90862 - Elements of Contemporary Aesthetics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has the basic tools for interpreting the symbolic and productive processes that characterize today’s aesthetic field. He/she can contextualize the major aesthetic traditions (from arts to fashion) in the framework of last century’s culture. He/she also acquires the conceptual tools enabling him/her to understand and analyze communication through aesthetic categories and current key issues about taste, social roles and personal identity.

Course contents

The course, starting fron some classical texts and authors, aims to investigate the current transformations of the aesthetic field, with particular attention to their relevance in determining social relations: beginning with the analysis of the commodity form in Marx and examining in particular the insights of Simmel, Benjamin and Kracauer, we will attempt to understand and explore the transformations brought about by the capitalistic-consumeristic social model in the field of aesthetic experience: art as an autonomous space for shaping the aesthetic taste faces a crisis, while phenomena such as fashion, design, urban architecture and new media assume the utmost importance. From this perspective, we will examine in particular the theoretical and practical implications of the processes of aestheticization with respect to the process of subjectivation, both individual and collective, that takes place through the different practices of consumption and the use of technologies.

Readings/Bibliography

Reference texts for the writing of the paper:

Walter Benjamin, Aura e choc, a cura di A. Pinotti e A. Somaini, Einaudi, Torino, 2012. [L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica, pp. 17-73; Su alcuni motivi in Baudelaire, pp. 163-202].

Georg Simmel, Stile Moderno. Saggi di estetica sociale, a cura di B. Carnevali e A. Pinotti, Einaudi, Torino 2020. [Estetica sociologica, pp. 15-31; Sociologia dei sensi pp. 83-98;Filosofia della moda pp. 199-227; L’Esposizione berlinese delle arti e dell’industria pp. 388-393; La metropoli e la vita dello spirito pp. 402-420]

Siegfried Kracauer, La massa come ornamento, Prismi, Napoli, 1982. [Le piccole commesse vanno al cinema, pp. 85-98; La massa come ornamento, pp. 99-110; La fotografia, pp. 111-127]

Giovanni Matteucci (a cura di), Elementi per un’estetica del contemporaneo, Bononia University Press, Bologna, 2018 [Introduzione, pp. 5-22, Autonomia, pp. 47-54; Pratiche, pp. 97-105; Spazi di consumo, pp. 163-170]

Rolando Vitali, Il fascino indiscreto della merce:
estetizzazione del quotidiano e feticismo in: Stefano Marino (a cura di), Estetica, tecnica, politica, Milano, Mimesis, 2022, pp. 47 sgg.

Samir Gandesha e Johan Hartle (a cura di) Marx estetico, Mimesis, Milano, 2021 [Introduzione pp. 13-88]

David Frisby, Frammenti di modernità. Simmel, Benjamin, Kracauer, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1992.

Further readings:

John Rogers Searle, La costruzione della realtà sociale, Einaudi, 2006.

Gilles Lipovetsky e Jean Serroy, L'estetizzazione del mondo. Vivere nell'era del capitalismo artistico, Sellerio, Palermo, 2017.

Stefano Marino (a cura di), Estetica, tecnica, politica, Milano, Mimesis, 2022.

Marshall Berman, L’esperienza della modernità, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1985.

Cristoph Türcke, La società eccitata, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2012.

Karl Marx, Il Capitale, vol. 1, Einaudi, Torino, 1970, [cap. I, §4 Il carattere di feticcio della merce e il suo arcano, pp. 86-101].

György Lukács, La reificazione e la coscienza del proletariato, in: Id., Storia e coscienza di classe, SugarCo, Milano, pp. 107 sg.

Guy Debord, La società dello spettacolo, Baldini&Castoldi, Milano, 2017.

Pierre Bourdieu, La distinzione critica sociale del gusto, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2000.

Jean Baudrillard, La sparizione dell’arte¸ Abscondita, Milano, 2012.

Gernot Böhme Atmosfere, estasi, messe in scena. L’estetica come teoria generale della percezione, ed. it., Christian Marinotti, Milano, 2010.

Wolfgang F. Haug, Sulla critica dell'estetica delle merci, traduzione di Fabiola Pontoglio, in: Riccardo Ruschi (a cura di), Estetica tedesca oggi, Edizioni Unicopli, Milano, 1986, pp. 247-69.

Barbara Carnevali, Le apparenze sociali. Una filosofia del prestigio, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2012.

Tim Edwards, La moda. Concetti, pratiche, politica, ed. it., Einaudi, Torino, 2012.

Matteo Giovanni Brega, L’estetizzazione del quotidiano, Mimesis, Milano, 2012.

Elena Tavani (a cura di), Selfie & Co. Ritratti collettivi tra arte e web, Guerini, Milano, 2016.

Bibliography may be subject to change until the start of the course.

Teaching methods

lecture and collective reading of the texts, following the seminar model.

Assessment methods

Writing a paper, between 15,000 and 30,000 characters (spaces included), on a topic of your choice relevant to the lecture themes and developed on the basis of the texts in the program.

Before writing the paper, please send a brief index of the structure and of main topics, a list of primary texts you intend to use, and a small secondary bibliography of reference.

The paper should be emailed to the lecturer's institutional email in .doc or .docx format 15 days before the term for which you intend to submit.

List of possible topics:

- Commodity aesthetics and fetishism

- Technical reproducibility and new aesthetic categories

- The concept of "medium"

- Photography in Kracauer

- Cinema in Kracauer and/or Benjamin

- The autonomy of art

- Fashion in Simmel

- Sociology of the senses in Simmel

- Analysis and critique of mass arts

- Artistic techniques and social forms

- Quotidianity and Aesthetics

- Aura and Choc

- Erlebnis and Erfahrung in Benjamin

- Cult value and exhibition value of art

- Mass art and politics

- Living forms and forms of perception

- Historicity of sensible experience

- Aesthetic capitalism and aestheticization

Office hours

See the website of Rolando Vitali