The contemporary photographer, Joel-Peter Witkin, has described his remaking of some of the most iconic paintings in the history of art as a “divine revolt”. However, there are no attempts to unravel the meaning of this project nor to analyse the visual changes that Witkin has made. This thesis argues that Witkin's re-creations serve to subvert the negation or diminishment of ugliness in art history's depictions of the mystical, and to present the experience of ugliness as alternatively inherently Godly. Through engaging in the problems in philosophical aesthetics, it contrasts the notions “aesthetically ugly” (a quality that cannot be objectively identified and studied because it ascribes aesthetic non-worth) with the “ugly aesthetic”, which refers to the “perceptive-felt” experience of an object. By integrating descriptions of this experience of the ugly aesthetic with those of the early development stage of the “psychoanalytic pre-symbolic”, it provides heuristics with which to identify perceptual identifiers ugly objects, ugly worlds and the expression of ugly feelings in mystical invocations of paintings of three chosen art historical periods and Witkin's recreations. In his reconstructing of the heavenly realms given Renaissance paintings of Leda and the Swan (1510-1515) and The Birth of Venus (1485), Witkin makes a “pre-symbolic” space with ugly objects to present a contrary vision of an ugly dwelling place for God. In amending the Catholic Baroque's Little Fur (1638) and the Protestant Baroque's Still Life of Game, Fish, Fruit and Kitchen Utensils (1646), the artist replaces mystical feelings that imbue scenes of ugly objects with an expression of ugly feelings themselves, thereby guiding the viewer into a full immersion into these objects the real site of Godly experience instead. This theoretical formulation and its application to the works at hand, evidence that Witkin's work points to the mystical power of the ugly aesthetic to unleash a personal and collective memory of Godly reality as ontologically formless and mysterious, and thereby makes a case for ugliness' value.

What we encounter in painting is not so much the authentically revealed self of the painter, but rather signs that insinuate that this absent self is somewhat present in it. /Isabelle Graw/ So, then what is a painting? Perhaps it is all about time, a certain amount of time in the constant murmuring stream of consciousness and the unconscious. A shape cut out of the amorphous. A recording of time spent in uncertainty, not knowing what is going to present itself. To bear the contradiction of in one hand allowing the permission of having an aim versus the absolute requirement of at some point let go of the model, the aim. And thus, submit to painting. In the glitch between distance and sensibility, an utterance, a pronouncement takes place. This text reflects a thinking process that revolves around painting as will and resistance, concepts regarding aesthetics, subjectivity and perception.

[pt] A partir da década de 80 o corpo passou a ser tema da moda, objeto de preocupação dos estudiosos e fonte de angústia para as mulheres. Em uma sociedade onde o corpo, além de objeto de consumo, passa a ser lócus privilegiado da construção identitária feminina, a relação com o próprio corpo acaba por tornar-se desprazerosa e persecutória. O presente trabalho busca explicitar como as atitudes em relação à feiúra, quer seja ver-se feio ou atribuir feiúra ao outro, revelam mudanças na forma de lidar com o corpo, que por sua vez produzem vínculos sociais até então não evidenciados. Tomando a gordura como o paradigma da feiúra, três práticas de intervenção corporal são utilizadas como pesquisa de campo a fim de ilustrar os recurso utilizados pelas mulheres para escaparem do que consideram a feiúra. São elas: as academias de ginástica, as cirurgias plásticas e as cirurgias bariátricas. A autora ressalta como a imagem da mulher e do feminino continua associada à da beleza, havendo cada vez menos tolerância para os desvios nos padrões estéticos socialmente estabelecidos. A feiúra, associada à gordura, é, segundo as entrevistadas uma das mais presentes formas de exclusão social feminina. / [en] From the eighties on, body awareness became a fashion, an academic theme, as well as a major source of anxiety for women. In a society, where in addition of being seen as merchandise, the body is more than ever, the privileged locus of identitary construction. Facing such unattainable goals and such impossible ideals, women are due to have a very anxious and persecutory relationship with their own bodies.The thesis deals with the prejudice which ugly women are faced with. Associated with fatness, ugliness became one of the worst socially tolerated forms of prejudice. Historically associated with beauty, women are the ones who suffer the most. The author points out how socially acceptable it became to discriminate ugly people. The study is based on a field research where three body practices are examined: gym academies, plastic surgery and bariatric surgery Taking obesity or mere fatness as the paradigm of ugliness, the author points out how intolerant society became of those who deviate from what the body culture has established as normal.

Le naturalisme prétendant inclure tous les aspects de la vie, la question de la monstruosité omniprésente dans l’œuvre de Zola peut se traiter sous l’approche du monstre en tant qu’être exceptionnel comme sous celle du monstrueux applicable à chaque nuance de physiologie, de caractère, de comportement ou de sensibilité. La présence des monstres chez l’auteur est concurrencée par son usage plus général du monstrueux lui permettant de concilier une poétique de l’ordinaire et un objet narratif qui ne l’est pas pour tout dire de la complexité de l’existence. Si le monstre désigne d’abord l’être biologique contrefait, l’influence du milieu et de l’hérédité conditionne son apparition : face à différents règnes naturels monstrueux l’homme est menacé de succomber ou de le devenir à son tour ; les anomalies physiques se transmettent d’un parent à son descendant mais même guettent n’importe qui à tout âge. L’œuvre de Zola met ainsi en lumière les aveux des corps mais exprime déjà un changement de regard porté sur les malheureux affublés de tares et leurs juges improvisés. Puis, dans une lecture morale, la quasi-totalité des personnages est susceptible d’être le monstre d’un autre tant c’est là un concept peignant les angoisses et les méfiances inhérentes aux rapports humains, à moins de cibler des mécanismes pernicieux comme ceux de bêtise ou d’hypocrisie pour montrer que n’est pas toujours monstrueux celui que l’on croit ; la mythologie zolienne où monstres et monstrueux occupent un rôle central permet à ce titre de reprendre des thématiques ancestrales et de les adapter au monde contemporain. Approprié par l’écrivain, le monstrueux en régime zolien devient alors un véritable sujet esthétique. Le plus grand monstre aux yeux de qui peine à créer, c’est en définitive l’œuvre d’art elle-même qu’il faut maîtriser par un labeur patient : c’est l’œuvre problématique, trop exigeante, et le monstrueux qualifie ce qu’on rejette en elle comme le laid, l’obscène, le mensonger. Zola en a été lui-même la victime, qu’il s’agisse de ses textes ou de sa propre personne déformés par des parodies, des caricatures ou des attaques ad hominem. / Naturalism claiming to include all aspects of life, Zola’s work can be treated from the angle of the monster as outstanding being or of the monstrous as applicable concept to each nuance of physiology, temperament, behavior or sensitivity. Monster’s presence in author’s work is competed with his more general use of the monstrous, allowing him to reconcile a poetic of the ordinary and an extraordinary narrative object to say all the complexity of existence. If the monster first means distorted biological being, the influence of environment and heredity determines its appearance: confronted with monstrous natural kingdoms, man is threatened to succumb or metamorphose in his turn; abnormalities are passed from parents to descendants, but also affect anyone at any age. So Zola’s work highlights the confessions of the body, but already expresses a change of look on the unfortunates whose physical defects are showed and their improvised judges. Then, in a moral reading, almost all of the characters may be others’ monster, as this is a concept which reveals anxieties and mistrusts inherent in human relationships, unless are targeted pernicious mechanisms such as those of stupidity or hypocrisy in order to prove that isn’t always the monster that is believed; Zola’s mythology whose monsters and monstrous occupy a central role allows, in this capacity, to resume ancestral themes and adapt them to the contemporary world. Appropriated by the writer, the monstrous becomes a veritable aesthetic subject. The biggest monster in the eyes of the one who hardly writes is ultimately the work of art itself which must be mastered with a patient labor: the work is problematic, too demanding, and monstrous describes what is dismissed in it as the ugly, the obscene, the false. Zola was himself victim, through his texts or in his own person deformed by parodies, caricatures or ad hominem attacks.

