Sabine Flach - Böcker

Darwin and Theories of Aesthetics and Cultural History is a significant contribution to the fields of theory, Darwin studies, and cultural history. This collection of eight essays is the first volume to address, from the point of view of art and literary historians, Darwin's intersections with aesthetic theories and cultural histories from the eighteenth century to the present day. Among the philosophers of art influenced by Darwinian evolution and considered in this collection are Alois Riegl, Ruskin, and Aby Warburg. This stimulating collection ranges in content from essays on the influence of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory on Darwin and nineteenth-century debates circulating around beauty to the study of evolutionary models in contemporary art.

Darwin and Theories of Aesthetics and Cultural History is a significant contribution to the fields of theory, Darwin studies, and cultural history. This collection of eight essays is the first volume to address, from the point of view of art and literary historians, Darwin's intersections with aesthetic theories and cultural histories from the eighteenth century to the present day. Among the philosophers of art influenced by Darwinian evolution and considered in this collection are Alois Riegl, Ruskin, and Aby Warburg. This stimulating collection ranges in content from essays on the influence of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory on Darwin and nineteenth-century debates circulating around beauty to the study of evolutionary models in contemporary art.

What is the relationship between habits and emotions? What is the role of the embodiment of emotions in a cultural habitat? What is the role of the environment for the formation of emotions and subjectivity?One way to address these questions is through discussing an emotional habitus – a set of habits and behavioral attitudes involving the body that are fundamental to emotional communication. But this set of habits is not independent of context; it takes place within a specific emotional habitat in which other bodies play a crucial role. Together, these constitute the foundation of sociocultural communities, psychologies of emotions and cultural practices – and they have much to contribute to the study of emotions both for cognition and aesthetics. Thus, the challenge of addressing these questions cannot be faced by either the sciences or the humanities alone.At the Berlin-based conference: Emotion and Motion, scholars gathered from various disciplines to broaden perspectives on the interdisciplinary field of embodied habits and embodied emotions. This book offers a new view on the related field of habitus and the embodied mind.

Which are the aspects of cognition not yet focused on as such by brain research? How can one deal with them?This book sheds light on the other sides of cognition, on what they mean for forms and figurations of subjective, cultural and social understanding. In examining nuances, exceptions, changes, emotions and absence of emotions, automatized actions and meaningful relations, states of minds and states of bodies, the volume searches new approaches to these phenomena in discussing the relation between the habitus – the habits and behavioral attitudes involved in cognition – and its embeddedness in a habitat. By opening a dialogue between artistic knowledge and the sciences, Other Sides of Cognition investigates novel avenues and concepts within science and research.At a Berlin-based conference: Other Sides of Cognition, scholars gathered from various disciplines to discuss these issues. This book broadens perspectives on the interdisciplinary field encompassing perception, action and epistemic formations. It offers a new view on the related field of habitus and cognition.

A myriad of sensations inform and direct us when we engage with the environment. To understand their influence on the development of our habitus it is important to focus on unifying processes in sensing. This approach allows us to include phenomena that elude a rather narrow view that focuses on each of the five discrete senses in isolation. One of the central questions addressed in this volume is whether there is something like a sensual habitus, and if there is, how it can be defined. This is especially done by exploring the formation and habituation of the senses in and by a culturally shaped habitat. Two key concepts, Synaesthesia and Kinaesthetics, are addressed as essential components for an understanding of the interface of habitat and the rich and multisensory experience of a perceiving subject.At a Berlin-based conference Synaesthesia and Kinaesthetics, scholars from various disciplines gathered to discuss these issues. In bringing together the outcome of these discussions, this book gives new insights into the key phenomena of sensory integration and synaesthetic experiences, it enriches the perspectives on sensually embedded interaction and its habituation, and it expands this interdisciplinary inquiry to questions about the cultures of sensory habitus.

In this collaborative work between artist and theorist Suzanne Anker and art historian Sabine Flach, the study of image production unveils the reality of pictures beyond their function as mere representations of the world. The visuals range from firsthand accounts of specimen collections in historical medical museums, to scientific research laboratories, to studies of plant propagation, among other themes concerning life forms and Bio Art. Focusing on systems of artistic knowledge, the authors demonstrate how context, scale and framing devices alter meaning in pictorial systems. Somatic responses, classification networks and image banks are explored as they relate to intersections in visual art and the biological sciences.

Embodied Fantasies, a concept central to art history, theory and practice is concurrently a topic debated in the fields of the neuro- and cognitive sciences, philosophy and phenomenology.This volume focuses on notions of embodiment as they relate to sexuality, aesthetics, epistemology, perception, and fantasy itself. Approaches to modes of fantasies are explored beyond traditional conceptions to include complex thinking processes, subjectivity and inter-subjective experiences. What function do fantasies and their images possess in relation to art as a form of knowledge production?

This volume chronicles the visual art and writings of pioneering video artist Frank Gillette. Revisiting his work from the late ‘60s and ‘70s to his current practice, this book traces Gillette’s incorporation of the natural world into new media technologies. Surveying the oeuvre of this seminal artist, the reader is offered an insight into how technology erupted and continues to intersect with sense perception, and visual thinking. Axis of Observation I: Frank Gillette includes essays written by Suzanne Anker, Sabine Flach, Taney Roniger, David Ross, and Roy Skodnick, together with a facsimile of Gillette’s first publication Between Paradigms: The Mood and its Purpose (1973).

Nature, a topic central to art history, is concurrently a dominant concept in contemporary art, art theory and its related disciplines such as cultural theory, philosophy, aesthetic theory and environmental studies. The project Naturally Hypernatural questions lines of tradition and predetermined categories that coexist with the topic of nature. Currently, nature in art surpasses the simple depiction of art as a material or object. To clarify and analyze the interrelations between nature and art is the aim of the project Naturally Hypernatural. Concepts of Nature – the first volume of this project – argues that contemporary art is predominantly concerned with concepts of nature regarding the depth of their implications in order to reveal and analyze their internal structure.

Die gegenwärtige Forschung zahlreicher Disziplinen wird in vielen ihrer Felder dominiert von Themen und Fragenstellungen, deren Grundlage als ‹Verkörperung› gekennzeichnet wird. Der Ansatz der Verkörperung substituiert den Cartesianischen Dualismus, d.h. die ontologische Differenzierung zwischen Seele, Geist und Körper durch eine Konzeption von Kognition als verkörperten und situierten Prozess.Die Künste selbst zeigen in all diesen – häufig sehr disparaten – Ansätzen nicht nur, dass sie einen entscheidenden Anteil an dieser Theoriebildung haben sondern vielmehr, dass sie sehr spezifische Zugänge zur Theoriebildung des Embodiments leisten können, und zwar explizit aus einem Denkansatz heraus, der die praxisorientierte Umsetzung ebenso umfasst, wie materielle und performative Aspekte. Der Band versammelt Analysen, die jene der Kunst eigene Dignität und ihre je eigenen Episteme analysieren.

The symbolic meaning of plants, their relevance to religion and the metaphorical provocations in the order of knowledge, culture and political power underline the role of plants as something more than passive objects. Current theoretical and artistic discourses have been seeking access to the world independently of man by focusing on the nonhuman other. The contributors to this volume examine the historical, philosophical and scientific findings that generate this idea. In what way are such perspectives manifest in contemporary art? Do artists develop a particular approach that enables nonhuman life forms like plants, insects or animals to have an impact?