Wednesday 4th March: Renee Conroy, Department of Philosophy, Purdue University at Calumet: 'Rust Belt Ruins' Venue: Seminar Room, 1 Newnham Terrace, Darwin College. (Enter by main door). Time: 5.00pm to 7.00pm Admission is free, and all are welcome.
Abstract: American political satirist P. J. O'Rourke observes, "Detroit's industrial ruins are picturesque, like crumbling Rome in an 18th century etching". I argue that O'Rourke's claim should be taken literally: the crumbling pockets of urban decay that famously dot major cities in America's so-called "rust belt" belong to the aesthetic category 'ruins'. While sites of recent urban devastation have a distinctive aesthetic character, they are nonetheless of an appreciative piece with those iconic structures from ancient times we relish in virtue of their incompleteness and their capacity to incite sustained reflection on things past. The body of literature in this corner of aesthetics remains unfortunately small, but one shared thesis emerges clearly from extant work in this area, viz., that age-value is central to our aesthetic regard for ruins. Hence, according to the traditional model, sites of contemporary ruination in places like Detroit, Michigan do not count as genuine ruins. They are, at best, ruins in a metaphorical or analogical sense. By considering carefully Carolyn Korsmeyer's recent account of ruins as objects of aesthetic regard (Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Fall 2014), I argue that philosophers of art have overlooked an important appreciative category - that of "rust belt ruins" - and that this category can be subsumed under traditional theories of ruin appreciation. Derek Matravers Professor of Philosophy, The Open University. Media Fellow, Arts Faculty. -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302). The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
