Art as experience of the living body, Introduction

Art and the brain: towards perception-oriented art history , 2022

The arts have traditionally served a wide range of social functions, from the utilitarian, political, and entertaining, to the sacred, ritualistic, and religious. As such, the arts have always been an integral vehicle of transpersonal development, by uncovering the unconscious and raising consciousness, preserving cultures, and propelling global transformation. Art as primary instinct activates all the senses, our visceral response and intellect; as a language, it compels participation and is often rich in tacit and explicit symbolism. Art forms the transition between nature and culture; it is life giving and life enhancing to individuals and societies (Jung, 1973). Ellen Dissanayake (e.g., 1979, 2003, 2013), an anthropologist and longtime researcher of art as a human behavior—an action rather than object—proposed that when physical survival is not at stake, humans engage in “shaping and embellishing the experienced, sensed, and imagined aspects of ordinary life to make them more-than-ordinary” (1979, p. 27). Dissanayake has coined the term Homo Aestheticus to denote this human predisposition: an orientation toward artification across the lifespan—accompanying child-play as well as elders spiritual ceremonies. Imaginative expression has been intrinsic to our species throughout the history of humanity, from cave paintings, ceremonial artifacts, indigenous rituals, and religious art, to street graffiti, art psychotherapy, art-based research, gallery exhibits, staged performances, and electronic media. This Special Topic Section of IJTS pays homage to the arts as vehicle and medium of consciousness in the gathering of 20 articles, including original research, philosophical pieces, images of artworks, poetry, and book reviews. The contributions are complied as if in conversation with one another, philosophy and expression meet formal research—a discourse that seems to echo a shared conviction among these transpersonal scholar-artists, expressing the importance of the arts as agents of personal and collective consciousness, transformation, and healing.

PORTO ARTE: Revista de Artes Visuais, 2017

In this article, I argue that the singularization of the artistic discourse in the 15 th century encouraged philosophers in the 18 th century to conceptualize on the aesthetic experience, taking it as a distinct kind of common experience. The description of this experience, as being one that is disinterested and lacks purpose, led to the progressive consolidation of an autonomous art, that is free from social contracts and takes refuge in museums. These have developed their physical space in accordance to this definitive presupposition. If, in contrast, we understand aesthetic experience as any complete experience, as Dewey sustains, our understanding of art and its institutions will be different.

