Situated Aesthetics: Art Beyond the Skin

342 Pages·2011·2.83 MB·English

by  Riccardo Manzotti

Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Riccardo Manzotti — Preface . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Part One — From Externalism to Aesthetics . . . 16
Riccardo Manzotti: Varieties of Externalism and
Aesthetics 17
Erik Myin & Johan Veldeman: Externalism, Mind,
and Art 51
Joel Krueger: Enacting Musical Content 86
Liliana Albertazzi: Extended Space in Perception and
Art 120
Part Two — Externalist Approaches to Aesthetics 147
Robert Pepperell: Art and Extensionism 148
Lambros Malafouris: The Aesthetics of Material
Engagement 171
Sabine Marienberg: Language, Rhythm, Grain of
Voice 195
Paola Carbone: An Externalist Approach to
Literature — From Novel to Cave Writing 213
Part Three — Art Beyond the Skin . . . . . . . . 236
Teed Rockwell: Musical Experience and the
Extended Self 237
Sylvain Le Groux & Paul F M J Verschure: Music
is All Around Us — A Situated Approach to
Interactive Music Composition 258
Stéphane Dumas: Creation as Secretion — An
Externalist Model in Aesthetics 289
Giuliano Galletta: The Self is Around Me 320
Other Titles Available from Imprint Academic and
Andrews UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
SITUATED AESTHETICS
Art Beyond the Skin
Edited by
Riccardo Manzotti
This collection copyright © Riccardo Manzotti, 2011
Individual contributions © their authors, 2011
Cover illustration: La Scala Virtuale, © Federica Marangoni
Cover design: Concept Graphics, www conceptstudio co uk
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any
form without permission, except for the quotation of brief
passages in criticism and discussion
Originally published in the UK by Imprint Academic
PO Box 200, Exeter EX5 5YX, UK
Originally published in the USA by Imprint Academic
Philosophy Documentation Center
PO Box 7147, Charlottesville, VA 22906-7147, USA
Digital version converted and published in 2012 by
Andrews UK Limited
www andrewsuk com
Acknowledgments
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the persons and
organizations that made possible both this volume and the conference
that inspired it In particular, I express my gratitude to the European
Science Foundation (ESF) whose support permitted the publication
of this volume
The publication of this volume is counterfactually related to the
occurrence of a curious situation which merits, I think, a word or
two The original commitment of many of the participants revolved
around the possibility of providing a more scientific approach to
aesthetics By and large, the general feeling was that time was ripe
to corroborate established and respected aesthetic theories with
state-of-the-art models of the mind The natural candidate was
offered by neuroaesthetics pioneered by Semir Zeki’s seminal and
brilliant work As a result neuroaesthetics prominently showed in
the conference title Nevertheless, during some of the most lively,
intellectually rewarding, and interesting discussions, an alternative
view gained momentum Since a relevant number among the
participants found such a view fascinating and promising, it was
considered an opportunity to present this approach in a more
systematic way Of course, I am referring to externalism and its
possible consequences for aesthetics It must be stressed that it was
neither possible nor desirable to put together several authors on a
daring target like that and to expect them to share a very detailed
picture of the forthcoming view However, as it happens, in the end,
the editor and the authors managed to get together by persuasion
or charm to achieve a final work I would like to remember that in
science and in philosophy as well, there is what the Greek conductor
and pianist Dimitri Mitropoulos used to call ‘the sportive element’ –
namely a factor of curiosity, adventure, and experiment that makes a
book worthy of being read, discussed, and perhaps agreed upon It’s
in this spirit of adventure that this book is now published
As the editor I must thank all the contributors of the book
who bravely agreed to participate in a rather perilous intellectual
enterprise whose precise goals and ends are not easy to foresee at the
present time
From the Institute of Communication and Behavior at IULM
University in Milan, I thank the chair Professor Paolo Moderato
for his continuous support, advice and encouragement Finally,
and not least, I want to express my gratitude to Professor Giovanni
Puglisi, dean of IULM University, for creating and maintaining an
intellectually open and rewarding environment where new ideas
can freely cross the traditional watertight boundaries of academic
trenches
Riccardo Manzotti
January 2011
Notes on the Authors
Liliana Albertazzi is associate professor at Trento University and
member of CIMeC (Centre for Mind & Brain, Rovereto, Italy)
Her most recent works concern the nature of the perceptual and
pictorial spaces of vision, the perceptual base of linguistic universals,
the cognitive structure of metaphorical thinking, colour perception
and colour categorization, information in perception, and the origin
of meaning from grouping and shape configuration Recently she
edited the volume Visual Thought: The Depictive Space of Perception
(John Benjamins, Amsterdam) and Perception Beyond Inference: The
Information Content of Perceptual Processes (MIT Press, Cambridge,
MA)
liliana albertazzi@unitn it
Paola Carbone is Associate Professor of English Literature at IULM
University, Milan Her fields of research include: narrative theory;
contemporary British culture and novel; the relationship between
literature and new communication technologies She has published
several works on postmodern literature and digital art In 2008 she
published a groundbreaking analysis of Laurence Sterne’s work
Since 2000 she has coordinated the Tristram Shandy Web Project
(http://www tristramshandyweb it/) Her present research focuses on
narration and the emergence of mental images
Paola carbone@iulm it
Stéphane Dumas is an art theoretician and a visual artist As a
theoretician, he has written papers about the problem of embodiment
in art, the status of image as a ‘creative skin’, and the aesthetics of
liminality A book entitled Creative Skins is in preparation As
