O crítico de arte americano Clement Greenberg dedica especial atençãoà teoria estética em seus textos dos anos 1970, sobretudo ao juízo de gosto. Esta pesquisa busca evidenciar um aspecto importante na discussão estética em Greenberg, qual seja, a possibilidade de aprimoramento do gosto. Para tal, também se faz necessária uma compreensão de seu sistema crítico, articulando os Seminários por ele ministrados nos anos 70 e seus textos críticos desde os anos 30. Dentro da teoria estética moderna formulada por Greenberg, os textos reunidos em Estética Domésticaservem de base para a investigação do ponto central da pesquisa. Apesar disso, não se pode perder de vista o grande espectro coberto pela obra do crítico, uma vez que seus textos dialogam entre si, retomando e alinhavando os diversos temas abordados. / The american art critic Clement Greenberg pays special attention to the aesthetics in his texts of the 1970s, and to the taste judgement most of all. This study try to put light over an important aspect of Greenberg theory: the taste improvement possibility. To do so, it\'s imperative to comprehend Greenberg\'s critical system, considering his Seminars and also his critics since the 30s. The essays presented on Homemade Estheticswill base the investigations about the central point of interest in this study, having in mind the modern theory formulated by Greenberg. But it\'s necessary, beside this, to consider the great diversity of his work, once his texts can have a dialogue.

O crítico de arte americano Clement Greenberg dedica especial atençãoà teoria estética em seus textos dos anos 1970, sobretudo ao juízo de gosto. Esta pesquisa busca evidenciar um aspecto importante na discussão estética em Greenberg, qual seja, a possibilidade de aprimoramento do gosto. Para tal, também se faz necessária uma compreensão de seu sistema crítico, articulando os Seminários por ele ministrados nos anos 70 e seus textos críticos desde os anos 30. Dentro da teoria estética moderna formulada por Greenberg, os textos reunidos em Estética Domésticaservem de base para a investigação do ponto central da pesquisa. Apesar disso, não se pode perder de vista o grande espectro coberto pela obra do crítico, uma vez que seus textos dialogam entre si, retomando e alinhavando os diversos temas abordados. / The american art critic Clement Greenberg pays special attention to the aesthetics in his texts of the 1970s, and to the taste judgement most of all. This study try to put light over an important aspect of Greenberg theory: the taste improvement possibility. To do so, it\'s imperative to comprehend Greenberg\'s critical system, considering his Seminars and also his critics since the 30s. The essays presented on Homemade Estheticswill base the investigations about the central point of interest in this study, having in mind the modern theory formulated by Greenberg. But it\'s necessary, beside this, to consider the great diversity of his work, once his texts can have a dialogue.

This study was concerned with the development and testing of an instrument to measure levels of aesthetic judgement making. The review of evaluation methods for aesthetic judgement resulted in a two-part instrument. The review of related literature demonstrated that the majority of instruments for aesthetic judgment employed a naive to sophisticated judgment comparison to determine levels of aesthetic sensitivity. The inadequacy of a score reporting only the degree of agreement between the subject's choice and the choice of a panel of experts without indicating the source agreement was discussed. Content analysis of aesthetic responses used in research studies by Wilson and Morris were presented as an alternative means for determining aesthetic criteria. Part one required the subject to select the better of two art works and to state the reasons for the choice. Part two, a self-scoring component, consisted of the Wilson categories presented as typical statements containing the primary criterion for the category. The subject was instructed to select the statements that were closest in meaning to his initial response.

