Class Aesthetics II

This CU forms a theoretical cornerstone of the Visual Arts curriculum. Aims to structure and enhance students' capacity for critical and aesthetic thinking regarding works of art, across their various stages: generative-creative, operational, expository, descriptive and evaluative. The course content aligns with historical and canonical models of the Philosophy of Art, but focuses primarily on developing skills relating to the (im)perception of time and space (during moments of productive concentration), the discernment of intuitive ecstasy, the subjectivity of judgements of taste as opposed to judgements of value, sceptical disbelief in dogmatic fads of the dominant social order, (idealised) creative enthusiasm, the radical difficulty in defining aesthetics, the cyclical transcendence of the canons, the (un)awareness of the role of these very aesthetic canons and, finally, the question (rather than the answer) posed by the visual arts as a whole: why do I do this (art)?

Not applicable

1. Fundamental concepts of Aesthetics: the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime, the hideous, the tragic, the sinister, the comic, the metamorphosed... 2. Impossible definitions of Aesthetic Experience: 2.1. aesthetic experience as three-dimensional (feeling, understanding, choosing) 2.2. the aesthetic 'cognitive impression' 2.3. 'cognitive impressionability' 2.4. 'being impressed' and 'impressing' 3. Impressionability in contemporary thought 3.1. magical thinking (the basis of mythological and demiurgic aesthetic experience) 3.2. fideist thinking (the basis of religious and relational experience) 3.3. critical thought (the basis of methodical and rational experience) 3.4. aesthetic thought (the basis of artistic experience) 3.5. the mark of (Greek) harmony extending to Chaos: Apollo and Dionysus 4. The interplay of modernity, post-modernity and (perhaps) contemporaneity in aesthetic consideration  

As this is a course module that is essentially theoretical in nature, in terms of its objectives and learning outcomes, the lecture format is the most appropriate teaching method. Following or during the lecture, discussion, the identification of problems, and their definition and clarification are the main elements employed. Textual analysis and hermeneutics will also be utilised. The assessment and monitoring of skills acquisition is also carried out through public discussion of the arguments surrounding the issues raised.  

BENJAMIN, W. (2006). A obra de arte na época da sua possibilidade de reprodução técnica. In A Modernidade. (207-241). Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim. BOZAL, V. (1999). Historia de las ideas estéticas y de las teorías artísticas contemporáneas. Madrid: António Machado. GREENBERG, C. (1961). Art and Culture. Boston: Beacon Press. HERNÁNDEZ, D. (2012). A comédia do sublime. Lisboa: Vega. MOLDER, M. F. (2009). Símbolo, Analogia e Afinidade. Lisboa: Vendaval. POCHAT, G. (2008), Historia de la estética y la teoría del arte. De la Antigüedad al siglo XIX. SEDLMAYR, H. (2008). A revolução da arte moderna. Lisboa: Livros do Brasil. VENTURI, L. (2007). História da crítica de arte. Lisboa: Edções 70.