2023-02Thematic Section
Distracted Aesthetics: Towards a Hermeneutics of Engagement with Distractive Works of Art

Abstract: Western aesthetics has privileged contemplation as a necessary condition for authentic aesthetic experience. In contrast, I argue that the adequacy of aesthetic comportment must be measured by the self-presentation of the object in question, shaped by the place from which such presentations issue. Thus, the specific character of many forms of art, particularly in urban contexts, solicits a kind…