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

Fashion, Commodity, Image: Aesthetics and Mass Culture in Modernity

The course introduces some of the central topics of contemporary aesthetics, focusing on the transformations of sensory experience produced by modernity, mass culture and the spread of the commodity form.

The first part will be devoted to the expansion of aesthetics beyond the traditional boundaries of the fine arts and to the relationships between sensory experience, taste, style and everyday life. Through the thought of Georg Simmel, fashion will be analysed as an aesthetic and social phenomenon in which imitation and differentiation, collective belonging and the construction of individual identity are intertwined.

The second part will address the emergence of mass culture and the transformations of perception, the image and metropolitan experience. Through the essays of Siegfried Kracauer, the course will examine the mass ornament, photography, spaces of entertainment, surface and the forms through which modern collectivity is represented.

The third part will focus on the relationship between technological reproducibility, art and communication. Starting from Walter Benjamin’s thought, the course will explore the concepts of aura, cult value, exhibition value, shock, photography and cinema, together with the transformations of aesthetic reception brought about by modern means of reproduction.

The final part will examine the relationship between fashion, commodity, consumption and spectacle. Topics will include commodity fetishism, the phantasmagoria of commercial spaces, fashion as a system of signs, the personalisation of consumption, the representation of the body and the aesthetic construction of social identity. The theoretical categories discussed during the course will be applied to the analysis of images, advertising campaigns, commercial spaces, fashion shows and contemporary forms of fashion communication.

Main topics:

• aesthetics, sensory experience and everyday life;
• taste, style and social forms;
• fashion, imitation and differentiation;
• the metropolis and mass culture;
• surface, ornament and the representation of collectivity;
• photography, cinema and technological reproducibility;
• commodity, fetishism and phantasmagoria;
• consumption, spectacle and the system of object-signs;
• the body, clothing and the construction of identity;
• aesthetic analysis of contemporary visual communication.

No previous knowledge of philosophy is required.

 

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Readings/Bibliography

Compulsory readings for all students

• Walter Benjamin, I «passages» di Parigi, pp. 41–86 and 108–129. The selected passages will be made available on the Virtuale platform.
• Giovanni Matteucci, Estetica della moda, with contributions by Stefano Marino and Gioia Laura Iannilli, Bruno Mondadori, Milan–Turin 2017, 160 pp.
• Siegfried Kracauer, La massa come ornamento, pp. 27–52 and 182–204. The selected passages will be made available on the Virtuale platform.
• Georg Simmel, La moda, Mimesis, Milan–Udine 2015, 54 pp., or another edition.

One compulsory elective reading

• Roland Barthes, Il senso della moda. Forme e significati dell’abbigliamento, edited by Gianfranco Marrone, Einaudi, Turin 2006.
• Alessandro Carrieri, Schegge di pensieri. Estetica, superficie, realtà in Siegfried Kracauer, Jouvence, 2027, forthcoming.
• Lars Fr. H. Svendsen, Filosofia della moda, Guanda, Milan 2006.

Programme for attending students

Attending students are required to prepare:

• the four compulsory readings;
• one elective reading;
• the topics covered during the lectures, on the basis of their personal notes and the teaching materials provided by the lecturer.

Programme for non-attending students

Non-attending students are required to prepare:

• the four compulsory readings;
• one elective reading;
• a compulsory supplementary course reader, available on the Virtuale platform, which replaces the topics and materials covered during the lectures.

Teaching methods

The course will combine lectures, close reading and guided discussion of texts, and the collective analysis of visual and audiovisual materials.

The theoretical categories introduced during the lectures will be applied to case studies drawn from fashion, photography, cinema, advertising, commercial spaces and contemporary communication. Students will be encouraged to participate in discussions and to compare philosophical texts, images and cultural phenomena, developing analytical and argumentative skills as well as an informed use of disciplinary terminology.

Materials used during the lectures will be made available, where permitted, on the Virtuale platform.

 

Assessment methods

The examination consists of an individual oral examination, graded on a thirty-point scale.

For attending students, the examination covers the compulsory readings, the elective reading and the topics discussed during the lectures. For non-attending students, it covers the compulsory readings, the elective reading and the supplementary course reader.

The examination assesses:

• knowledge of the texts and topics included in the programme;
• understanding of the main categories of contemporary aesthetics;
• the ability to contextualise authors, concepts and cultural phenomena;
• the ability to establish connections between aesthetic, symbolic and productive processes;
• the ability to apply the categories studied to the analysis of fashion, images and contemporary communication;
• command of disciplinary terminology and the ability to develop an independent argument.

During the oral examination, students may be asked to analyse an image or a case relating to fashion, advertising, consumption or mass culture.

Books, notes and electronic devices may not be consulted during the examination.

Assessment criteria

• 18–19: preparation limited to a very small number of topics included in the programme; analytical skills emerging mainly with the lecturer’s assistance; generally correct use of language.
• 20–24: correct preparation, although limited to some topics; ability to analyse fundamental issues independently; correct use of language.
• 25–29: broad preparation; independent critical and comparative skills; good command of disciplinary terminology.
• 30–30 with honours: substantially comprehensive preparation; full critical and interpretative autonomy; ability to establish original connections; complete command of disciplinary terminology; strong argumentative and self-reflective skills.

The use of generative artificial intelligence for assessment purposes is prohibited. Any such use constitutes a breach of academic integrity.

Teaching tools

Teaching materials and the supplementary reader for non-attending students will be made available through the Virtuale platform.

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Carrieri