1,206 research outputs found
ORLAN Revisited: Disembodied Virtual Hybrid Beauty
I argued in 2000 that the French artist ORLAN may have moved away from her Reincarnation performances toward her Self-Hybridizations because she thought that in the latter she would be more transparently obvious in meaning and less frequently misunderstood. I may have overstated the ability of audiences to comprehend, however. In this essay I argue that the virtual beauty that ORLAN unfolds in her ongoing series Self-Hybridizations is not a real or actual beauty but rather a fake beauty, causally disembodied, based on the effects she intends to create from an imaginative use of combined hybrid imagery. Subverting the familiar philosophical notions of aesthetic distance and aesthetic appreciation, hers is not a monstrous beauty (as some feminist art theorists contend) but rather a fake beauty that still has aesthetic features worth assessing. I suggest the possibility of generational differences in understandings of the term 'feminist', i.e., shifts in meaning from early feminist theory of the 1970s to ever-evolving, twenty-first century notions of the term, all of which add to the confusion. As I negotiate this terrain, I hope to steer both critics and viewers more directly to the words of the artist herself, "I have tried to make my Self-Hybridations as 'human' as possible, like mutant beings, but I still did not think that the confusion could be possible.
Beauty as Pride: A Function of Agency
This is basically a paper
about artistic evaluation and
how multiple interpretations
can give rise to inconsistent
and conflicting meanings.
Images like Joel-Peter Witkin’s
First
Casting for Milo
(2004)
challenge the viewer to
look closely, understand
the formal properties at
work, and then extract a
meaning that ultimately asks,
Is the model exploited or
empowered? Is Karen Duffy,
pictured here, vulnerable
and “enfreaked” or is she
potentially subversive,
transgressive, and perhaps
self-empowered?
I will offer an argument in agreement with artist/author/
performer Ann Millett-Gallant that favors the latter interpretation,
but will augment and complicate the issue by also introducing a
pointed question or two taken from a recent analysis by Cynthia
Freeland on objectification. I judge the works by photographer
Joel-Peter Witkin to be representations of disabled persons
who are empowered through agency and pride, but I also
worry about the risk of multiple, conflicting interpretations
on the part of viewers who do not, or cannot, entertain such
enlightened readings. Like second wave feminist views about
pornography that depicted women in demeaning ways, or
feminist critiques of Judy Chicago’s
The Dinner Party
, Witkin’s
photos can be judged as potentially offensive. But they are
also objects of beauty—both in terms of aesthetic properties
(they are magnificent studies in black and white, shadows, the
human body, with many classical references) and because of
the feeling of beauty and pride felt by the posers, who become
performers of their own beauty and pride. I argue that beauty
trumps offensiveness. Pride wins. But I’m not sure that everyone
will agree
Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art
College Art Association Review of Nehemas' 2007 book on beauty that challenges his exclusion of consideration of issues of gender, i.e., I ask the questions, "whose beauty?" and "beauty for whom?
Parody
The term "parody" derives from the ancient Greek word parodia and has come to include a variety of meanings connected with correlative terms such as "pastiche," "quotation," "satire," and "allusion." At the present time, more than a few commentators are eager to discuss contemporary parody as an art form particularly relevant to our era. Most approaches share a basic foundation that treats parody as a complex multilayered type of imitation (sometimes referred to as intertextuality). Only some theorists, however, include a comic element in the defining character of parody
How Beauty Matters
How do we view, understand and appreciate a complex and challenging work of visual art such as Leon Mostovoy's Transfigure and how, in our encounter with it, does beauty matter? Transfigure Project--a 2013 book, film and photographic installation that is now also an interactive website (http://transfigureproject.com/)--is "a project of corporal self-expression, presented as an experimental, visual feast" by which 'transfigure' means "to transform into something more beautiful or elevated." Photographs of fifty nude trans-identified figures can be playfully arranged in numerous combinations; a woman's head can appear over a post-op torso over a pelvis with penis. The result, according to the artist, is "A celebration of bodies that transcend the gender binary" and shatter stereotypical notions of beauty. How does the meaning of Transfigure challenge and subvert traditional theories in aesthetics
Pastiche
The term "pastiche" originally means a "pasty" or "pie" dish containing several different ingredients. It has come to be used synonymously with a variety of terms whose meanings are rarely fixed with clarity: parody, montage, quotation, allusion, irony, burlesque, travesty, and plagiarism. Al;though some definitions of pastiche strive to remain neutral, others have taken on a pejorative sense. Still others are more positive, especially within the realms of twentieth-century postmodern art and architecture
The Beauty of the Game
Imagine a deep philosophical conversation about a beautiful shot by a college player in a Final Four basketball game
Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics
Feminism and Tradition in Aesthetics takes a fresh look at the history of aesthetics and at current debates within the philosophy of art by exploring the ways in which gender informs notions of art and creativity, evaluation and interpretation, and concepts of aesthetic value. Multiple intellectual traditions have formed this field, and the discussions herein range from consideration of eighteenth century legacies of ideas about taste, beauty, and sublimity to debates about the relevance of postmodern analyses for feminist aesthetics. Forward by Arthur C. Danto, 20 authors include Paul Mattick, Jr., Caroline Korsmeyer, Timothy Gould, Christine Battersby, Mary Devereaux, bell hooks, REnee Lorraine, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Elizabeth Ann Dobie, Adrian Piper, Anita Silvers, Susan Feagin, Mary D. Garrard, Ellen Handler Spitz, Noel Carroll, Joanne Waugh, Joseph Margolis, Rita Felski, and Hilde Hein, as well as Peg Brand's essay, "Revising the Aesthetic-Nonaesthetic Distinction: The Aesthetic Value of Activist Art.
Cycles in the Transportation Sector and the Aggregate Economy
Transportation plays a central role in facilitating economic activities across sectors and between regions, and is thus essential to business cycle research. Using four coincident indicators representing different aspects of the transportation sector that include an index of transportation output, payroll, personal consumption and employment, we define the classical business cycle and growth cycle chronologies for this sector. We find that, relative to the economy, business cycles in the transportation sector have an average lead of nearly 6 months at peaks and an average lag of 2 months at troughs. Similar to transportation business cycles, growth slowdowns in this sector also last longer than the economy-wide slowdowns by a few months. This study underscores the importance of transportation indicators in monitoring cyclical movements in the aggregate economy. (Keywords: Business cycle, Composite coincident index, Dynamic factor model, Regime switching, Growth cycle)
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