an artist, he works on the fragmented human figure and the skin
His work has been shown in numerous places, and is included in
museum collections He teaches at ESAA Duperré, Paris, and is part
of a research laboratory in aesthetics at Sorbonne University
stedumas@free fr
Giuliano Galletta (www giulianogalletta it) is an Italian artist, writer
and journalist He was born in Sanremo in 1955 and currently lives
in Genoa where he is a staff writer at the Italian newspaper ‘Il Secolo
XIX’ He has presented his work in several galleries and art museums
both in Italy and abroad Among his most recent exhibitions are ‘The
Chaos Museum’, at the Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art
in Genoa He is the author of many books on the human condition
The most recent is The World is Not a Peach (Socialmente, 2010)
galletta@ilsecoloxix it
Joel Krueger is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for
Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen His current
research focuses on the embodied and enactive roots of social
cognition and music perception He has published articles on
various issues in phenomenology and philosophy of mind, Asian and
comparative philosophy, pragmatism, and philosophy of music
joelk@hum ku dk
Sylvain Le Groux is a researcher at the laboratory for Synthetic,
Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems of Pompeu Fabra
University in Barcelona He is also an active musician and interaction
designer He builds and evaluates synthetic interactive systems
to address questions at the intersection of perception, cognition,
emotion, therapy, and performance
sylvain legroux@upf edu http://www dtic upf edu/~slegroux
Lambros Malafouris, PhD (Cambridge), is a Fellow in Creativity at
Keble College, University of Oxford, and a former Balzan Research
Fellow in Cognitive Archaeology at the McDonald Institute,
University of Cambridge His research interests lie broadly in the
archaeology of mind and the philosophy of material culture His
recent publications include The Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting
the Boundaries of the Mind (with Colin Renfrew), Material Agency:
Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Approach (with Carl Knappett)
and The Sapient Mind: Archaeology Meets Neuroscience (with Colin
Renfrew and Chris Frith)
lambros malafouris@keble ox ac uk
Riccardo Manzotti is currently Professor of Psychology at IULM
University in Milan His main interests are the nature of consciousness
and the design and implementation of models of conscious
agents He is a lecturer in Psychology of Art, and Neuroscience of
Perception He has a degree in Philosophy and another in Electronic
Engineering He has a PhD in Robotics focusing on Artificial
Intelligence and models of Artificial Consciousness and Goal-Driven
Artificial Agents
He has published several papers on consciousness, externalism,
and ontological issues as to the nature of phenomenal experience
in a physical world He edited a book on the topic of artificial
consciousness and, more recently, a volume on externalism and
aesthetics
Riccardo manzotti@iulm it
Sabine Marienberg studied Romance Studies and Philosophy in
Munich, Perugia and Berlin and holds a PhD in Philosophy and
Humanities from the Freie Universität Berlin She is currently
a lecturer in Philosophy at the Humboldt Universität Berlin
and member of the interdisciplinary research group Funktionen
des Bewusstseins at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der
Wissenschaften Her research interests lie in the areas of Philosophy
of Language, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophical Anthropology and
Aesthetics
marienberg@gmx net
Erik Myin teaches and conducts research at the Department of
Philosophy of the University of Antwerp, where he is director of
the Centre for Philosophical Psychology His area of interest is the
philosophy of cognitive science, often with a focus on perception He
has published on issues ranging from spectrum inversion to sensory
substitution, sometimes in collaboration with working scientists, in
places like Synthese, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Cognitive
Science or The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition With
Dan Hutto, he is currently working on a book manuscript titled
Radicalizing Enactivism (under contract with MIT Press)
Erik Myin@ua ac be
Robert Pepperell is an artist and writer Trained at the Slade School
of Art, UCL, London, he worked as a multimedia and installation
artist through the 1990s with exhibitions at The Barbican, the
ICA, the Millennium Dome, Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, Ars
Electronica, and others He has written several books, including The
Posthuman Condition: Consciousness Beyond the Brain (1995/2003),
exhibits his paintings and drawings regulary, and is currently
Professor of Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art in the UK
rpepperell@uwic ac uk
Teed Rockwell is in the Philosophy department at Sonoma State
University He is the author of the MIT press book Neither Brain nor
Ghost, which defends a radically externalist view of mind inspired by
the American pragmatists He is also the only person who performs
Indian Ragas on a new instrument called the Touchstyle Veena His
other philosophical writings can be found at www cognitivequestions
org and his music can be heard at www myspace com/teedrockwell
teedrockwell@gmail com
Johan Veldeman is a researcher at the Department of Philosophy
and the Centre for Philosophical Psychology at the University
of Antwerp His research interests are in consciousness, pictorial
representation, aesthetic experience, and philosophy of art His
publications include ‘Reconsidering Pictorial Representation by
Reconsidering Visual Experience’ (Leonardo, 2008) and ‘Varieties of
Phenomenal Externalism’ (Teorema, 2009)
johan veldeman@ua ac be
Paul Verschure is a research professor with the Catalan Institute of
Advanced Studies (ICREA) and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra Paul
uses synthetic and experimental methods to find a unified theory
of mind and brain and applies the outcomes to novel real-world
technologies and quality of life enhancing applications
paul verschure@gmail com