Le monde grec antique nous a transmis l'image d'une civilisation imprégnée de beauté à travers ses œuvres artistiques, cette image étant renforcée par la richesse et la qualité de ses productions littéraires. La quête de la beauté suprême atteint son apogée durant la période classique, et dans ce contexte où tout semble tendre vers cet idéal, la laideur d'apparence est très peu évocatrice; les quelques personnages grecs laids ou difformes auxquels nous pouvons penser, Thersite, Socrate ou Héphaïstos, semblent constituer la minorité d'exceptions qui confirme la règle tellement ils sont présentés comme des cas à part. Cette image que nous avons des Grecs est évidemment trompeuse: les maladies, les difformités et les différentes formes de laideur devaient naturellement faire partie de leur vie quotidienne. Travailler sur ce sujet encore peu exploré nous a paru fort intéressant; pour tenter de saisir ce que les Grecs eux-mêmes ont peu exprimé, nous avons couvert le plus d'aspects possibles en ayant recours à l'ensemble des textes de la période classique sans oublier l'iconographie, indispensable pour une étude sur l'esthétique. / The ancient Greek world passed on to us the image of a civilization filled with beauty through its artistic works, this image being strengthened by the richness and quality of its literary productions. The quest for supreme beauty reached its peak during the classical period, and in this context where everything seems to tend towards this ideal, physical ugliness is not something we generally equate with Greek thought; a few ugly or deformed Greek characters of whom we can think, Thersite, Socrates or Hephæstus, are so isolated that they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Thus, this image is clearly incorrect since sickness, deformity, and other kinds of ugliness were natural parts of their lives. This little investigated subject is full of interest to us. In our efforts to seize what the Greeks themselves failed to express, we covered every relevent aspect possible by using all the texts of the classical period, not leaving the iconography behind, which is indispensable for a study on aesthetics.

If I relate beauty to nothingness, what happens? Is nothingness sort of an absence of beauty? Or it is portrayed by our culture and society, and, in such case, can I define this absence of beauty? Is it beauty that you cannot even catch? Is its appearance neutral, almost hidden? When we are born, we all have the same degree of beauty and purity, which is progressively lost as long as we start growing up. In a life span, we accumulate wrinkles, and defects and dirt which needs to be concealed in order to fit in certain social categories. But our bodies register all the marks, absorb all the signs and impurities, likewise filters. We don’t necessarly perceive our own dirt or impurities as disgusting, whereas, in the clash with the other, we automatically are ahsamed of it. Same way, we tend to regard the other’s dirt as disgusting, not our own, very private dirt. Dirt is matter out of place, so is ugliness. The stain must be cleansed, purified as it represents a threaten for beauty. It is subtracting clean space to beauty. We are part of a society that intimates us to clean up, shape up, hide your -very human- dirt under the carpet. But beauty, nor humanity, would not exist without that dirt. We do absorb impurities all life long. And that is what makes us what we ultimately are: humans. Dirt paradoxically works as a protection: the dirtier we are, the less afraid of getting dirty we will be. In the society we live in exist many difficulties when it comes to find an identity as humans and a position in it. We are often put in a situation of having to follow: a certain career, a living style, an ideology, somebody’s else opinion, what to consume, school systems. Etcetera. In such a society, and because of this “follower-like”, passive position, where we mostly have to repeat the same living patterns, it got harder and harder to retrieve the meaning of things and to understand where we come from. Who we really are. We tend to put on uniforms or masks to fit in different standardazied situations. Everything and everybody has to fit in its or his standard place. This way our intrinsic human beauty is concealed and somehow controlled. With my essai, I try to look under the carpet, undress, unmask and reach a new definition of beauty: a naked beauty, not concealed nor camouflaged. The beauty we all deeply share, unpretentious and honest. A beauty of nothingness: something I see or feel, but about which I keep wondering whether it is or it is not beauty. To develop such new definition of beauty, I recollect ideas and concepts of beauty from the past, with a main reference to western society: from beauty models in the ancient Greece, Apollonian VS Dionysian, to the Sublime, untill the present time. I try to define what purpose and non-purpose beauty is. What is ugliness and dirt and how they both are a prerequisites of beauty. I finally take a more personal look upon contemporary society and how its mechanisms define a beauty which is standard. It is starting from a reflexion about standard society and beauty, that I then define a more intrinsic human beauty. Such unevokable sensation of beauty is extremely subtle, hard to acknowledge: one needs to train ones eyes and go beyond the layers, to discover the beauty of nothingness.

