75597 - Everyday Aesthetics

Learning outcomes

The main objective of the course is to provide tools for a critical reflection on the processes of aestheticization that affect everyday life and on events, settings and activities in which the faculty of sensibility is saliently at stake: aesthetic elements in design, crafts, urban environments and social practice. These processes, as well as being crucial for the realization of products of fashion in contemporary reality, form the basis on which are often based cultural phenomena of the last decades in various artistic fields (visual arts to music, the performing arts to literature). The skills that the course wants to help to acquire are therefore: analysis of phenomena that characterize the contemporary everyday reality; determination not naive idea of "creativity"; awareness of the social implications of aesthetic phenomena.

Course contents

Title: Introduction on everyday aesthetics.
Inquiry on the aesthetic structures of everyday life using the tools given by the most recent studies about this topic.

Readings/Bibliography

1) O. Naukkarinen, Aesthetics of the Unavoidable. Aesthetic Variations in Human Appearance, International Institute of Applied Aesthetics, Lahti, 1998 <http://www.helsinki.fi/iiaa/publications/publication%20pdfs/Naukkarinen_Aesthetics_of_the_Unavoidable.pdf>;

2) W. Welsch, Aestheticization Processes. Phenomena, Distinctions and Prospects, "Theory Culture Society", 1996; 13; 1 <http://www2.uni-jena.de/welsch/papers/W_Welsch_aestheticization_processes.pdf>;

3) W. Welsch, Aesthetics Beyond Aesthetics, in Proceedings of the XIIIth International Congress of Aesthetics, Lahti 1995, Vol. III: Practical Aesthetics in Practice and Theory, ed. M. Honkanen, Helsinki, 1997, pp. 18-37 <http://www2.uni-jena.de/welsch/papers/W_Welsch_Aesthetics_beyond_Aesthetics.html>;

4-5) A couple of essays on a topic among those mentioned in the list available at this link: https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/giovanni.matteucci/contenuti-utili/53f17b4f

Teaching methods

Thematic introductions; classroom presentations by students.

Assessment methods

For the exam you must:
1) take a written test on the texts of both Welsch and Naukkarinen (there will be a test for each session);
2) submit a paper (3000-4000 words) on a pair of essays related to one of the topics listed on the following page: https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/giovanni.matteucci/contenuti-utili/53f17b4f (students who make a classroom presentation must submit a shorter paper concerning only an essay);
3) take an oral examination (if required by the teacher).

See also the following notice: https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/giovanni.matteucci/contenuti-utili/8e718771

The paper and the oral examination will ensure the achievement of the following objectives:

- critical awareness of the complexity of the notion of "aesthetic";
- ability to contextualize particular theoretical perspectives within contemporary culture;
- survey and analysis of the main conceptual contents examined;
- ability to establish well-founded relations between the different aspects of the program.

Office hours

See the website of Giovanni Matteucci