-----Original Message----- From: Dominic McIver Lopes <[email protected]> To: news <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Nov 19, 2013 10:55 am Subject: [AE] Fwd: First CFA. Reasons (not) to define art. An international conference on the relevance of defining art
Begin forwarded message: From: Annelies MonserC) <[email protected]> Subject: First CFA. Reasons (not) to define art. An international conference on the relevance of defining art Date: November 19, 2013 at 05:35:55 PST Reply-To: Annelies MonserC) <[email protected]> First Call For Abstracts bI know what art is when I see itb Reasons (not) to define art An international conference on the relevance of defining art organised by the Ghent Aesthetics Research Group (GARG). 19th-20th May 2014, Ghent University, Belgium This conference will examine the motivations behind the project of defining art. B Recent voices in the philosophy of art have argued that the project has been wrongheaded and irrelevant. The most plausible of the contemporary attempts to define art provide us with no guidance with respect to the interpretation, evaluation, and appreciation of works of art, so it is argued. Moreover, the obsession with extensional adequacy has led astray the whole field of aesthetics, ignoring the core values of art and alienating other participants in the field of the arts from analytic aesthetics. Notwithstanding this scepticism regarding the project of defining art, there is still much work written on definitions of art and many questions in aesthetics and even in the broader field of the arts seem to hinge on how art is defined. The main aim of this conference is to shed light on the question whether or not we have adequate reasons to define art, a question that is often passed over in silence. This conference does not wish to add new definitions of art to the already existing bunch, but wants to reflect on the significance of actual or possible definitions of art. In this way, we aim to help reorient the project of defining art and make it more worthwhile for the artistic and philosophical community. Keynote speakers: Catharine Abell (University of Manchester) Aaron Meskin (University of Leeds) Nick Zangwill (University of Hull) Organising committee: B Bart Vandenabeele (Ghent University) Annelies MonserC) (Research Foundation Flanders b Ghent University) Kris Goffin (Ghent University) Violi Sahaj (Research Foundation Flanders b Ghent University) Mahdi Shamsi (University of Kent b Ghent University) Elgar Snelders (Ghent University) Call for abstracts: Abstracts of 800-1000 words are invited. Possible topics include but are not limited to: - What purpose(s) has a definition of art hitherto fulfilled, or still aims to fulfil? - Do we not simply know what art is when we see it? Does the seeming impossibility to define art not necessarily imply the uselessness of the whole project, and, even broader, of analytic aesthetics? -Can other questions within the philosophy of art be pursued without starting off with some kind of definition of art? - What is the cross-disciplinary relevance or value of a definition of art, such as in art history or artistic practice? - What kind of analysis is a definition of art supposed to offer if it needs to be relevant for the broader field of the arts? Should it be descriptive or normative, conceptual or metaphysical? - What is the relationship between a definition of art and the value of an artwork, or the process of evaluating an artwork? Does this play any role in assessing the adequacy of a definition of art? Submission details: Please ensure that your abstract is prepared for blind review, and is sent in PDF or RTF format only. The deadline for abstract submissions is 17th January 2014. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent by 25th January 2014. Please send your abstracts to [email protected] You can also use the above email address if you have any further questions regarding the conference. _______________________________________________ news mailing list [email protected] http://lists.aesthetics-online.org/listinfo.cgi/news-aesthetics-online.org
