Programme

The course aims first of all to offer an overview of the main aesthetic categories - from beautiful to ugly, from interesting to kitsch, from sublime to horror and terror - to assess their relevance in contemporary artistic practices.

In addition to this, we will explore the conception of beauty in the West and East (with particular attention to Chinese and Japanese aesthetics) and reflect on the status of images in our hyper-connected society based on the text "The fury of images" by J. Fontcuberta.

Core Documentation

F. Iannelli: Dissonanze contemporanee. Arte e vita in un tempo inconciliato. Quodlibet 2010 (fino p. 206)
Fontcuberta: La furia delle immagini. Note sulla postfotografia, Einaudi, 2018.

The student will have to choose between route A (Japan) and route B (China)
ROUTE A
D. Richie, Sull’estetica giapponese, Lindau, Torino 2009.
L. Koren: Wabi-sabi. Altri pensieri. Ponte alle grazie, 2015.

ROUTE B
F. Cheng: Cinque meditazioni sulla bellezza. Bollati Boringhieri 2018.
F. Jullien Quella strana idea di bello. Il Mulino 2012

Type of delivery of the course

The course includes frontal lessons accompanied by a didactic visit in April 2021

Type of evaluation

The written test is composed of 15 questions of different types, both "closed" (e.g. multiple-choice questions, laundry text, etc.) and "open" (e.g. questions requiring the inclusion of the definition or genesis of a concept, the fundamental stages of the evolution of an aesthetic category, etc.). It will be evaluated: - the ability to synthesize complex content in a few lines (in the case of open-answers) - the level of knowledge of the conceptual contents of the texts examined (through open-questions and through questions with a hole text) - mastery in handling more specific information, e.g. recognising the author of individual works of art or the production of specific artists etc. (in the case of multiple choice answers) Test duration: 90 minutes