No description available.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of skin color in the social representations of beauty and ugliness, from expostas celebrities in Brazilian television media. For this, two studies were conducted. Of the participants were 494 people livingin five regions of the country, with a mean age 25 years (SD = 9 years), who completed an online questionnaire that asked: "when it comes to beauty / ugliness in Brazil, which artist (actor, singer or presenter) comes to mind? ". Then we made a request which physical characteristics of the artist lent beauty to it. The study for skin color classification was conducted with 60 people with an average age of 30 years (SD = 9.8 years) in order to validate the skin color of the artists mentioned in the main study. Data analysis employed descriptive and inferential statistics, carried out with the help of the software "SPSS", plus textual analysis through the IRAMUTEQ software. The second study was observational, it analyzed the programming of the four major broadcast television in Brazil (Globo, Band, Record and SBT), in order to account for the presence of blacks in the weekly programming of these channels. Some of the results indicate that, regardless of the color of skin groups of participants, white models are more pointed as beauty references. In contrast, when referring to ugly, there is the increase in the black reference models. The analysis done on programming displayed in the main stations of the country showed the influence of the media in disseminating standards of beauty and invizibilazação the black aesthetic, the value of a single aesthetic type, white and European, propositions update result of the twentieth century to justify white supremacy in the dictates of beautiful patterns and non-beautiful. / O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a influência da cor da pele nas representações sociais sobre a beleza e a feiura, a partir de celebridades expostas na mídia televisiva brasileira. Para tanto, foram realizados dois estudos. Do primeiro participaram 494 pessoas, residentes em cinco regiões do país, com média de idade 25 anos (DP=9 anos), os quais responderam um questionário on-line que indagava: quando se fala em beleza/feiura no Brasil, que figura artística (ator, cantor ou apresentador) lhe vem à mente? . Em seguida foi feita uma solicitação de quais características físicas do artista conferiam beleza a ela. O estudo para a classificação da cor da pele foi realizado junto a 60 pessoas, com idade média de 30 anos (DP=9,8 anos), a fim de validar a cor da pele dos artistas citados no estudo principal. A análise dos dados empregou estatísticas descritiva e inferencial, realizadas com o auxílio do software SPSS , além de análise textual por meio do software IRAMUTEQ. O segundo estudo foi observacional, nele se analisou a programação das quatro principais emissoras de televisão aberta do Brasil (Globo, Band, Record e SBT), com o intuito de contabilizar a presença de pretos na programação semanal desses canais. Alguns dos resultados indicam que, independente dos grupos de cor de pele dos participantes, modelos brancos são mais apontados como referenciais de beleza. Em contrapartida, quando se refere à feiura, há o aumento das referências aos modelos pretos. A análise efetuada sobre a programação exibida nas principais emissoras do país evidenciou a influência da mídia na difusão de padrões de beleza e a invizibilazação da estética negra, ao valorizar um tipo único de estética, branca e européia, fruto da atualização de proposições do século XX para legitimar a supremacia branca nos ditames dos padrões de belo e do não-belo.

Women characters in American literature of the nineteenth century form an overwhelmingly lovely group, but a search through some of the overlooked works reveals a thin but discernible thread of plain, even homely, heroines. Most of these fall into the stereotypical "old maid" category, and, like their real-life counterparts, these "undesirable" women are considered failures, even if they have money or satisfying careers, because they do not have boyfriends, husbands, or children. During the twentieth century, the old maid figure develops into someone not just homely, but downright ugly; in addition, the number of these characters increases, especially in the latter half of the century. In many works written since the 1960s, the woman's ugliness is such an intrinsic part of the story that it could not take place if she were beautiful. In subtle ways, these "ugly woman" stories begin to question the overwhelming value placed on beauty, to question the narrow definition of beauty in American society as a whole, and to suggest that the price for such a "blessing" might indeed be too high. Rather than settling for being a mere "heroine"—which still carries feminine connotations of passive behavior and second-class status—the ugly woman's increase in power over her own life and the lives of others, allows her to achieve a status more in keeping with the more "masculine" and active role of hero.

This thesis examines visionary directors David Lynch and Panos Cosmatos aesthetics in the films Inland Empire and Beyond the Black Rainbow. Two films with surrealistic aspects that are using a form of degraded aesthetics to achieve a certain kind of cinematography that is rarely seen in the industry. We examine what tools are being used to achieve the effect with theories concerning defamiliarization, the uncanny and uncanny valley. Aspects of cinematography in these films are working together to create effects that are both defamiliarized and uncanny.