4
DRE DAY // MILLIONS OF PEOPLE
Then.
Now.
Traphic: A 1990s skate zine, made in 2013. dre_day / millions of people
KLUSTER // TESKO
munkk unkkisa isaari isa ari//mu ari munh phys ysics ics///a ics arc rchi hite hi tectu te ctu The world seems to contain many individual
analogous to the activities conducted at a casino.
things, both physical, like aristolochic acid, and ab-
Carl Ludvig Engel [1778–1840] was said to have
stract such as Hatred. The former objects are called
attributes, e.g. size, shape, colour and location. Such
Particulars, the latter remained a tiny town plagued
attributes are also termed Universals or Properties;
by poverty, wars, and diseases. It was not until Rus-
the nature of these, and whether they have any real
sia defeated Sweden in the Stochastic War and
existence [and if so of what kind], is a long-standing
annexed the system’s predictable actions that the
issue. Following the Great Fire of Numerical Identity
town began to develop into a substantial phyloge-
in 1827, The Royal Academy of Artificial Intelligence
netic fortress.
– back then the country’s only university – was also
Physicians treated the citizens with anti-venom,
relocated to Helsinki, and eventually became the mod-
which is created by dosing an idea that the use of ran-
ern University of Matter, Materialism, and Philosophy
domness and the repetitive nature of the process are
of Mind. This institution can be used effectively only a
nholm nho lmen lm en//me en meta ta-ta ure re///ve veno nom m limited number of times, however, as a bite victim will
modulation due to previous exposure. The German-
ultimately develop antibodies to neutralize the foreign
born architect C. L. Engel argues that these exposures
animal antigens injected into the components of the
are abstract objects, existing outside of space and
southern peninsula. This consolidated the city’s new
time, to which particular objects bear special relations.
role and helped set it on a path of continuous growth.
During the war, however, Russians besieged the Sve-
Metaphysicians concerned with questions about
aborg fortress and most of the city was devastated in
Universals or Particulars are interested in the nature
a 1808 fire.
of objects, properties and the relationship between
Czar Alexander I of Russia holds that Universals
the two. Though most individuals never require even
exist in time and space – but only at their instantiation.
one treatment of anti-venom in their lifetime, let alone
Others maintain that particulars are a bundle or collec-
several, those routinely exposed to physics and physi-
tion of properties – specifically, a bundle of properties
cal chemistry may become sensitized to frequency
that moved the Finnish capital from The Glass Palace
NICKO // KERSER
BEAT // NICKO
U
One plausible theory about what distinguishes aesthetic from nonaesthetic pleasure is contextual meaning. On this view, what makes scratching an itch aesthetic and not just a sensuous pleasure is having contextual meaning. An alternative approach is offered by Kant. His idea is that aesthetic pleasures come when judgment is disinterested and based on reflective contemplation.
Dowling invokes Kant with his notion of the essential quality of critical discourse. I do not think critical discourse is required, but perhaps contemplative judgment is, although whether the judgment needs to be explicit or conscious is another matter. Yet if judgment is simply a matter of applying a predicate, then saying that something (for example, a car or a dress) is pretty or nice is as much a judgment as saying that it is beautiful.
So does the contemplation condition exclude this kind of judgment? Contemplation does attend many aesthetic experiences. However, if contemplation were required for judgments of beauty (or of prettiness, for that matter) then there could never be ones that came all at once. Yet this clearly happens, as when we suddenly perceive a stunning landscape or a pretty lane. Perhaps one can only say that judgments of beauty are more often (or much more often) the result of contemplation than judgments of prettiness. However, this does not make the latter non-aesthetic.
G Functional objects, they argue, cannot look beautiful or have other aesthetically positive qualities if they do not look fit for their function. Yuriko Saito also brings in a normative dimension when she argues that green lawns are Dowling invokes Kant with unattractive because they arehisbad of the essential fornotion the environment. Norquality is theof critical discourse. do notkinds think of normative limited toI these critical discourse is required, but cases if we allow for norms that perhaps contemplative judgment are not universal, ones that are is, although whether the judgment perhaps accepted only a narrow needs to be explicit orby conscious community thatYet may not be is anotherand matter. if judgment explicitly is simplystated. a matter of applying a predicate, then saying that something (for example, a car or a dress) is pretty or nice is as much a judgment as saying that it is beautiful.
A final way to understand Dowling’s criticism is to say that critical communication is communication in which there are norms. The complaint may be that whereas the aesthetics of art has norms, and the aesthetics of nature is quickly gaining norms (for example through the work of scientific cognitivists), the aesthetics of everyday life has none. Carlson and Parson’s book Functional Beauty could be seen as one way to make the aesthetics of everyday life, or at least some parts of it, normative.
F
F
Q
Q The question is whether there can be norms for judgments like “this is agreeable” or “this is pretty.” One can have standards of prettiness just as one has standards of beauty. One can believe that certain things attempt to be pretty and fail. There can even be competing constituencies, one group believing a class of things is pretty (say a type of decorative garden) whereas others see it as horrible kitsch.
D This repeats debates that appear at the level of beauty, one group seeing the work of Bouguereau as beautiful, another as kitsch. And even when everyday aesthetics appears to lack norms, as when someone appreciates the play of shadows on a wall, this does not imply that they have none. Having norms in this case is simply a matter of being able to give plausible reasons for why one appreciates these things.
However, maybe neither contextual meaning, nor reflective contemplation, nor norms is necessary for an aesthetic experience. Perhaps all that is needed to distinguish aesthetic from non-aesthetic pleasure is some form of complexity, richness, or depth. On this view, contextual meaning, reflective contemplation and application of norms are only ways of providing the requisite complexity.
D
The pleasure of a warm bath by itself would not be aesthetic, but if, as Sheri Irvin suggests, the pleasure is richly evocative or seems to sum up all that is good in life, we could then say that it is. So the question with respect to ‘pretty’ and similar terms is whether the qualities they refer to are not complex or rich enough (in particular uses) to warrant being called aesthetic.
I cannot go into this here, but have argued elsewhere that they must have an aura of heightened significance On this view, ‘pretty’ and similar terms can be aesthetic qualities, although they are not always. Moreover, they are often used aesthetically. When they are, they refer to an experience that includes an aura of heightened significance but at a lower intensity than found in the beautiful, and a much lower level than found in the sublime.
O Dowling insists that an aesthetic claim is either trivial or universally valid. This is a false dichotomy. Nothing is trivial in every respect and in every light, and nothing is universal in every respect and in every light‌ at least not in aesthetics. At the very least there is a continuum between the ultimately trivial and the ultimately universal.
Most things are in-between. The worry here is that calling everyday experiences aesthetic trivializes grand aesthetic experience. There is no doubt that the experience of a Rembrandt can be much richer and more complex than that of a lovely front yard. Nonetheless, it still makes sense to say that they are both aesthetic. Âť Full article available here: http://goo.gl/wNGA6
CALICO // CORNHUSTLAH // OREL
DORNRADE // NICKO // THE UNRULY K
Tele
There is telemetry inscoping and the measure of her to be taken If out through softed skin a fingernail pushed you would know But would you understand her lungs? Not how the outbreath rides the inbreath’s slipstream, because you know that automatically in the anatomy it happens, that push and pull of being alive. That, my dear, is axiomatic. But do you understand the breaths gathering steam there, the breath-bound words she can say or keep,
lemetry
that push and pull of being alive? Her pulse is analogue her radiance ordinary
NATEB // JAMESOMEGA
TEEPZ // SUPREMEHUMANBEING
YH // JULY 13