Syftet med studie var att undersöka hur kunskap inom spelgrafik kan påverka en spelares “aesthetic experience”. ”Aesthetic experience” är en term som används för att beskriva den tankeprocess en människa genomgår när hen betraktar ett verk. Detta resulterar i en ”aesthetic judgement” och en ”aesthetic emotion”. Enligt den studie Leder m.fl. har gjort kan kunskap inom modern konst resultera i en positiv ”aesthetic emotion” när observatören betraktar modern konst. Studien undersökte om kunskap om spelgrafik kunde ge ett liknande resultat vid betraktandet av en spelmiljö. Till undersökningen skapades en artefakt i form av en 3D. Informanterna fick säga hur de mådde och vad de tyckte om scenen i början och slutet av undersökningen. Resultatet pekar på att informanterna hade en mer positiv ”aesthetic judgement” efter att ha analyserat scenen, medan deras ”aesthetic emotion” sällan ändrades. I ett framtida arbete skulle modellen kunna anpassas ytterligare till spelgrafik.

Title: Aesthetic judgement from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives Author: Tereza Hadravová Department: Aesthetics Department Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Vlastimil Zuska, CSc. Abstract: How does science relate to aesthetics? This question usually reads as a question concerning scientific contribution to aesthetics. Philosophers are most- ly skeptical about the application of scientific results in their domain, wheras psychologists and, in recent years, neuroscientists are optimistic. In the thesis, I argue that both of these positions, in their extreme versions, impede the mutual enrichment of science and aesthetics. The starting-point of the thesis is George Dickie's radical claim that no scientific information has ever been relevant for aesthetics. The claim, I argue, is firmly embedded in the aftermath of logical positivism: it is related to the e↵ort to "rescue" aesthetics from progressive eli- mination. As a consequence, most of analytic aesthetics discourse has ignored psychologically informed conception of aesthetic judgement, including some fine distinctions that such a conception enables, e.g. the di↵erence between judgements about pleasure and aesthetic judgements. The distinctions are further elaborated and, in the last part of the thesis, the results of this elaboration are...

Cette thèse pose la question de l’exigence artistique dans les pratiques théâtrales en amateur. On s’appuie principalement sur l’observation de festivals de portée départementale ou nationale, suivant l’hypothèse que ces manifestations favorisent les discussions sur les choix esthétiques. La recherche se déploie autour d’une interrogation : quand une activité artistique se pratique dans un cadre non professionnel, comment s’articulent les objectifs d’amélioration de la qualité des spectacles avec le souci de maintenir un respect mutuel ? Constituée à partir de l’analyse des représentations et des rencontres inscrites à l’affiche des festivals, l’étude a été complétée par des entretiens avec les membres des troupes participantes, des comités d’organisation ou des jurys, dont certains artistes professionnels. On structure les résultats obtenus en s’intéressant d’abord aux conditions dans lesquelles les amateurs satisfont leur passion et en évoquant les moyens et les outils dont ils se dotent collectivement pour y parvenir. Puis on envisage les façons dont les amateurs exercent leur jugement quand il leur faut construire le programme d’un festival. On aborde alors les festivals en les considérant comme des expériences de vie et on considère les valeurs mises en œuvre dans ces aventures humaines. Un dialogue est instauré entre tous ces aspects et différentes conceptions théoriques de l’art, selon que l’accent est placé sur ce qui se passe lors d’une représentation, sur les intentions, sur l’expertise ou sur les effets. On insiste sur la dimension sociale de ces pratiques et sur le fait que le temps disponible est consacré de préférence au plateau, plutôt qu’aux discours / This thesis deals with the question of the artistic demand in amateur theatre practices. It mainly relies on the observation of national or departmental festivals, based on the assumption that these events allow for the debating about aesthetical choices. The research is driven by on the interrogation: when one practises an artistic activity as a non-professional, how to articulate the objectives of improving the quality of the shows with the concern for maintaining a mutual respect? The study analyses performances and group discussions scheduled during the festivals, completed by interviews with some members of companies, or of the organising committees, or of the juries, some of them being professional artists. The results are taken up, in turn, beginning with the conditions under which the amateurs satisfy their passion, including the means they collectively develop and put into action, therefore. Then the ways of assessing one’s taste when having to elaborate the program of a festival are examined. It is then proposed to regard festivals as whole experiences of life and to take into account the values which are at work during these human adventures. All these aspects are put into dialogue together with some theoretical conceptions of art, according to the most significant elements: intentions, expertise, effects. The social dimension of the practices is underlined, as well as the fact that amateurs have rather spend their time on scene, rather that discussing

