Aesthetics and “transcultural” turn

What does “trancultural turn” exactly means and which is its relationship with aesthetics? Culture has never been as important as it is today, so it is now more than ever crucial to reflect on its current expressions and transformations. In this sense it is useful to examine the perspective of cultural studies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of the “cultural turn” on aesthetics highlighting positive and negative aspects of the relationship between aesthetics and cultural studies. In spite of many criticisms it has received (eclecticism, lack of scientific rigor, methodological unreliability and so on…), it is crucial to accept the challenge coming from cultural studies without avoiding the experience of the conflict and of the difference. Accepting this challenge means stop looking at aesthetics as a pure and self-sufficient discipline and adopting a pluralistic, transcultural and inclusive point of view. So, instead of a modern concept of culture considered as a unitary whole and based on a rigid binary opposition, a transcultural approach emphasizes a continuing process of contamination and dissemination of ideas, languages, cultural habits and artifacts. It means overcoming an ethnocentric point of view and dealing with marginal or alternative experiences coming from contemporary society, following a logic of difference understood as nonidentity, complementarity and plurality.¿Qué significa exactamente “giro transcultural” y cuál es su relación con la estética? La idea de cultura nunca ha sido tan importante como lo es hoy, por lo que ahora resulta más crucial que nunca la reflexión sobre sus expresiones y transformaciones actuales. En este sentido, es útil examinar la perspectiva propia de los estudios culturales. El propósito de este trabajo es analizar los efectos del “giro cultural” en la estética destacando los aspectos positivos y negativos de la relación entre la estética y los estudios culturales. A pesar de las numerosas críticas que ha recibido (eclecticismo, falta de rigor científico, falta de fiabilidad metodológica, y así sucesivamente...), es crucial para aceptar el desafío proveniente de los estudios culturales sin evitar la experiencia del conflicto y de la diferencia. Aceptar este desafío significa dejar de mirar a la estética como disciplina pura y autosuficiente, adoptando un punto de vista pluralista, transcultural e incluyente. Así, en lugar de un concepto moderno de la cultura considerada como un todo unitario y con base en una oposición binaria rígida, un enfoque transcultural hace hincapié en un proceso continuo de contaminación y difusión de ideas, lenguas, hábitos culturales y artefactos. Esto implica superar un punto de vista etnocéntrico y hacer frente a experiencias marginales o alternativos procedentes de la sociedad contemporánea, siguiendo una lógica de la diferencia entendida como la no-identidad, la complementariedad y la pluralidad

Tiempo y relato en la Autobiografía de Giambattista Vico

En la autobiografía viquiana el relato es precisamente la puesta en obra del tiempo, el tiempo se vuelve el protagonista absoluto de la narración a través de la continua remisión dialógica entre el tiempo de la escritura y el tiempo de la vida.In Vico’s autobiography, the tale is precisely the narration of time. This way, time becomes the absolute protagonist of the narration, through the continuous dialogical connection between the time of the writing and the time of life

The Aesthetics of Resistance

Talking about resistance means raising the question of opposition, of denying all attempts at neutralizing opposites, which would be typical of ideological construction, either political or aesthetic. This essay investigates the meaning and the reasons of resistance according to a theoretical, aesthetic, and cultural point of view. The thesis is that resistance has to be considered as an articulation of difference, and that means following a different logic of thought, no longer rigid or monolithic but plural, like a new grammar, syntax, and practice of creativity, challenge, provocation, multiplicity, and pluralism. In this sense the aesthetics of resistance is an art of difference, the capability of creating cultural formations that provide elegance and refinemen

MicroRNAs mediate metabolic stresses and angiogenesis

MicroRNAs are short endogenous RNA molecules that are able to regulate (mainly inhibiting) gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. The MicroRNA expression profile is cell-specific, but it is sensitive to perturbations produced by stresses and diseases. Endothelial cells subjected to metabolic stresses, such as calorie restriction, nutrients excess (glucose, cholesterol, lipids) and hypoxia may alter their functionality. This is predictive for the development of pathologies like atherosclerosis, diabetes, and hypertension. Moreover, cancer cells can activate a resting endothelium by secreting pro-angiogenic factors, in order to promote neoangiogenesis, which is essential for tumor growth. Endothelial altered phenotype is mirrored by altered mRNA, microRNA, and protein expression, with a microRNA being able to control pathways by regulating the expression of multiple mRNAs. In this review we will consider the involvement of microRNAs in modulating the response of endothelial cells to metabolic stresses and their role in promoting or halting angiogenesis