LIMINALITY IN THE INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BODILY IN CONTEMPORARY ART , 2021

The dissertation at hand is approached with a profound understanding and reverence for the vast scope and intricacy of the subject that is the focus of this research. The multidimensional nature of the interpretations of the body in contemporary art, as a subject of analysis, gives rise to a complex and dynamic structure that can be defined as a zone of registration, parameterization, and systematisation - the very edge. It begs the question, is there a clear boundary to the corporeal, or can we only consider liminality as a recognizable drive or a need for articulation and interpretation? The spectrum of interpretations encompasses somatic and even visceral experiences beyond our awareness, through objectification, and culminates in levels of abstraction such as schema, symbol, sign, number, and the many nuanced iterations in between. The theses espoused in this dissertation are formulated from the presumption that the perceived complexity of the relationship to the corporeal in art cannot be subjected to definitive generalisations or categorizations. Rather, it endeavours to mark the boundary which oscillates between uncertainty and ambiguity, the zone that resists unambiguous definition or signification, and where the use and presence of the body and the corporeal in contemporary art are defined. A thorough analysis of the subject necessitates the excavation of the historical context and arriving at an understanding of the fragmented nature of the body in art. This approach also enables us to identify potential directions for the development of the subject. An in-depth study of the interpretations of the corporeal in contemporary art cannot be separated from the philosophical discourse of the body, the understanding of social phenomena, and identity formation, and the scientific domain of physics. It demands that we examine the physicality of bodies and the physiology thereof, as they are sensually perceived. When considering the "body" as an abstraction, its schematic representation becomes a defining characteristic of its status quo within the existing social structure and values. This tendency to view the body as a generalised quantity is critical in the disregard of its properties and specificities. The variety of states and aspects of the corporeal and the uncertainty of the body are often marginalised within a social context, making the unconventionality of corporeality inapplicable to the general socio-cultural and aesthetic status of the body. The discourse related to the question of the body inevitably leads to ambivalent concepts, resulting in a transgressive entropic structure of the paradigm. The artistic approach to the corporeal serves as a means of marking the field of research, which is closely linked to the research process itself as an indirectly determined, latent experience. My work on the subject of inquiry aims to explore the potential overflow of essences from object to subject, the capacity to distinguish and allocate moral categories to subjective sensations. In this sense, the body can be perceived as a correlation; it is accessible only outside of itself—a state of indeterminacy and unconventionality. These aspects of the "body," which do not conform to "convention," enable it to be viewed as a mental resource that is consumable in a transgressive form of "ekphrasis"—a record of an indeterminate material in an intermediate state. An essential element of my dissertation work involves my artistic exploration of the subject, which interprets, through a series of works, the body's reflection in relation to ethical categories and social prejudices. The image of the body, through its dialectical categorization, is inherently limited to a linguistic convention, considered at the limit where the transformation from one state of matter to another occurs- an allegory that is disconnected from its original form, akin to a reflection of a reflection. In order to ensure the representativeness of the present study, it is imperative to examine instances of artistic interpretations concerning the body and corporeality, specifically within the spectrum in which the body transitions from being a means to an object of art. The mechanism of synergistic interaction, known as logos-iconos, is crucial to the focus of the present study, as it possesses a distinct and inherent connection with bodily qualities. In the field of visual arts, this mechanism is observable when art is created by, through, with, and at times, within the body. The array of paradigms, or theoretical tools, available to comprehend knowledge about the body within contemporary art is endless, contingent upon the way in which the body is perceived in its independent state, prior to its classification within thought categories. Thus, assertions of a universal paradigm related to the body are implausible, as approximations of the artistic experience to specific contexts are instead more applicable. Within contemporary art, interpretations of the corporeal and its boundaries or parameters, i.e., whether they exist or not, represent further questions. Singular or plural, whole or composite, the varied applications of corporeality within art form a primary concern of the dissertation in terms of predicting the future directions of the relationship between contemporary art and the corporeal.

Journal of Conscious Evolution, 2022

To the extent that art mirrors consciousness, what does the art of any age have to tell us about where we are as a species and civilization? In this paper, I suggest that modern and postmodern art reveal the tendency toward deconstruction, of our identities, as selves, as cultures, as a civilization. Through this process of deconstruction, there is a space offered to us through the experience of art, of freedom to recreate ourselves, our identities, and our sense of purpose and meaning in the cosmos. Grounding the inquiry in texts from various authors in the field of art history and the philosophy of consciousness, I present examples of art that deconstruct and reinvent, and invite the viewer (of the art) to self-reflect and consider how we may emerge anew from the experience of art. I invite the reader to engage in the same process. I also ask what the art of the current era can tell us about where we are and where we are going as a species. Keywords: Art, commodification, consciousness, deconstruction, evolution, existential crisis, materialism, modern, postmodern, reification, transcendence, transformation

The idea of memory from the XV Flaming history of music deals with the overlapping continua, denigrated note to become a full experiment of spiritual listening in practice: what a truth action is. The conversion point of Moebius. From the text ‘Human’ of Cartesio published posthumously, to the environment for a philosophical thought of Croce in some aesthetic crisis (Anceschi) the idea of ‘tempo’ has taken in advance question of field, plan, homological issues to establish a scientific cognition of facts, deeds, thoughts. The discovery that the drawing master of Cézanne thought his elementary method of analysis (Cavina), brought in light the opportunity of disguise on mannerism more freely in the research of a fourth syllogistic call for arts, than before to let be possible the learning from the early masterpiece the Euclidian illusions of the touching corners of a triangle in Lisippo, its closure in a cube of the self of a surrender pugilist as well as the circular overspreading motion of desperation of the Lacoonte. Therefore, to reconstruct and develop some observation of the method of relief of the perspective of Poncelet, left overtly a possible explanation of the right of the fugue: the real setting. A purpose with a pragmatic issue, to seizure and code, which recalls Renaissance: the rediscovery of the Plato’s cave, as a good since Piero della Francesca. In a few years, some cases showed their contradiction and misfortune: the ‘difformity’ of Rothko, of David, and the ‘paganism’ of classics as Michelangelo. The disappearance of Raffaello, Leone X and Leonardo and the visual rhetoric of Tiziano as anticipation, or late, post figurative issue? The state of art semiotics though shaped in the continuous of the Academy of Arts, may need to inform cases of a natural light of recognition of the Second Wars, drag into revenge, solitude, the artists gathered in ruptures with the process for its ideological foundations seemed clear to all, from Pablo Picasso to Pierre Soulages, Emilio Vedova. Keywords Cartesian structures - Croce builds - Barilli’s generations Husserl’s scheme - The point of view deal as in Fontanille; Clock – unlock theory: Poncelet summary of perspective and fugue; Mark Rothko abstractions - Studies: Thurlemann - DaSilva reactions/abstraction as relief in composition – disposition – proportion, the reasons and the energy of the masterpiece (William Blake)