This study is concerned with the obscurity surrounding the boundaries of a socio-political context and a metaphysical context, especially as it correlates to Contemporary Performance Art. This dichotomy seemingly results in symbolic conflation and therefore necessitates the inclusion of social science as part of Performance Studies discourse. The intersection of these disciplines aligns with respect to the significance of context: the role of communication when considering the phenomenon of interpreting the perspective of other individuals. In this study, the various layers appropriated to the contextualisation of Performance art are explored: how it pertains to the theatrical framework, audience, art, social order, and the sublime. To this end, the influence of the socio-political construct of reality on the theatrical framework of a performance is examined. The premise is that a socio-political context both precedes and follows a performance and likely affects 5 how a performance is experienced. This investigation relies upon the methodological approach of Grounded Theory that allows the freedom of exploring this phenomenon in conjunction to the development of a communicative model. To delimit the scope of this study, I primarily focus on the symbolic, insofar as it affects the context of a performance. The analysis of this study supports the development of a theorisation that introduces an approach to the theatrical framework, defined as Neo-Surrealism. Drawing upon Immanuel Kant's philosophical work on judgement, a precept is introduced for a theatrical framework: Neo- Surrealism is a platform that constitutes the demarcation of sacred space, where the signification of the aesthetic has symbolic authority over the signification of the socio-political construct. In the present study, the term transgression as situated in a metaphysical context of sacred space, changes its symbolic signification from a complicit act against the socio-political construct to a complicit act against the limitations of perception, positioning this semiotic sign to constitute an aesthetic infinitude. This theorisation serves to support a philosophical dialectic that incorporates performative methods from Ritual Studies. This aspect of the dissertation acts as a counterpart to the documented artwork aimed at reinforcing the specific purposes as outlined through the research. The practical portion of this study consists of three performances that rely upon the platform of Neo-Surrealism. Each performance strategically responds to the influence of the socio-political construct in separate ways. Neo-Surrealism: What is Performance art? (2015) contains a fictitious narrative that is integrated in an academic context. I portray several different archetypes; this theoretically makes my identity impalpable to an audience comprised mostly of students that are unfamiliar with my work. Neo-Surrealism: The Audition (2016) is centred on the site specificity of the performance, challenging the application of the communicative model in an unfamiliar socio-political context, Anchorage, Alaska. Neo-Surrealism: The Rehearsal (2017) is aimed at asserting the relevance of the platform of Neo-Surrealism by expanding the symbolic boundaries of Performance Art.

This study focuses on the rhetorical and political conditions for answering the question 'what is kulturpolitik?'. The most common translation of kulturpolitik is 'cultural policy', but 'cultural politics' is an alternative - perhaps policies must al­ways involve broader notions of politics. Here, politics is understood as struggles and conflicts in community, struggles that take place between rules and practical cases, between law and freedom. It is argued that language is a key to an awareness of political conditions, although politics also might involve aesthetics and violence. According to Aristode and Ricoeur, language is something that occurs 'when somebody says something to somebody about something' - and, as added in the dissertation: 'for a certain purpose and in a certain manner'. The general conditions for saying what kulturpolitik is, can thus be studied with reference to the interplay between six aspects: author; utterance, audience, reference, purpose and manner These rhetorical aspects can be used differendy in different cases. Four particular cases are examined in the dissertation. These are chosen pardy because they allow a gen­eral overview of the connections between politics and the arts, or policy and cul­ture, mainly in Western Europe; and pardy because they allow a demonstration of the importance of rhetoric. The cases are: (1) a comparison between two major Government Bills to the Swedish Parliament, concerning the general formulation of state cultural policy; (2) an analysis of the meaning of goals in policy, with particular reference to the Council of Europe's evaluations of cultural policies in France, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, and Finland; (3) an overview of the political uses of the concept of culture in Germany between 1800 and 1932; (4) a study of the French state's effort to engage the arts in the service of the republic between 1789 and 1983. It is, furthermore, argued that a rhetorical 'manner' can be understood as a way of employing the faculty of judgement. Following Aristode and Kant, and es­pecially according to Arendt and Lyotard, it is shown that judgement is a pre- eminendy political faculty. It allows those who use language - authors as well as audiences — to reflect upon the conditions of agreement in the absence of precon­ceived rules, but with the help of aesthetical awareness and imagination. / Digitalisering@umu

