of art” thesis sometimes attributed to Hegel, aesthetic practices are more relevant than ever. Individually and societally, we are reinventing creative energy and productive imagination in venues from science, technology, health, and biology to the arts.

1. Art Theory Talk:
Two Cultures Synthesis
of Art and Science
Houston TX, August 26, 2021
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Melanie Swan, PhD

2. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
What is the role of art?
1
 Inspire our possible futures
Romance of the Sea Romance of the Road Romance of Space
Melville
1851
Kerouac
1957
Musk-Bezos-Branson
2000-2050e
Baleinier au Mouillage (Whaler at
anchor), Henri Durand-Brager, 1814-79
Whole Earth Catalog, sign off issue,
Stewart Brand, 1971
100th Mission Launch, SpaceX,
Florida SpaceCoast, April 2021

3. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory 2
Aesthetic resources contribute broadly to the human
endeavor of progress, self-understanding, and
science, beyond the immediate experience of art
Thesis

4. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
 Aesthetic Resources are
frameworks, concepts, and
modes of expression in art,
literature, and philosophy that
capture the imagination and
the intellect through the senses
Parc Luma, Arles FR,
Frank Gerhy 2021
Entanglement Renormalization,
Guifre Vidal, 2007
Abstract Painting,
Gerhard Richter, 2005
Definition
Twelve-tone music,
Schoenberg, 1913
3

5. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
1. Periodizations (slide 8)
 Art history periodizations at a glance
and the key principles they embody
2. Form and Content
 Exploration of interrelation of form and
content, and technique and materials
3. Originality
 Ability to assess novelty and create and
articulate new ideas
4. Context
 See things in the larger context of the
ideas they are supporting and opposing
The Creation of Adam,
Michelangelo, 1508-12
Harlem Renaissance,
Sarah Jenkins, 2014
List of Aesthetic Resources
4

6. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Agenda
 Art Periodizations (1800-present)
 Philosophy of Art
 Conclusion and Implications
Remedios Varo, 1955 Tapestry Weavers of the World
5
The Alchemist

7. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Foucault’s Epistemes
 Episteme: knowledge representation model
 Renaissance Age (1300-1650): resemblance
 Classical Age (1650-1800): abstract idea
 Modern Age (1800-present): role of the human
 Knowledge-power is a social construct
orchestrated in the background
Historical Era Episteme (Knowledge Paradigm) Concrete-to-Abstract
Progression
1 Renaissance Age
(1300-1650)
Resemblance: recapitulation, similitude
between representation and represented
Literal
2 Classical Age
(1650-1800)
Abstract idea: the mental representation of
a phenomenon (with semblance or not)
Object is abstracted
3 Modern Age
(1800-present)
Human-determined: constitutive role of
human in knowledge representation
Agent is abstracted
4 Contemporary Age
(1950-present)
Digital Episteme: high-intensity information
climate, unclear “truth” status of information
Object and agent are
abstracted
Source: Foucault, M. (1970). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (Les Mots et les choses).
New York: Routledge.
6
Birthday Book Printing,
Walk of Ideas, Berlin, 2006

8. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Radical Aesthetics: Geometric Perspective
 Breaks the fourth wall
 Spectators are in the
picture (mirror)
 Artist is in the picture
 “Royal portrait”
 King and Queen (mirror)
 Princess and retinue
 Size differentials
 Geometry of Space
 Top half is dark
 Light and reflection
 Rear exit
Source: Foucault, M. (1970). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (Les Mots et les choses).
New York: Routledge.
7
Las Meninas, Velasquez, 1656

9. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Aesthetic Periodizations
 Modern Age (1800-present)
 1800-1900
 Romanticism 1800-1850 – individualism
 Realism 1850-1860 – accurate representation
 Impressionism & Post-impressionism 1870-1900 – play of light
 1900-1950
 Expressionism 1900-1930 – internal sense of meaning
 Cubism 1907-1930 – geometric form
 Surrealism 1924-1930 – mix of reality and absurdity
 1950-present
 Abstract Expressionism 1940-1950 – rebellion
 Minimalism & Modernism 1960-1970 – purification
 Conceptualism 1960+ & Post-conceptualism 1970+ – idea-message
Source: Nici, J.B. (2015). Barron’s AP Art History. 3rd Edition. New York: Barron’s Educational Services, Inc.
Mountain in Saint-Rémy,
Vincent van Gogh, 1889
8

10. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Romanticism 1850-1900
9
 Individualism, glorification of nature
and the past, reaction to modernity
 Reaction to Age of Enlightenment social
political norms and Industrial Revolution
scientific rationalization of nature
 Escapism: anything but here and now
Wanderer above the
Sea of Fog, Caspar
David Friedrich, 1818
The Fighting Téméraire,
J.M.W. Turner, 1839
The Bard, Thomas Jones, 1774 Faust, Goethe, 1808

11. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Realism 1850-1860
10
The Butcher's Shop,
Annibale Carracci, 1580
Iron and Coal, William
Bell Scott, 1855-1860
Woman Cleaning Turnips, Jean-
Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1738
The Luxembourg Gardens,
Albert Edelfelt, 1887
 Accurate representation, naturalism,
mimesis; ordinary subject matter,
everyday activities, movement
J’accuse,
Zola, Dreyfus
Affair, 13
January 1898
Nana,
Zola, 1880

12. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Impressionism 1870-1900
11
 Visible brush strokes, light and the
passage of time
 Literary impressionism: character’s
inner life (Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane)
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876
Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1916
Dancer with a Bouquet of
Flowers, Edgar Degas, 1878
Haystacks (sunset), Claude
Monet, 1890-1891

13. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Post-impressionism 1880-1900
12
 Sharper images, geometric expression
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884-1886
The Card Players, Paul
Cézanne, 1894-1895
The Midday Nap, Paul
Gauguin, 1894
Boulevard Montmartre,
Camille Pissarro, 1897
Jardin à Sainte-Adresse,
Claude Monet, 1867
Cypresses, Vincent van
Gogh, 1889

14. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Expressionism 1900-1930
13
 Express the vibrancy of
inner experience
 Moods, ideas, emotional
meaning, as opposed to
physical reality
 Subjective representation
of the world
View of Toledo, El
Greco, 1595/1610
Der Blaue Reiter,
Wassily Kandinsky, 1903
The Scream, Edward
Munch, 1893
The Nietzsche Stone (Thus
Spoke Zarathustra), 1885
The Large Blue Horses, Franz Marc, 1911
The Ego and the Id,
Sigmund Freud, 1923
Memory, the Heart,
Frida Kahlo, 1937
Cool Jazz, Sarah
Jenkins, 2016
Detroit Industry, Diego
Rivera, 1932-33

15. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Cubism 1907-1930
14
 Geometric forms, association of
modern life and mechanization
 Objects broken up and reassembled in
abstract form from multiple view points
Violin and Candlestick,
Georges Braque, 1910
Woman with a Horse, Jean
Metzinger, 1911-1912
Nude Model in the Studio,
Fernand Léger, 1912-1913
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,
Pablo Picasso, 1907
Nude Descending a
Staircase No. 2, Marcel
Duchamp, 1912

16. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Surrealism 1924-1930s
15
 Juxtaposition of dream and
reality in an absolute reality
(surreality) (Breton)
 Activate the unconscious mind
through illogical imagery
Indefinite Divisibility, Yves
Tanguy, 1942
This is not a pipe, René
Magritte, 1929
The Red Tower, Giorgio
de Chirico, 1913
The Elephant Celebes,
Max Ernst, 1921
Surrealist
Manifesto, André
Breton, 1924
The Library of Babel,
Jorge Luis Borges,
1941 (magical realism)

17. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Surrealism: Dali
16
Mae West room,
Dali museum
The Persistence of Memory, 1931
Lobster Telephone (1938)
Apotheosis of Homer,
1944-1945
Agnostic Symbol (1932)
(spoon across the desert)
Ice Cream Van, 1970

18. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Abstract Expressionism 1940-1950
17
 Artistic censorship (McCarthy era)
contra vibrancy of Harlem renaissance
and Mexican muralists
 Intense, rebellious, idiosyncratic, nihilistic
 Painting is 2D giving the illusion of 3D;
sculpture actually is 3D
Cubi VI, David
Smith, 1963
Onement 1, Barnett
Newman, 1948 (Zip painting)
Detail of Figure, Richard
Stankiewicz, 1956
Number One, Jackson
Pollock, 1949
Zip painting: zips define the spatial structure of the painting, simultaneously dividing and uniting the composition of variegated color fields

19. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Minimalism & Modernism 1960-1970
 Art stripped to its essentials
 Medium purification
 An artwork adhering to the specific
stylistic properties of its medium
(Lessing, 1776)
Ryōan-ji dry garden,
Morigami Shouyo, 2015
Untitled, Donald Judd, 1969
Free Ride, Tony Smith, 1962
Black Square, Kazimir
Malevich, 1915
18

20. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory 19
Conceptualism 1960+ (political)
We can make rain but no one came to ask, The Atlas Group, 2004

21. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Conceptualism 1960+ (political)
 Iconic work of social
criticism, challenging the
concept of art, and
presenting a new way of
seeing everyday life
 Collective production
P.I.G.S. (Portugal,
Italy, Greece, Spain)
Burning EURO zone
financial crisis, Claire
Fontaine, 2014
The Physical Impossibility
of Death in the Mind of
Someone Living,
Damien Hirst, 1991
Gwangju Folly II, Raqs
Media Collective, 2012
Wu Ming author collective
(formerly Luther Blissett),
2000
The Fabric Workshop,
Renee Green, 1992
20

22. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Conceptualism 1960+ (geometric)
 Emphasis on the concept and ideas involved in the
work before the aesthetics and materials
21
Modular Cube, Sol LeWitt, 1969 and Wall Drawings, 1968-2007
Lebanon, John
Hoyland, 2007
Cedars, Walter Yarwood, 1962
(Painters Eleven)
Gagosian, Henry Moore, 2012
(contrast of space and solid)

23. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Post-conceptualism 1970+
22
Soliloquy, Kenny Goldsmith, 1996
Index to the Report: Deciphering Chromosome 16, Sarah Jacobs, 2006
Reading as Art,
George Perec, 1974
Source: Andersson, Andrea, Ed. (2018). Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art. Toronto CA: University of Toronto Press.
 Extending conceptual art
 Properties
 Digital production
 Ephemerality
 Immersion
 Textuality

24. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Digital Art 1990+
 Interactive production
 Principles
 Found materials
 Digital domain
 Information
 Transhumanism
 Global awareness
23

25. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Mimicry and Reference
Travelers Caught in a Sudden Breeze
at Ejiri, Katsushika Hokusai, 1832
24
A Sudden Gust of Wind (after
Hokusai), Jeff Wall, 1993
 What constitutes novelty?

26. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
25
Napoleon’s March (Campaign of 1812), Edward Tufte, 1970-90
Information Visualization as Art
 Information display, data-rich illustration, information
design, visual literacy, data communication

27. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
26
Data as Art
Data as Culture, Stanza, 2012
Listening Post: Real-Time Data Responsive
Environment, Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin, 2001
Data-Tron-1, Ryoji Ikeda, 2010 (Transmediale)

28. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
27
Medical Biology
Biomimicry
BioArt: Biology as Art

29. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
28
BioArt: Sustainable Urban Agriculture
The Algae Opera, Agri, 2012,
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
 Interactive performance
and audience
consumption piece
 Deep lung capacity of
opera singer is perfect
morphology for producing
CO2 to feed algae in a
real-time experiment
 Social commentary
 Produced by Agri, a
collaborative arts group
examining the future of
agriculture

30. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
29
Transhuman Aesthetics
Primo Posthuman,
Natasha Vita-More,
2012
 Posthuman Imaginaries

31. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Avant-garde: in any Era
30
 Experimental, radical,
unorthodox with respect to
art, culture, or society
 Aesthetically innovative and
pushing limits of acceptability
Vocal Recording Artist, Bjork Diary of a Shinjuku Burglar,
Tadanori Yokoo, 1968
Cut Piece, Yoko Ono, 1965

32. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory 31
White Painting, Robert Rauschenberg, 1951
Avant-garde Music and Art
4’33”, John Cage, 1952
Performed in the absence of
deliberate sound; the content of the
composition is not four minutes and
33 seconds of silence, but the
sounds of the environment heard by
the audience during the performance
Set décor for John Cage performance of Theater Piece No. 1, 1951
A series of modular canvases, painted entirely in white, which reflect changes
in light and the chance effects of shadows in the surrounding space

33. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Themes
 Matisse: retinal art (art for the eye)
 Duchamp: conceptual art (art for the brain)
32
Fountain,
Duchamp, 1917
The Copper Drinking Fountain,
Chardin, 1734
Redemptions,
Claire Fontaine, 2013

34. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Summary of Aesthetic Periodizations
Romanticism
1800-1850
Realism
1850-1860
Impressionism
1870-1900
Expressionism
1900-1930
Cubism
1907-1930
Surrealism
1924-1930
Abstract
Expressionism
1940-1950
1940-1990
Minimalism
1960-1970
Conceptualism
1960+
1900-1950
1800-1900
1990-present
Data Art
Digital Art BioArt
33

35. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Agenda
 Art Periodizations (1800-present)
 Philosophy of Art
 Conclusion and Implications
Remedios Varo, 1955 Tapestry Weavers of the World
34
The Alchemist

36. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
What is Art?
 Why do we go to see art exhibitions,
galleries, operas, symphonies,
concerts, bands, shows?
 We are seeking
 …an encounter with the new
 …an experience of freedom
35
Henri Matisse by
Henri Matisse

37. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
 We exercise our freedom by making an aesthetic
judgment to attribute meaning to something new
36
Source: Kant, Immanuel. (2007). Critique of Judgment (Analytic of the Beautiful). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
 Determinate judgment
 Routine intuition of a
familiar object subsumed
under an existing concept
 Aesthetic (reflective) judgment
 The artwork (or the unknown)
requires reflection and the
derivation of a new concept
Kant’s Aesthetic Judgment
“What is that?” “Oh, it’s a chair”
(I barely noticed)
vs. the everyday

38. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Kantian Neuroscience: study supports theory
 Being told that an image is an artwork down-regulates
(subdues) emotional response
 Tendency to “distance” ourselves from the image
 Critique of Judgment: detached aesthetic judgment
37
Source: van Dongen et al. (2016). Implicit emotion regulation in the context of viewing artworks. Brain and Cognition. 107:48-54.

39. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Hegel
 Art is pressing our self-concept (individual
and collective) into materials
 Examples: pyramids, Parthenon, skyscrapers,
sculpture, snow forts
 Prominent in times of crisis and reinvention
38
Parthenon, Athens, 460-406 BCE
Khafre’s Pyramid and Great Sphinx
of Giza (2500 BCE)
Empire State Building,
New York City, 1931
Snow Fort

40. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Who are we now?
Modern self-conceptualization
Cortical Brain
Scans
Personalized Medicine Imaginaries
DNA: CRISPR Gene
Editing and mRNA Delivery
Quantum
Neuroscience
39
Nuclear Medicine
and Nanorobots
Planetary-scale Imaginaries
The Global Citizen (internet)
The CryptoCitizen (blockchains)
The Quantum Citizen (q-networks)
Quantum Aesthetic Imaginaries

41. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
What counts as a Work of Art?
 Venue: if displayed in a gallery, it is art
 Relation of form and content
 Winkelmann: focus on content
 Lessing: at least 50% is form
 Adorno: “art…is simply identical with form”
 Adorno: An artwork has its own law of
form (relation between its elements; a
principle of self-legislation (freedom),
vs. externally-imposed rules)
 The autonomous artwork produces
meaning out of itself (by acting as a
free subject with its own laws)
40
Sources: Adorno. (1997). Aesthetic Theory; Deleuze. (2000). Proust and Signs.
Play, Beckett, 1963
Readymade,
Duchamp, 1917

42. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Form-Content relation
 Form, content, materials, and technique
 Adorno: novel materials manipulation
 Cannot simply transfer the practice to a new venue,
need a new reflection with the materials
 Rorty: invent new forms (example: Derrida)
 Joan Didion: form-content-technique
 “A hill is a transitional accommodation to stress, and ego may
be a similar accommodation. A waterfall is a self-correcting
maladjustment of stream to structure” (Democracy, 1984, p. 18)
 Adam Smith: “esprit systematique” - systemic spirit
 Mallarmé: the form is the message
 Schoenberg, John Cage, Brian Eno (audio ambiances and
soundscapes); McLuhan: “the medium is the message”
41
Yellow, Red, Blue, Kandinsky, 1925
Contingency in
time and space
Source (Adam Smith): Phillipson, N. (2010). Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.

43. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Other Definitions of Art
 Definitions (critical, philosophical, commercial)
 Art is an intended object (not just appearing
by hazard in nature) – Roger Fry, An Essay
in Aesthetics
 Art is a way of creating and expressing the
element of truth in a culture – Heidegger
 Art is making worlds – Brian Eno, sonic
landscape creator, 2021
 Rorty: invent new genres
 Example: foreign policy fiction (Didion)
 Art disturbs the slavery of custom, the
tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to
the level of a machine - Oscar Wilde
42
Schoenberg atonal Five
Orchestral Pieces, Op.
Shoes, Van Gogh,
discussed by Heidegger in
The Origin of the Work of Art

44. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory 43
Buddhist Monk Philosopher Chef
Jeong Kwan, 2015
Molecular Gastronomy
Aesthetic Nourishment
 Mindful presence: food as art

45. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Music and Math
 Mozart
 Expansionary thematic content
 One minute variational expansion into 10 minutes
 Minor repetitions (4-10 note sequences)
 Beethoven
 Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: group theory space
group (crystallography) symmetry transformations
 Bach
 Complex inversions
 Modulated pattern
 Reversals
44
Source: Bailey, D.H. (2021). Bach as mathematician. Math Scholar.
https://mathscholar.org/2021/06/bach-as-mathematician/
Bach, First sonata for
solo violin, BWV 1001,
1717-23
Bach, Fugue #16, Book I, The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 861.
The third bar of the bass clef is an inversion of the main theme in
the first two bars, itself constituting a second theme

46. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Philosophy of Theater
 Philosophers say catharsis and mimesis
 Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Nietzsche
 Playwrights and dramaturgists say
 The representation of drama on a stage
 The world is a stage, life is a role
 Seneca, Machiavelli, Lessing, Schiller,
Rousseau, Sartre, Camus
 Aim is to explore in theatrical contexts
 Truth, reality, representation, action and
consequences, living the right kind of life
 What is theater as an art form?
 Relation between text and performance
45
Source: Stern, T. (2013). Theatre and Philosophy. European Journal of Philosophy. 21(1):158-67.
Tartuffe (Imposter), Molière, 1664
Hamlet in Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead
The Plague, Camus, 1947
Expression of freedom in
how we react to “the plague”

47. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
 New concepts arise in the cinema
 Cinema 1: The movement-image
 The presentation of movement itself,
seeing the change in the whole from
multiple views is the flow of movement
 Example: Frenzy, Hitchcock, 1972
 Cinema 2: The time-image
 The image of time, no longer
spatialized, involuntary memory triggers
 The world as it is and as screened
 The difference “is that the screened
world does not exist,” but film “depends
on our understanding” of the limitations
of the two-dimensional medium (p. 78)
Philosophy of Cinema
Sources: Deleuze, Gilles. (1986). Cinema 1: The-Movement-Image. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Deleuze, Gilles. (1989). Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Cavell, Stanley. (1971). The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
46
Deleuze
Cavell

48. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
The Novel
Additional Source: Fforde, J. (2003). The Well of Lost Plots. London: Penguin Books.
OralTrad, CaveDaubPro, GreecianUrn, ClayTablet, VellumPlus, Scroll, and then Bool (p. 112)
12-episode
streaming video
Early “Novel”
17,300 years ago
 Meta-genre for narrative and story-telling
Contemporary “Novel”
The “Novel”
“It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times…”
Tale of Two Cities, Dickens, 1859
Painting, Scrolls
47

49. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Agenda
 Art Periodizations (1800-present)
 Philosophy of Art
 Conclusion and Implications
Remedios Varo, 1955 Tapestry Weavers of the World
48
The Alchemist

50. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory 49
Montparnasse, Andreas Gursky, 1995
Wheatfields with Crows, Vincent Van Gogh, 1890
Modernity
Is the paper enough to hold us?
Lianne Charlie, 1990, Yukon First
Nations Self-governance Initiative
Love in the Time of
Cholera, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, 1985
Hysterical Realism
Magical Realism
White Teeth,
Zadie Smith, 2000

51. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory 50
Aesthetic resources contribute broadly to the human
endeavor of progress, self-understanding, and
science, beyond the immediate experience of art
Thesis

52. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Summary
 Broad contribution of aesthetic resources
 Art provides a venue to explore our self-
concept as individuals and societies
 Thematic shifts in aesthetics 1800-present
 Beauty -> Concept
 Exteriority -> Interiority
 Representation -> Meaning
 Philosophy of art
 Aesthetic resources aid in developing
narratives especially in times of crisis
 Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modes that do
not have to land in logic and cognition
51
Material (SG) I, Yinka
Shonibare, 2019
Blue Monochrome,
Yves Klein, 1961

53. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Risks
 Philosophical, conceptual, aesthetic
resources may not have universal
application or relevance
 Aesthetics are not the first-line
application for urgent, concrete,
material and immediate impact in
real-world problem-solving
 But they may help
 Aesthetic resources
 Oblique, difficult to mobilize
 Arbitrary, multiple arrangements
 Subjective view expressing
52
In-Appropriate #1, Frank
Buffalo Hyde, 2013
Guernica, Picasso, 1937
Easter Island, Moai, 1200

54. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Implication
Two Cultures Synthesis
 Aesthetic resources: rapprochement
in the “Two Cultures” problem
 CP Snow 1959: separate cultures of the
sciences and the humanities, necessary
integration for modern problem-solving
and national competitiveness
 Catherine the Great
 Educated persons are trained in art and
science (Memoir, 1729-1796)
 Founded the Smolny Institute, 1764, per
the ideas of Locke and Voltaire, noticing
the contribution of educated women to
Enlightenment culture and knowledge
53
Source: Catherine the Great. (2005). The Memoirs of Catherine the Great. Trans. Mark Cruse, Hilde Hoogenboom. New York:
Modern Library.
The Smolny Institute, 1764
(first European state higher
education institution for women)
The Thinker, Rodin, 1879-89

55. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Example: Moby-Dick (1851)
54
 Singular genre of poetry and praxis
 Captures the heart and the intellect through the imagination
 Melville:
 Praxis: “The whaling voyage is a strange sort of a book;
blubber is blubber tho’ you may get oil out of it”
 Poetry: “The book is a romance of adventure, founded upon
wild legends in the Southern Sperm Whale Fisheries”
Sources: Oriental Repose. Baleinier au Mouillage (Whaler at anchor) colored lithograph drawn by Jean-Baptiste-Henri Durand-Brager
(1814-1879), Garneray’s Sperm Whaling Scene: Peche du Cachalot. Cachalot Fishery. Aquatint by Ambroise Louis Garneray (1783-1857).

56. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Moby-Dick: Poetry and Praxis
55
 Praxis: previously representation only by myth
 Though elephants have stood for their full-lengths, the
living Leviathan has never yet floated for his portrait
 The living whale, in his full majesty, is only seen at sea in
unfathomable waters; the vast bulk of him out of sight
 The only way to derive a tolerable idea of his living
contour is by going a whaling yourself
Source: Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851, Chapters 55 and 56: “Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales” and “Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of
Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes”
 Poetry: A portentous, black
mass of something hovering in
a nameless yeast. A boggy,
soggy, squitchy picture truly…

57. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Propose
Kantian Theory of Aesthetic Knowing
56
Understanding
Imagination
Sensibility
Imagination
Aesthetics
Object
Recognition
Aesthetic
Knowing
 Kant must integrate diverse temporal regimes
 Intermediary faculty of imagination needed to join diverse
temporal regimes in both cognition (sensibility and understanding
- Critique of Pure Reason) and aesthetics (verbal and visual;
image and text - Critique of Judgment)
 Derive Kantian Theory of Aesthetic Knowing
 Extend Critique of Pure Reason with additional two-stem theory
of knowing: relies on aesthetics and intellect
 An emotionally-installed understanding is a superior form of
intellectual understanding (poetry and praxis)
Intellect
Imagination
Visual (image, painting)
Ekphrasis Verbal (text, musical work)
Eternal
Perdurant
Snapshot
Perdurant
Perdurant
Snapshot
Perdurant
Perdurant
Snapshot
Temporal
Regime
Faculties
Domain
Knowing has
both an
aesthetic and a
cognitive aspect
Sources: Swan, M. (2020). Kant and Hegel's Philosophical Thirds: A New Perspective on Explaining Appearances.
Swan, M. (2020). Philosophy of Time: Perspectives in Science and Aesthetics.

58. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Philosophical Contribution of Aesthetics
 Van Gogh “is an artist and a thinker, every one of his
works contains an idea that flashes on the eye of the
viewer” – E. Bernard (painter colleague)
 The Bedroom: “Looking at the painting should rest the mind, or
rather the imagination” – Van Gogh
 Starry Night: dusk, twilight, and night provides comfort and
peace from the commotion of the day
Source: Heiligman, (2017). Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers.
Starry Night,
1889
The Bedroom,
1888
57

59. Houston TX, August 26, 2021
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Melanie Swan, PhD
Thank you!
Questions?
Art Theory Talk:
Two Cultures Synthesis
of Art and Science

60. The Power of Arizona,
Winston Harrell Jr., 2015
Digital Mona
Lisa, Lilian
Schwartz, 1985
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,
Bruegel the Elder, 1560
Laocoön and His
Sons, (found)
Vatican, 1506
Lascaux, France, 17,000 y.a.
Virtual Choir 3, Water Night,
Eric Whitacre, 2012
Bach, First sonata
for solo violin, BWV
1001, 1717-23

61. 26 Aug 2021
Art Theory
Famous Paintings
60
Girl with a Pearl Earring,
Vermeer, 1665
Girl with a Pear Earring
…and the not
so well known