The aim of this course is to provide students with the basic notions of aesthetics (from beauty to kitsch, from ugly to sublime, from interesting to horror and terror), following their conceptual evolution and transformations from antiquity to the modern age up to the present day. One of the essential educational objectives of this course is for students to acquire solid knowledge of the aesthetics and philosophy of art and to be able to orient themselves between the various philosophical and artistic positions of the last few decades. The student will be stimulated to critically question the proposed topics in order to develop an independent capacity for analysis and sensitivity to aesthetic issues. At the end of the course, the student will be able to use with awareness the philosophical-aesthetic vocabulary and bibliographic tools useful to deepen the themes of modern and contemporary aesthetics
teacher profile teaching materials
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.
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
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 2021Type 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