| Somaesthetics: Between Theory and Practice |
|
Lecture by Lilianna Bieszczad
Sat 12 April 2014, 6pm
The lecture will take as its starting point somaesthetics developed by Richard Shusterman, an exponent of American pragmatism, a philosophical approach combining theory and practice, thought and action. It will look at how this abstract-sounding idea of bridging theory and practice can be understood. The benefits and limitations of somaesthetics, a branch of pragmatist aesthetics, will be presented in the context of its innovativeness. The speaker will focus on two issues: the somatic turn in a general cultural context (Shusterman places an “active soma” at the heart of his research) and the usefulness of philosophical and aesthetic research for “practitioners”. The lecture will also address the question of what pragmatism has to offer to dancers, actors and performers that classic aesthetic theory lacks and what the prospects are of introducing pragmatic ideas into aesthetics.
Lilianna Bieszczad is a doctor of philosophy, a lecturer at the Department of Aesthetics at the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University and an editor of Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Estetycznego. She is the founder of the Somaesthetics Unit at the John Dewey Research Center at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She has authored the book Kryzys pojêcia sztuki. Filozoficzno-estetyczne koncepcje Th.W. Adorna, H.G. Gadamera, A.C. Danto (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagielloñskiego, 2003) and edited Wiek awangardy (Kraków: Universitas, 2006), Estetyka sztuk performatywnych (Kraków: Libron, 2013) and an issue of Kultura Wspó³czesna entitled Cia³o tañcz±ce (3/2011). Her fields of research include: contemporary aesthetics, postmodernist philosophy of culture and theory of the avant-garde. She is also interested in the philosophy of dance, somatic issues and performativism. As part of BodyConstitution, practical seminar
|
