Head

Prof. Dr. Georg W. Bertram

Research Associates

Dr. Daniel Martin Feige / Dr. Frank Ruda

Student Assistants

Anjo Perplies / Tobias Wieland

Objective

Aesthetic experiences have often been understood as transcending the realm of the conceptual. Nonetheless, in dealing with a work of art concepts are constitutively at play. In the frame of the project the interplay of conceptual and non-conceptual aspects within aesthetic experiences is investigated to clarify the reflexive potential of art with regards to processes of its reception. The thesis, which will be developed within the frame of the project, is that the possibility of transformation of our relations to the world through art is based upon this interplay of conceptual and non-conceptual aspects.

The work of the project is overall oriented towards the idea that the autonomy as well as the practical effectuality of art can be explained beyond interpretations offered by negative aesthetics when it is conceived of as a reflexive practice. The reflection that results from dealing with works of art is elucidated by the project in a way that it is ignited by self-referential objects. The objects and events of art are self-referential insofar as they offer something to understand by addressing their own sensual-material constitution in the sense of addressing different procedures, artistic materials, media, forms, etc. The project poses the question in which way aesthetic experiences are determined by the self-referential constitution of works of art and in how far one can thereby conceive of the reflexive potential of aesthetic experiences. The project develops the thesis that aesthetic experiences are in this precise sense determined by a linkage of conceptual and non-conceptual aspects.

In dealing with works of art, again and again an attentiveness to non-conceptual aspects arises, for example in the form of the prominence of the colors of a painting, of a rhythm of montage in a movie, formations of forms in installations which bring along a new and specific differentiation of conceptual repertoires. But there are always already certain conceptual practices constitutively at play in dealing with works of art, for example in the form of pre-conceptions of issues dealt with in a movie, of concepts of different arts, genres and traditions and in the question of the value of particular artistic objects and events concerning a evaluative-critical use of language. The crossing of conceptual and non-conceptual aspects will be developed theoretically with regard to the non-conceptual side on the basis of approaches from negative aesthetics, process ontology and neo-phenomenology; with regards to the conceptual side on the basis of theories of hermeneutics, analytics of language and philosophy of symbols. The sensory-material composition of works of art is thus understood on the one hand as being determined by conceptual activities, on the other the interpretative and evaluative dimension of practices of aesthetic judgment are elucidated as being determined by non-conceptual aspects.

Subproject 1: Sensory-Material Aspects of Aesthetic Reflexivity

(Prof. Dr. Georg W. Bertram and Dr. Frank Ruda)

The aim of the first subproject is to elucidate the sensory-material aspects of aesthetic experiences in the concatenation with modes of the use of concepts specific to art. The point is to develop a concept of sensory-material aspects which does not directly oppose them to conceptual practices, but can rather render them intelligible in their linkage to them. Thereby it should be clarified in what way there can be an increased attentiveness to sensory-material aspects when dealing with artworks. The fundamental characteristic of such a specific conceptual practice is addressed with the term of a indistinguishability. It names a constellation of conceptual interpretations which arises within and from the practice of dealing with artworks conceptually. This constellation is ignited by their self-referential constitution but assembles interpretations which cannot be made compatible. This results from the fact that the interpretative concatenations cannot integrate certain elements of the work of art in the same way as they can integrate others. Such interpretations are indistinguishable inasmuch as one cannot find indications which interpretation with regards to the elements it integrates is more adequate. It is precisely in this way that conceptual practices direct the attention to non-conceptual elements. But these elements are not conceived of as suspending of the conceptual dealing with an artwork but rather as elements that starting from the conceptual indistinguishability are newly negotiated. This negotiation of non-conceptual elements that is characteristic for aesthetic contexts can only be understood in linking it to conceptual activities.

Subproject 2: The Reflexivity of Aesthetical Practices of Judgment

(Prof. Dr. Georg W. Betram and Dr. des. Daniel M. Feige)

The aim of the second subproject is to define the peculiarity of the conceptual dimension of aesthetic experiences. In a critical further development of the hermeneutical tradition as well as tradition of analysis of language, the governing question for the work of the subproject is to what extent the specificity of such conceptual practices can be solely explained from the concatenation with non-conceptual momentums of aesthetic experiences. Dealing with works of art is explained by means of a twofold basis on conceptual practices. In the sense of hermeneutics and of the analytic philosophy human self- and world-relations are understood as constitutively determined by language practices. Following these reflections, one can say that already the perception of an art work, in so far as something is perceived as something, is constitutively dependent on being equipped with concepts. Secondly, the explicit linguistic dealing with art works is ignited within the practices of interpretation and criticism. These practices can instructively be explicitated as being determined by the use of aesthetic predicates. But within the framework of such analytical approaches the specific openness of conceptual practices when dealing with works of art remains only vaguely determined. To analyze the specificity of these practices, the will be elucidated in their linkage to sensory-material aspects of art works. The conceptual dimension in question will be elaborated in a way that the sensory-material is not a fundamental transgression of the conceptual, but rather a momentum of a conceptual practice specific to art.