Aesthetics After Photography - 2009 Workshop (30th April)
Bildtheorie and Photography: Comparative Philosophical Approaches
The German discipline of Bildtheorie, broadly construed as the theory of images or pictures, offers an important approach to the visual arts but is relatively unknown in the UK. The purpose of this one-day workshop is to invite a leading specialist of Bildtheorie (Professor Lambert Wiesing, Jena) to share his knowledge of contemporary methods, debates and writers (including Peter Geimar, Bernd Stiegler, Gottfried Boehm and Wolfgang Kemp). He will also discuss material from his book Artifizielle Präsenz: Studien zur Philosophie des Bildes (Artificial Presence: Studies in the Philosophy of Pictures), particularly the view that pictures need not always be signifiers.
Three UK speakers will present recent research from the philosophy of the visual arts for comparative discussion. Dawn Phillips and Diarmuid Costello (Warwick) will address the philosophy of photography, in the light of their current AHRC project: Aesthetics After Photography. Jason Gaiger (Open University) will present material from his recent book Aesthetics and Painting, where he engages with Professor Wiesing’s work on ‘the logic of depiction’.
By bringing together expertise from Germany and the UK, in Philosophy and Art History, this event will stimulate new avenues for future research in the visual arts.
Speakers:
Lambert Wiesing is President of the German Society for Aesthetics and Professur für Bildtheorie und Phänomenologie at the University of Jena.
Diarmuid Costello is Chair of the British Society for Aesthetics and Co-director of the AHRC Project Aesthetics After Photography.
Dawn Phillips is the Philosophy Research Fellow for the AHRC Project Aesthetics After Photography.
Jason Gaiger studied Art History and Philosophy in St Andrews, Essex and Heidelberg and lectures in Art History at the Open University.
Registration:
Attendance is free, but places are limited, so please register in advance by contacting Dawn Phillips