The main aim of public art is to be avaliable and accessible to all. Public art is often connected to social and economical intentions in so far as its presence in the public space ought to benefit the general public. To ensure access to good art, rules and regulations determine the commissioning and procurement of public art. Councils work collaboratively to reach a unified and collective assessment of its quality. This essay argues that the legal framework nevertheless overlooks important aspects of how the quality assessment of public art succeeds in attaining its general status, where this status must co-exist with the fact that aesthetic judgements are grounded in subjective experience. The essay sets out to offer constructive recommendations for how the process surrounding such qualitative assessment of art for public space ought to work.  In order to examine the quality assessment of public art, and the ways such qualities is said to be guaranteed, I will use the competition West Link: Chronotopia (2017) as a case study. I will analyze the conditions under which the jury's assessment of the winning contribution for a new train station at Korsvägen in Gothenburg was made. By extrapolating Immanuel Kant's theory of aesthetic judgements (Critique of Judgement, 1790) I will show how aesthetic judgements can lay claim to the general validity while being rooted in subjective experience. To bridge this seemingly contradiction, I will examine the notion of sensus communis in relation to the case study.  The result of the essay shows that assessment of art depends largely on our abilities to communicate subjective appreciation. The legal framework turns out to have only a secondary role and does not limit how a jury motivates its assessment of the work's aesthetic qualities. Instead it encourages the jury in subjective reflection on the work's qualities.  The essay concludes by defending the claim that there is a pressing need to make more visible the role of aesthetic judgement in the quality assessment process of public art. Assessing with general validity must be grounded in the artwork's own premises, as manifested in our subjective impressions of them. Social communication is especially encouraged, and enables human beings to trust their own thoughts and feelings in balance with those of others. This essay thus defends the idea that public art, as an object of aesthetic judgement, has a very important role to play in our society.

This thesis considers the role of aesthetic meaning-making in elementary school science learning. Children’s aesthetic experiences are traced through their use of aesthetic judgements, spontaneous metaphors and art activities. The thesis is based on four empirical studies: the first two examining children’s language use, i.e. the role of aesthetic judgements and the significance of spontaneous metaphors while learning science and the latter two dealing with how art activities mediate what elementary school children learn in science and what a variety of art activities with different purposes afford elementary school children to learn in science. The theoretical stance emanates from pragmatist theories and includes Dewey’s definition of an aesthetic experience, Wittgenstein’s later work on language-games, and socio-cultural perspectives. The analytic approach used is a practical epistemology analysis developed by Wickman and Östman. The empirical data consists of audio- and video recordings of elementary school children’s (aged 6–10 years) discussions in pairs or small groups during science lessons and photographs of children’s pictures, sculptures and poems from a total of 14 different elementary school classes. The main findings of the empirical studies show how aesthetic meaning-making is continuous with elementary school children’s scientific learning. The thesis shows how elementary school children’s aesthetic experiences are related to whole activities and are crucial for the direction that learning takes. Aesthetic experience is important in terms of how and what elementary school children learn aesthetically and normatively in science class, which has consequences for cognitive learning, the possibility of participating in science class and learning the genre of science. Moreover, it can be seen how children’s prior experiences are recurrently reconstructed and transformed through imaginative processes.