Inaug.-diss.-Strassburg. / Lebenslauf.

<p>Det här arbetet behandlar frågan: ”Hur kan illusionen av att vara en skicklig renässansmålare förmedlas i ett spel och vad är en lämplig arbetsmetod för att uppnå detta?” Metoden jag använde för att ta reda på detta var att utveckla spelet Art Hero som låter spelaren måla en förenklad version av några av historiens mest kända verk. Knepet är dock att det inte är den förenklade versionen som träder fram under penseln utan originalverket. Den arbetsmetod jag utvärderade är något som jag kallar ”improviserande produktion”. Grundidén med denna metod är att ambitionerna i början hålls på en låg nivå och att resten av utvecklingsperioden sedan används åt att finputsa spelet. Denna metod visade sig vara lämplig då jag efter 13 veckors arbete kunde konstatera, med hjälp av tre speltestare, att spelet visar på en lyckad metod för att uppnå illusionen. En kritik mot spelet var dock att det snarare ger en känsla av att skrapa än av att måla och det är något som jag hoppas kunna motverka i framtiden. Rent konkret fann jag att det är viktig att motivet som spelaren ”målar av” är mer abstrakt än den bild som spelaren själv ”skapar”. Det gör att spelaren får en illusion av att måla mer detaljerat än spelets verklighet och det bidrar i sin tur till känslan av skicklighet. Nyckeln till illusionen är dock framför allt att spelet i likhet med Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music, 2005) låter spelaren utföra en komplicerad uppgift på ett förenklat sätt.</p>

Thesis (Th. M.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2005. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-109).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Washington State University, May 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 12).

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 66).

Ce travail de doctorat s'attache à montrer comment le quotidien, notion dont la naissance est moderne, s'invente et se pense comme objet conceptuel à partir des travaux d'Henri Lefebvre el plus tard de Michel de Certeau. L'investigation du quotidien s'effectue à la croisée de l'art et des sciences humaines et sociales et fait de la question, paradoxale, d'une vie quotidienne créative un enjeu théorique et politique pour la pensée critique comme pour les pratiques artistiques des années 1960 à 1980. En expliquant comment le quotidien, d'objet conceptuel, devient un projet, la thèse éclaire les pratiques non-art de Robert Filliou, d'Allan Kaprow et des artistes Fluxus. C'est dans les écrits d'artistes 'lut' se lit leur geste paradoxal d'affirmation et de négation de l'art qui invite à inscrire les pratiques créatives dans la vit' quotidienne, plutôt que de faire entrer celles-ci au musée. Il s'agit de mettre en évidence ces démarches qui se détournent des institutions artistiques pour investir le quotidien comme le lieu de l'émancipation. La thèse se penche dans le même temps sur l'étude de pratiques d'écriture qui relèvent de ce projet, en expliquant comme Perec et Spoerri mettent en place des configurations discursives permettant de faire l'inventaire poétique d'un quotidien partageable. L'anecdote enfin, dont use Kaprow, interroge les pratiques quotidiennes par leur mise en récit, dans une visée épistémique qui distingue les poïétiques du quotidien des processus d'esthétisation de l'ordinaire par l'art. / Designed as an interdisciplinary study of artistic and theoretical sources, this work addresses the construct of the everyday [quotidien], a key notion for modernity, specifically in Henri Lefebvre’s and later Michel de Certeau's writings from the 1960s to the early 1980s. The dissertation argues that the investigation or the everyday, which led to its conceptualization, is done at the crossroads of social sciences and art. It brings about the paradoxical question of a creative life, which is a theoretical and political concern for critical thinking and for the period's artistic practices, By explaining how the everyday, once a conceptual notion, becomes a project, the work sheds light on the non-art practices of Allan Kaprow, Robert Filliou and Fluxus. It contends that the everyday is paired with the notion of non-art, to which these artists resort to describe their own work. ln their writings and practices, they invite to inscribe creative practices in evervday life, rather than place them within the institutions of the art world, This thesis also draws on an analvsis or the writing or the everyday, by explaining how Georges Perec and Daniel Spoerri elaborate discursive practices which allow them to create a poetic inventory of a collective memory. Finally, the anecdote, of which Allan Kaprow makes use, questions the practices or the everyday by turning them into narratives. These sources raise a philosophical question pertaining to the epistemical value of art and literature that distinguishes the poietics or the everyday from processes that aestheticize the ordinary.

The research reported in this thesis explores children’s perceptions of beauty. It investigates how children reflect upon and articulate their perceptions of beauty and examines how these perceptions relate to philosophical thinking about aesthetic experience. For the past 100 years, beauty has been marginalised in art and education and it is widely regarded as a problematic notion in a range of social and cultural contexts. Art educators have often portrayed beauty as a peripheral concern, and those who have studied children’s responses to artworks have tended to characterise their references to beauty as evidence of passive appreciation and a relatively low level of aesthetic development. In recent years there has been growing evidence of a revival of interest in beauty as a theme for reflection; however, to my knowledge, this is the first study to specifically research children’s perceptions of beauty. The theoretical part of the study examined two fields of literature, in terms of (i) art educators’ strategies for engaging children with art and (ii) philosophical theories of aesthetic experience. These sources influenced the design of the empirical part of the study, which consisted of 18 group interviews with 51 children aged 9-11 in two schools, one in inner London and the other in a rural village 40 miles from the capital. Before the interviews children completed two tasks independently in which they found and photographed images they thought were beautiful. Therefore there were two kinds of research data: (i) the images children found and photographed and (ii) the interview transcripts. A content analysis approach informed the interpretation of the images, while a number of themes that emerged from the interview data were identified and discussed in the context of the literature. The research findings indicated that children have diverse perceptions of beauty and that they are interested in a range of visual properties and expressive qualities of images. Children in one school tended to find beauty in images that reflected relationships, while those in the other judged the subjective nature of such images to be problematic. Children in the rural area often photographed landscapes, flowers and animals, suggesting their direct connection with nature influences their perception of it as beautiful. Those in London also found beauty in the natural world but preferred stylised, digitally generated representations of nature designed to appeal to the viewer. During the interviews children were often highly motivated to articulate their responses to beauty, and many reflected thoughtfully on their own and others’ images. Evidence suggests that children experience beauty in a wide range of contexts and that they variously understand it as an intersubjectively valid, shareable experience or, alternatively, as an individual experience. Several talked about beauty in ways that related to notions well-rehearsed in aesthetic theory while others, though less able to conceive or articulate such ideas, were nonetheless receptive to them when they heard them expressed. Photography played an important part in the research, and the findings suggest the medium has the potential to play a far more prominent role in art education as a means of expression. When combined with group interviews, photography can also be a highly effective method of understanding children’s perspectives on their experiences, and the study offers a useful model for researchers and educators to develop further. The research makes several contributions to knowledge. Firstly, it demonstrates that children’s experiences of beauty are often valuable and meaningful to them. Secondly, it provides evidence that children are motivated to explain their ideas about beauty and to engage with the ideas of others. Thirdly, it challenges previous assumptions in terms of both children’s aesthetic development and aesthetic preferences by highlighting the diversity and complexity of children’s perceptions of beauty.

This thesis examines the nature and value of art. It is primarily concerned to advance an argument which makes sense of the significance we ordinarily afford art, rather than rendering it merely aesthetic and thus cognitively trivial. Contrary to philosophical orthodoxy, it is argued that 'art' does not have two distinct senses. Rather, we should understand art as an inherently evaluative, evolving cultural practice. Thus, I argue, 'art' is essentially a cluster concept. I consider an account of art according to which it is in the pleasure art affords, that its value lies. However, though we derive pleasure even from apparently unpleasant artworks, the mark of art's value lies elsewhere. That is, the pleasure we derive from art is the result of an artwork's being of value in some other way. Through critically assessing the standard accounts of art's value, I argue that art's pleasures are primarily cognitive. Furthermore, I argue, the cognitive value of art arises primarily from the engagement of our imagination and interpretation of artworks. That is, we enjoy the imaginative activity of engaging with artworks and the promotion of particular imaginative understandings. Furthermore, as imaginative understanding is of fundamental importance in grasping the nature of our world and others, art may have a distinctive significance. That is, art may afford insights into and thus promote our imaginative understandings of our world and others. Thus, through the promotion of imaginative understanding, art may cultivate our moral understanding. Therefore, art is of profound significance and import.