Il mio Vico. Ultimo barroco, padre dell'estetica e degli studi culturali

Traducción del italiano por María José Rebollo Espinosa.Fiel al método viquiano que en la historia favorece los fragmentos, los residuos, los descartes, mi lectura de Vico siempre ha preferido los motivos descuidados y eliminados de su pensamiento, que he releído librementa buscando sobre todo hacerlos resonar en el horizonte actual del pensamiento. Así nacieron mis lecturas de un Vico teórico del cuerpo, pensador barroco, padre de la estética moderna y de los estudios culturales.True to the Viquian historical method, which favors fragments, wastes or dismissals, my reading of Vico has always focussed on the neglected and eliminated motifs of his thought, which I have reread freely, seeking above all to make them resonate in the current horizon of thought. This is the way my readings of a Vico were born, as theoretician of the body, a Baroque thinker, the father of modern aesthetics and cultural studies.Fedele al metodo vichiano che nella storie predilige i frammenti, i residui, gli scarti, la mia lettura di Vico ha sempre prediletto i motivi e rimossi del suo pensiero, che ho così riletto liberamente e cercato soprattuto di farli risuonare nell'orizzonte attuale del pensiero. Nascono così le mie letture di un Vico teorico del corpo, pensatore barocco, padre dell'estetica moderna e degli studi culturali

Vico, Croce y el "descubrimiento" de la estética

La declaración de Vico como “descubridor” de la estética es, como se sabe, de origen crociano, y está en la base tanto de su interpretación de Vico, como de su visión más general de la estética como teoría de la expresión en el ámbito de su sistema filosófico. Nuestra contribución intenta verificar si esta intuición crociana está bien fundada y en qué términos, si Vico puede ser considerado el verdadero padre de la nueva disciplina filosófica que nace en el siglo XVIII, y, si es así, qué tipo de estética es la realmente “descubierta” por él.The idea that Vico “discovered” aesthetics has, as it is well-known, its origins in Croce. It is an idea that supports both his interpretation of Vico and his more general views about aesthetics, as the theory of expression, in his philosophical system. Our contribution attempts to verify if this Crocian intuition is well-grounded, and in which terms, if Vico can be considered as the real father of the new philosophical discipline that rises in the XVIIIth Century and, if this is right, which species of aesthetics was really “discovered” by him

The RNA Activator ds-p21 Potentiates the Cytotoxicity Induced by Fludarabine in Dohh2 Cells

Recently, it has been reported that, in several tumor cell lines, short double-stranded RNAs tailored for promoter regions of specific genes are able to activate their transcription. Such molecules (named RNA activators) act opposite to other double-stranded RNA molecules (named RNA inhibitors) in that the overexpression instead of underexpression of a given gene is triggered. In Dohh2 non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells, the transcriptional repressor BCL6, which negatively controls both p53 and p21, is overexpressed, so that the cells can escape the check point governed by p53 and proliferate. The aim of this work was to investigate whether the RNA activator p21 can represent a tool to circumvent the transcriptional control of BCL6 and induce the blockage of cell proliferation in Dohh2 non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells. For that, Dohh2 cells were transfected with either a control RNA activator (ds-NC) or an RNA activator specific for human p21 promoter (ds-p21). At various time points after transfection, the cells were collected and p21 was measured. Dohh2 cells transfected with ds-p21 showed a slight but significant overexpression of p21 at both mRNA and protein levels. Nonetheless, cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis were not significantly modified. In contrast, the exposure of Dohh2 cells transfected with ds-p21 to fludarabine potentiates the cytotoxicity of the drug, suggesting the RNA activator p21 complements the fludarabine-dependent cell death pathways

Undesired monetary policy effects in a bubbly world

Stock market bubbles arise as a joint monetary and financial phenomenon. We assess the potential of monetary policy in mitigating the onset of bubbles by means of a Markov-switching Bayesian Vector Autoregression model estimated on US 1960-2019 data. Bubbles are detected and dated from the regime-specific interplay among asset prices, fundamental values, and monetary policy shocks. We rationalize the empirical evidence with an Overlapping Generations model, able to generate a bubbly scenario with shifts in monetary policy, and where agents form beliefs over transition dynamics. By matching the VAR impulse responses, we find that procyclicality and financial instability align with high equity premia and the presence of asset price bubbles. Monetary policy tightening, by increasing real rates, is ineffective in deflating bubble episodes