Events

International Symposium

Art and Emotion. The Aesthetic of Feelings


When: 5–6 November 2015
Where: SIK-ISEA, Zollikerstrasse 32 (near Kreuzplatz), CH-8032 Zurich


For a long time, when analytically detached responses to art held sway, strategies designed to generate emotionality were considered undesirable. They were seen either as power techniques that seized control of the viewer or as the hallmark of sentimental trash. Even in the context of postmodern aesthetics, manifestations of a directly affective appeal were hard pressed to withstand the privileged status of ironic detachment. For some years, however, there has been growing interest in affective mechanisms. In the art of the 21st century, feelings have been targeted not only by installations or projects requiring audience participation, but also by works in the “classical” visual media, such as painting and photography.
Art and Emotion. The Aesthetic of Feelings

In the sciences too, a greater role is now attributed to emotionality – in the neurosciences, for example, which seek not least to explain affective processes.
Drawing in part on recently submitted research, the symposium will examine phenomena relating to an aesthetic of emotionality, in particular from the latter half of the 19th century until the present, and present these for debate.

Programme
Particiaption
Abstracts 051115
Abstracts 061115