The impact of speculative realism on aesthetics and contemporary ar

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Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
307MDSR credit 1 6 seminar hours (45 min) of instruction per semester, 21 to 26 hours of self-study English summer

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Name of lecturer(s)

Department

The subject provides Department of Photography

Contents

This seminar aims to develop our understanding of the concept of the object as informed by specu-lative realist and new materialist theories within the context of recent and contemporary art prac-tices in order to describe how the current discussion around correlationism helps us to understand practices such as the creation of independent objects stripped of all anthropocentric and socially constructed understandings.

Within the module, students discuss how the aesthetic and artistic elements of the practical part can intermingle with the philosophies of new materialism, speculative realism and speculative ma-terialism. The seminar motivates students to reflect on the intersection of philosophy with artistic theories, such as those of Greenberg and Duchamp, and their own practice.

The full-day seminar will begin with a guided tour of Sahej Rahal's exhibition Beyond the City of Time, in association with the concept of communicating objects and illusion (with curators Eva Drexlerová, Edith Lázár and the exhibiting artist). The following lecture in the AMU studio will focus on specula-tive concepts (not only) governed by time, cognitive mapping and hybrid objects. This lecture will in-troduce the speculative philosophy of Graham Harman (the emergence of a hybrid between a work and its observer), Timothy Morton (absence, loss and illusion in connection with the confusing aes-thetic sphere floating in an ontological sense in front of objects), and Nick Srnicek (artistic works of the „new aesthetics“ perceived as a tool for a cognitive map of space), and provide space for critical reflection on the example of Nicolas Bourriaud's relational aesthetics (a set of artistic practices that take the entirety of interpersonal relationships and their social context as their theoretical and prac-tical starting point), or the version of the physicalism of James Ladyman and Don Ross, according to which the identity and individuality of objects depend on the relational structure of the world.

Students will engage their imaginative, expressive drawing (drawing from memory/imagination), re-flecting their experience of the exhibition of works together with their own illusion or another specu-lative concept relevant to their work.

Learning outcomes

After completing the seminar, the student will be introduced to speculative theories and informed about the dividing line between the different branches of speculative realists and also about critical literature.

The student will consult about the methods to achieve a practical investigative approach that can create a sense of independent material “action”.

The student will be able to use speculation to reevaluate the concept of the object and simplify the hierarchy between human objects and other objects, thereby achieving a more balanced relation-ship with all (non)human creators.

Prerequisites and other requirements

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Literature

Barrett, Estelle, and Barbara Bolt. Carnal Knowledge: Towards a “new Materialism” Through the Arts. I.B. Tauris & Company Limited, 2013. Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press, 2010. Brassier, Ray. Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Bryant, Levi. The Democracy of Objects. Open Humanities Press, 2011. Copelin, Laura, et al. Hyperobjects for Artists. Ballroom Marfa and The Creative Independent, 2018. Cox, Christoph, et al. Realism Materialism Art. Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, 2015. Harman, Graham. Art and Objects. Wiley, 2019. Meillassoux, Quentin. After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency. Bloomsbury Pu-blishing, 2009. Morton, Timothy. Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality. Open Humanities Press, 2013.

Evaluation methods and criteria

The certificate is awarded for active participation in the full-day seminar, the student's reading of se-lected texts and a dialogue about their own practice, taking into account the selected publications that touch on speculative theory.

Note

Please bring your own art supplies, such as pencils, charcoal, or sketchbooks

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans