This dissertation investigates aesthetics of engagement in -interaction. Aesthetic refers to the aesthetic experience, based on a phenomenological and pragmatist understanding: dynamic and personal, appealing mutually to - and formed inseparably by - our bodily, emotional, as well as intellectual faculties. Engagement signifies this experience as forming a deeply involved relationship between people and an artefact in interaction. The theoretical background upon which this work is based, asserts that we perceive the world in terms of how we can act in it. Action, through the body, is how we make sense of the world around us. To be congruent with these foundations and the topic at hand means that the research program was investigated through a constructive design research process. The research program anchors and outlines the goal of this investigation: to contribute shareable knowledge of how to design for aesthetic engagement in interaction by leveraging a first-person -perspective. The findings of this research form two contributions to the overlapping fields of Human-Computer Interaction and (Interaction) Design Research. The main contribution is methodological and is concerned with generating knowledge through design. The methodological structure of this dissertation builds on a programmatic approach that centres on the first-person perspective of the designer, who learns from experience by reflecting on design action. Such an approach is fundamental to the design tradition, but its dependency on subjectivity is also a source of epistemological conflict since design, as mode of inquiry, matures and comes in contact with more established disciplines that have their own academic traditions. For design research, to develop its own intellectual culture, alternative and bidirectional relationships between theory and practice need to be further shaped, articulated, and debated in the field. This dissertation contributes to this discussion around designerly ways of knowing by exposing how skillful coping and intuition, through mechanisms of reflection-on-action, generate a multitude of perspectives on a complex design space. These perspectives reveal parts of the complexity of designing for aesthetic engagement, while leaving it intact. Exposing and consolidating the first-person (design) knowledge embedded in these perspectives allows this knowledge to be articulated as a shareable academic knowledge contribution. This shareable knowledge forms the second contribution of this dissertation. Reflections on the process and results of eight constructive design research projects describe a design space around aesthetic engagement. Individual reflections are consolidated into themes that describe how a design may elicit aesthetic engagement in interaction. These themes are experiential qualities: conceptual values that can be leveraged for a design to appeal to both mind and body in ways that are rich, open-ended and ambiguous. The findings propose strategies for interactions with digital technologies to open up the complexity of relations in the world between artefacts and people. Designing for aesthetics of engagement proposes ways to respect people’ skills in making sense of the complexity of the lived world. In respecting the uniqueness of their body and the subjectivity of their experiences, to design for aesthetic engagement is to support the expression of personal points of view in interaction. This points to ways in which designers can open up interactions with digital technologies to be more beautiful, respectful, and liveable, as it touches what makes us human: our personal being in the world.

Thesis advisor: Elisa Magri / This thesis will argue that art expresses feeling, affirming the expressivist theory of aesthetics of R.G. Collingwood, and will expand this thesis to say that aesthetic experience of nature is also expressive. By aesthetic experience of nature, I refer to an experience in which the subject is not merely observing, but appreciating the natural world for its aesthetic qualities. I will present the argument that such experiences of nature are governed by the same principles of expression and imagination that intentionally made art objects are. I will begin with an analysis of the expressivist theory of Collingwood, which asserts that all proper art is the result of expression followed by an act of imaginative creation. Following this, I will investigate the expression of feelings in the non-art aesthetic experience of nature. To do this I will present the work of Arnold Berleant, whose framework for aesthetic engagement will allow the expressivist theory of expression and imagination to apply in natural aesthetics. With this framework in place I will explore several examples of aesthetic experience of nature to illustrate this process at work. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

Esta pesquisa propõe-se a analisar as incidências da formação vinculada ao jazz e ao rap no engajamento estético de jovens estudantes do ensino médio de uma escola pública, localizada em um bairro periférico de São Paulo. Entende-se por formação cultural (Bildung) a ideia de Theodor Adorno de uma educação voltada à emancipação. Esta perspectiva parece dialogar com o pensamento de Vilém Flusser, que propõe a articulação entre gesto artístico e ação política por meio do engajamento estético. Com base nesses conceitos, pretende-se investigar se a experiência formativa propiciada aos adolescentes por meio de ambos os estilos musicais promove o desenvolvimento da reflexão crítica, possibilitando a intervenção na realidade presente. Para empreender esta análise, foram abordados aspectos sobre a história social do rap e do jazz e as características formais desses gêneros, seguidas de alguns comentários a respeito do valor estético de acordo com diferentes perspectivas filosóficas. Constatou-se que as linguagens do rap e do jazz veiculam saberes ancestrais da Diáspora do Atlântico Negro e, nesse sentido, esses estilos musicais permitem um contato significativo com o legado das chamadas culturas negras. A partir disso, foram propostas atividades que envolveram a apreciação musical, debates, produção de relatos por meio de textos e desenhos, além da prática com instrumentos musicais de percussão durante o período letivo de 2015 nas aulas do ensino médio de Sociologia. Por fim, o propósito deste trabalho consistiu em uma busca de compreensão dos significados conferidos pelos estudantes às experiências que emergem da comunicação e do diálogo entre professor e aluno por meio do jazz e do rap, de modo a desestabilizar separações/cisões, envolvendo desde o gosto e a preferência por determinados estilos e/ou gêneros musicais, até entre corpo e mente, sujeito e objeto, professores e alunos. / The purpose of this research is to analyse the incidences of an education based on rap and jazz legacy and its contributions to the aesthetic engagement among high school students in São Paulo, Brazil. The concept of cultural formation (Bildung) as conceived by Theodor Adorno has affinity with an education for emancipation. This perspective seems to dialogue with another philosopher´s thinking, Vilém Flusser, who proposes the entailment between aesthetic gesture and political engagement through the concept of aesthetic engagement. Based on both concepts, it is expected to achieve a broader understanding on if the formative experience obtained from jazz and rap practices promotes a change of sensibility and reflective thinking. To address this purpose, it was presented some features of jazz and rap music and their social history, alongside with comments about their musical form from a philosophical point of view. From this, it were developed activities that involved musical listening and practicing, dialogues with the students, text productions and drawing in order to create self-reports. These activities occurred during Sociology classes in 2015. It is assumed that some elements that set the language of rap and jazz promotes both the immanence principle and the transmission of cultural meanings from Black Atlantic.

Esta pesquisa propõe-se a analisar as incidências da formação vinculada ao jazz e ao rap no engajamento estético de jovens estudantes do ensino médio de uma escola pública, localizada em um bairro periférico de São Paulo. Entende-se por formação cultural (Bildung) a ideia de Theodor Adorno de uma educação voltada à emancipação. Esta perspectiva parece dialogar com o pensamento de Vilém Flusser, que propõe a articulação entre gesto artístico e ação política por meio do engajamento estético. Com base nesses conceitos, pretende-se investigar se a experiência formativa propiciada aos adolescentes por meio de ambos os estilos musicais promove o desenvolvimento da reflexão crítica, possibilitando a intervenção na realidade presente. Para empreender esta análise, foram abordados aspectos sobre a história social do rap e do jazz e as características formais desses gêneros, seguidas de alguns comentários a respeito do valor estético de acordo com diferentes perspectivas filosóficas. Constatou-se que as linguagens do rap e do jazz veiculam saberes ancestrais da Diáspora do Atlântico Negro e, nesse sentido, esses estilos musicais permitem um contato significativo com o legado das chamadas culturas negras. A partir disso, foram propostas atividades que envolveram a apreciação musical, debates, produção de relatos por meio de textos e desenhos, além da prática com instrumentos musicais de percussão durante o período letivo de 2015 nas aulas do ensino médio de Sociologia. Por fim, o propósito deste trabalho consistiu em uma busca de compreensão dos significados conferidos pelos estudantes às experiências que emergem da comunicação e do diálogo entre professor e aluno por meio do jazz e do rap, de modo a desestabilizar separações/cisões, envolvendo desde o gosto e a preferência por determinados estilos e/ou gêneros musicais, até entre corpo e mente, sujeito e objeto, professores e alunos. / The purpose of this research is to analyse the incidences of an education based on rap and jazz legacy and its contributions to the aesthetic engagement among high school students in São Paulo, Brazil. The concept of cultural formation (Bildung) as conceived by Theodor Adorno has affinity with an education for emancipation. This perspective seems to dialogue with another philosopher´s thinking, Vilém Flusser, who proposes the entailment between aesthetic gesture and political engagement through the concept of aesthetic engagement. Based on both concepts, it is expected to achieve a broader understanding on if the formative experience obtained from jazz and rap practices promotes a change of sensibility and reflective thinking. To address this purpose, it was presented some features of jazz and rap music and their social history, alongside with comments about their musical form from a philosophical point of view. From this, it were developed activities that involved musical listening and practicing, dialogues with the students, text productions and drawing in order to create self-reports. These activities occurred during Sociology classes in 2015. It is assumed that some elements that set the language of rap and jazz promotes both the immanence principle and the transmission of cultural meanings from Black Atlantic.

Esta Tese tem por finalidade tratar de questões ligadas ao Movimento Cineclubista brasileiro compreendendo os anos de 1928 a 1988, tendo por objetivo principal demonstrar sua trajetória do engajamento estético à resistência política. O marco cronológico estabelecido, remonta aos anos 1920, com o nascimento do cineclubismo na França e particularmente, com a criação do primeiro cineclube oficial do Brasil, o Chaplin-Club, em 1928. Neste período, o cineclubismo se caracterizava basicamente pelo engajamento estético e, entre nós, muda para uma atitude de resistência política durante os anos de chumbo, um período marcado pelo domínio de uma ditadura civil-militar. A baliza cronológica final é o ano de 1988, quando aconteceu a abertura política no Brasil e a volta do Regime democrático, fenômeno que também afetou o movimento cineclubista, causando-lhe enfraquecimento, sem contudo ser possível falar no fim deste, pois ele se mantém ativo até os dias atuais. Também tem como finalidade demonstrar que no cineclubismo, em seus primórdios, o acento recaía sobre o aprimoramento do cinema, as questões estéticas e a luta para elevar o cinema ao status de uma das belas-artes, a sétima-arte. Visa a demonstrar o processo de mudança do cineclubismo e sua rearticulação após a promulgação do Ato Institucional nº 5, que havia causado a desorganização do movimento em várias regiões do Brasil. Pretende-se expor como ocorreu a conversão de cineclubismo em movimento cineclubista, através da reorganização das Federações e do Conselho Nacional de Cineclubes (CNC), no mesmo sentido almeja-se mostrar que os cineclubes tornaram-se o locus de resistência ao regime ditatorial vigente no país após o Golpe de Estado civil-militar de 1964. Outrossim, procuro mostrar as tensões internas no processo de constituição do movimento cineclubista no Brasil. / This thesis is intended to talk about issues related to the Brazilian cineclubist movement comprising the years 1928 to 1988, whose principal objective is showing its trajectory from the aesthetic engagement to the politics resistance. The chronologic goal established brings back the 20s from the 20th century, with the emergence of the cineclubism in France and particularly with the creation of the first official cineclub of Brazil, the Chaplin-Club, in 1928. In this period, the cineclubism was characterized by the aesthetic engagement and it was until the leaden years in the second half from the 60s decade, period marked by the dominance of a civil-military dictatorship. The final chronologic goal is in 1988, when it happened the opening policy in Brazil and the return of democratic rule, phenomenon that also affected the cinecublist movement causing cooling, without being the end of it, because it exists until today. It also intends demonstrating that in the first years of cineclubism, the accent fell on the improvement of cinema, the aesthetic issues and the struggle to raise the cinema to the status of one of the fine arts, the seventh art. It also wants to show the process of changing in the action in the cineclubism and their rearticulation after granting of the Institutional Act No. 5, which had caused its breakdown in several regions of Brazil. It is intended to expose how its conversion from cineclubism to cineclubist movement, from the reorganization of the federations and the National Council of film societies and the National Cineclub Council (CNC in Portuguese), in the same sense aims to show that the cineclubs will become the locus of resistance to the dictatorial regime in force in the country after the coup of 1964 civil-military. In addition is to show internal tensions in the process of Constitution of the cineclubism and the cineclubist movement in Brazil.

Esta Tese tem por finalidade tratar de questões ligadas ao Movimento Cineclubista brasileiro compreendendo os anos de 1928 a 1988, tendo por objetivo principal demonstrar sua trajetória do engajamento estético à resistência política. O marco cronológico estabelecido, remonta aos anos 1920, com o nascimento do cineclubismo na França e particularmente, com a criação do primeiro cineclube oficial do Brasil, o Chaplin-Club, em 1928. Neste período, o cineclubismo se caracterizava basicamente pelo engajamento estético e, entre nós, muda para uma atitude de resistência política durante os anos de chumbo, um período marcado pelo domínio de uma ditadura civil-militar. A baliza cronológica final é o ano de 1988, quando aconteceu a abertura política no Brasil e a volta do Regime democrático, fenômeno que também afetou o movimento cineclubista, causando-lhe enfraquecimento, sem contudo ser possível falar no fim deste, pois ele se mantém ativo até os dias atuais. Também tem como finalidade demonstrar que no cineclubismo, em seus primórdios, o acento recaía sobre o aprimoramento do cinema, as questões estéticas e a luta para elevar o cinema ao status de uma das belas-artes, a sétima-arte. Visa a demonstrar o processo de mudança do cineclubismo e sua rearticulação após a promulgação do Ato Institucional nº 5, que havia causado a desorganização do movimento em várias regiões do Brasil. Pretende-se expor como ocorreu a conversão de cineclubismo em movimento cineclubista, através da reorganização das Federações e do Conselho Nacional de Cineclubes (CNC), no mesmo sentido almeja-se mostrar que os cineclubes tornaram-se o locus de resistência ao regime ditatorial vigente no país após o Golpe de Estado civil-militar de 1964. Outrossim, procuro mostrar as tensões internas no processo de constituição do movimento cineclubista no Brasil. / This thesis is intended to talk about issues related to the Brazilian cineclubist movement comprising the years 1928 to 1988, whose principal objective is showing its trajectory from the aesthetic engagement to the politics resistance. The chronologic goal established brings back the 20s from the 20th century, with the emergence of the cineclubism in France and particularly with the creation of the first official cineclub of Brazil, the Chaplin-Club, in 1928. In this period, the cineclubism was characterized by the aesthetic engagement and it was until the leaden years in the second half from the 60s decade, period marked by the dominance of a civil-military dictatorship. The final chronologic goal is in 1988, when it happened the opening policy in Brazil and the return of democratic rule, phenomenon that also affected the cinecublist movement causing cooling, without being the end of it, because it exists until today. It also intends demonstrating that in the first years of cineclubism, the accent fell on the improvement of cinema, the aesthetic issues and the struggle to raise the cinema to the status of one of the fine arts, the seventh art. It also wants to show the process of changing in the action in the cineclubism and their rearticulation after granting of the Institutional Act No. 5, which had caused its breakdown in several regions of Brazil. It is intended to expose how its conversion from cineclubism to cineclubist movement, from the reorganization of the federations and the National Council of film societies and the National Cineclub Council (CNC in Portuguese), in the same sense aims to show that the cineclubs will become the locus of resistance to the dictatorial regime in force in the country after the coup of 1964 civil-military. In addition is to show internal tensions in the process of Constitution of the cineclubism and the cineclubist movement in Brazil.