ART AND SPACE: FROM PAINTING TO ALGORITHM

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, which result in constructed artificial spaces where virtual worlds make and build upon themselves. In art the ludic moment is merged with the traditional and the technical, as was the case in Renaissance times, whether it involved the use of geometric perspective, or of a rudimental camera obscura; or in modern times when they have infringed traditional rules to represent space, introducing new ones; or in recent attempts to test the creative abilities of algorithms.

Classes delve into the distinction between representing and constructing space and how Western art history shows an evolution from the first to the second. Hints of the transition appear to be found in geometric perspective, in which what is presented as ‘real’ space is actually physiologically not plausible, but ‘symbolic’ (Leonardo, Panofsky). Baroque style in its global pervasiveness (exported through Catholic expansion) represents the disentanglement of space from reality, having the production/reception of art focus on the eye and its interpretive capacity of space (Careri). The notion of beauty becomes increasingly subjective and invites to revive an ancient alternative notion: the sublime (Kant, Newman, Marcolli, Virilio). The avant-garde movements contribute to decentralize the Greek predominance of classical beauty, though in different ways (Dadaism, Warhol, Danto). Eastern painting appears to be in tune with the modern orientation (Bryson, Jullien, Hui). Digital space and creative algorithms (AGI) currently confirm the independence of visual space perception from the physiological ordinary way to grasp real environments (Benjamin, Noe, Rossi). Pixels are exemplary of the gap.

Key concepts to the structure of the lectures are: algorithm, allegorical, baroque, chance, construction, editing (montage), embodied meaning, enactive perception, experiment, flung ink, fragment, mimesis, nature, perspective (reversed and geometric), pixels, presentation, representation, sequence, shanshui, space, still life, symbolic, technique, time.

Each class consists of introductory lectures, textual analyses and in-class discussion about specific theorists discussing artists or artistic currents. Power Point projections of classical and contemporary artworks are shown and discussed. A few guest lectures and a film 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 (any edition):

Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age if its Mechanical Reproduction 

Norman Bryson, The Gaze in the expanded field

Giovanni Careri, Flights of Love

Arthur Danto, The Abuse of Beauty

Jilles Deleuze, The Fold

Pavel Florensky, Reversed perspective

Francois Jullien, The Great Image has no Form

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement (tr. by Meredith; Pluhar; Guyer: Intro: §VII; §§17-23; §§ 46; 47; 49).

Leonardo da Vinci, from The Notebooks: A New Art of Invention; pp. 171-174 (Invention); 191-196 (Proportion. Painting and sculpture).

Matilde Marcolli, Lumen Naturae

Alva Noe, Varieties of Presence

Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form (pp. 27-35; 67-72)

Elena G. Rossi, Photography and the Ubiquitarian Image

Paul Virilio in Traces of Dance

Yuk Hui, Art and Cosmotechnique

ARTISTS’ TEXTS (online sources):

Velimir Chlebnikov, The Radio of the Future

Marcel Duchamp, The Creative Act

Barnett Newman, The Sublime is Now

Veronese's Trial at the Inquisition

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 (online):

Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dalì, Un chien andalou

Maya Deren, Meshes of the Afternoon

Peter Greenaway The Draughtsman's Contract

Roberta Lapucci on Caravaggio

Cris Marker, La Jétée

Joseph Nachvatal, Computer virus project

Stelarc 2020, Reclining Stickman, Adelaide Biennal of Australian Art

Still life (from Caravaggio to Ansel Adams, and Sam Taylor Wood)

Videos from choreographers Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch

Through written and oral tests, readings and in-class discussions, students will be able to understand and interpret art and especially contemporary art, particularly in their latest technological expressions. The issues at stake will make students aware of the necessity of being critical and analytic in their evaluations of both philosophical arguments and art productions. 

The argumentative character of philosophy entails strong motivation, constant attention, active participation in class and interaction with the professor.