LEONARDO'S LEGACY: ART AS A LUDIC TECHNIQUE
The aim of this course is to give students a survey of the main philosophical problems arising from the questions of beauty and art, with a special emphasis on contemporary art forms. All artworks arise from a phase in which playfulness, experimentation, occasional integration (or montage) of heterogeneous elements and different traditions intertwine. Artists, like children, play with chance, error and disturbance. In art the ludic moment is merged with the traditional and the technical. Technologies of art have always been such a ludic tool (as was the case in Renaissance times, whether it involved the use of geometric perspective, or of a rudimental camera, or the construction of imaginary machines).
Key concepts to the structure of the lectures are: allegorical, chance, construction, dysfunctional, editing (montage), experiment, fragment, functional, gratuitous, mimesis, nature, representation, sequence, symbolic, technique. Aesthetics emerge as a controversial battleground for philosophical analysis.
Each class consists of introductory lectures, textual analyses and in-class discussion about specific theorists discussing artists or artistic currents, with a focus on visual arts, and a look at theatre, poetry, music and dance. Power Point projections of classical and contemporary artworks are shown and discussed. A few guest lectures and films may be included in the program.
Class discussion and motivation are fundamental for the accomplishment of the required task.
EXCERPTS FROM TEXTS TO BE EXAMINED IN DEPTH:
W.Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age if its Mechanical Reproduction
http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf
G. Careri, Flights of Love (Ch. II)
V. Chlebnikov, The Radio of the Future
http://imaginaryinstruments.org/the-radio-of-the-future/
A. Danto, The Abuse of Beauty (Introduction)
De Strada, Disegni artificiali
M. Duchamp, The Creative Act
http://www.fiammascura.com/Duchamp.pdf
L. Henderson, Duchamp in Context (pp. 223-236) (Jstor)
I. Kant, Critique of Judgement (tr. by Meredith; Pluhar; Guyer: Intro: §VII; §§17-23; §§ 46; 47; 49).
https://monoskop.org/images/7/77/Kant_Immanuel_Critique_of_Judgment_1987.pdf
Leonardo da Vinci, from The Notebooks (ebook): A New Art of Invention; pp. 7-10 (science); 75;81-82 (Mechanics); pp. 171-174 (Invention); 191-196 (Proportion. Painting and sculpture).
Lister et al. New Media. A Critical introduction (pp.115-136)
http://www.philol.msu.ru/~discours/images/stories/speckurs/New_media.pdf
B. Newman, The Sublime is Now
http://theoria.art-zoo.com/the-sublime-is-now-barnett-newman/
F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy (Intro, pp-1-14).
Alva Noe, Varieties of Presence (Ch.5) (Jstor)
E. Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form (pp. 27-35; 67-72)
Plato, Republic X, Phaedrus (The Internet Classics Archive)
E.G.Rossi, Photography and the Ubiquitarian Image
L. Shiner, The Invention of Art (pp. 22-27; 30-33; 90-93; Ch.11)
Veronese's Trial at the Inquisition
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/high-ren-florence-rome/late-renaissance-venice/a/transcript-of-the-trial-of-veronese
P. Virilio, The Accident of Art (pp. 78- 88)
REFERENCE TEXTS:
The Routledge Companion of Aesthetics (online)
L. Shiner, The Invention of Art (pp.22-33; 90-93; 197-221; 251-255)
EXCERPTS FROM FILMS AND VIDEOS:
Greenaway The Draughtsman's Contract (1983)
Maya Deren, Meshes of the Afternoon
C.Marker, La Jétée
Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dalì, Un chien andalou
Salvador Dalì and Walt Disney, Destino
Excerpts from, Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch
Theo Jansen, Animaris
Joseph Nachvatal, Computer virus project
Stelarc, The Body is Obsolete
Roberta Lapucci on Caravaggio
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjXYfpnp_IA)
D. Hockney, Secret Knowledge
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4XCmgAo_yg)
Bruce Nauman (Disappearing Acts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkclGz3JOgc
Required course materials/study visits and expected expenditure for the students
All the material is in the library on reserve or online.