Reflections on a Psychogeography of the Artwork, 2020

Atmospheres are fragile things. We are nonetheless constantly influenced by them. Occasionally we find ourselves able to create an atmosphere, but most often we find ourselves experiencing them and allowing ourselves to be immersed in them. In this work, I will look generally at the subject of atmospheres in the field of art, a topic which leads us directly to the scenic and the Society of the Spectacle. Not in the world of ‘moral leadership’, but rather in today’s ‘emotional leadership’, the ‘Empire of the Self’, we find countless examples of and connections to the Romantic. Given the necessity here to delineate the field of research, as a point of departure I will focus on a single personality who, for these purposes, can be seen as a visionary of the 21st century. An enlightening example for our explorations is provided by the soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986). His studies of atmospheres such as the series later titled Instant Light show him to be a researcher who had presciently implemented philosophical theories of today. Further to this, I will examine the influence of opera on the visual arts, looking at examples including the winners of the last two Biennali di Venezia; Anne Imhof (*1978) and Lina Lapelytė (*1984). Based on these two examples we come to the core consideration of this thesis - that of psychogeography in art. Although the concept of psychogeography has most obviously influenced areas like architecture theory, town planning, geography and psychology, it was originally coined by the Situationist International artists. The term is thus brought back to its original context, in which we must now make a distinction between the mental and the physical psychogeographical understanding. I will examine and elucidate these concepts with reference to maps in computer games and the method of loci; in addition to which the terms spatial experience and Gesamtkunstwerk (complete work of art) automatically come into play. Performative works such as Anne Imhof’s “Faust” 2017 and Sun & Sea (Marina) 2019 by Lina Lapelytė, Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė are particularly suitable examples for us to consider. The problematics of mental sense of space inform one of the most important questions of this work, which I will investigate as thoroughly as possible. This thesis, forming the conclusion of a five-year-long life experience, sets the tone for my later artistic research.

Through the study of the artistic creation process, we can observe a close relationship between artistic production and its context, which performs the functions of perception, memory, imagination, creativity and expression. The development of creative activities, and the learning context where they are developed, is considered crucial for an analysis of the artistic research process. This paper seeks to address some of these themes found in José Paiva’s (2009) PhD thesis, which are revisited in my doctoral research entitled, The Biennial of Cerveira (1978-2007) – memory and uniqueness, developed at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Oporto in Portugal. The subject of my investigation is an analysis of procedures and methods of work of participating artists in the Bienal de Cerveira ateliers, workshops and symposia and their interaction with the visitors in Vila Nova de Cerveira to determine the added-value for the community as a stimulus for new knowledge in this context. My analysis will also focus on the most striking facts of the activity of the Cultural Association, PROJECTO-BIENAL DE CERVEIRA, as a resource for investigative artistic research. My methodological approach – narrative inquiry between Paiva’s reflection on experiences and the context of his activities – has allowed me to inquire into the aspects of developing artistic knowledge in interaction with others. Through the ethnographic approach, topics of knowledge become more alive, more sensory and more contextualized than abstract issues, because the former are more active and more attractive, as they are full of elements gathered throughout the observation of the artistic process. This research aims to contribute to an understanding of the added-value and importance of artistic actions managed through a private cultural organization in the community.