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2023/2024

Applied Aesthetics

Code: 43836 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
4316227 Applied Philosophy OB 0 1

Contact

Name:
Gerard Vilar Roca
Email:
gerard.vilar@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.


Prerequisites

To have enough knowledge of English to read the proposed bibliography of the course.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The general objective of the subject is to know the vocabulary and argumentation of applied aesthetics in the fields of taste aesthetics as a recent and increasingly important form, and of the applied philosophy of the image. The specific objectives of the course are the following: 
 
 
1. The understanding of taste, both in its non-metaphorical and metaphorical use, as a form of knowledge and communicability similar to the use of images
 
2. Knowledge of the main theoretical approaches in dealing with this issue, both in terms of tradition and contemporaneity and the conceptual systematization that can be established
 
3. Familiarization with the contemporary practices involved (Food Art, Edible Art, Relational Art, Research Cooking, Revolutionary Cooking, Food Tech Activism, Iconic Thinking)
 
4. Comparison of the creative processes that imply the different understandings of taste and iconic thinking
 
5. Cultivate the abilities and the abilities for gustatory  and iconic criticism in the student
 
6. Project configurations in  gustatory aesthetics and iconic thinking
 
7. Projection, where appropriate, of the knowledge of the subject to the future TFMs and to other research and projects of the student

Competences

  • Contribute to debates in current philosophical research making significant critical contributions, with conceptual precision and good arguments by means of public presentation.
  • Identify and describe the relevant theoretical elements in contemporary ethical research, especially those associated with the question of good, justice and their political implications.
  • Organize one's own time and resources to undertake research: design a plan by prioritizing objectives, schedules and commitments.
  • Search for, select and manage information autonomously, both from structured sources (data bases, bibliographies, specialized journals) and from information distributed on the web.
  • Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
  • Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply the different methodologies studied.
  2. Formulate a research project in the field of the influence of contemporary thought on artistic practices, with the aim of carrying the project out.
  3. Organize one's own time and resources to undertake research: design a plan by prioritizing objectives, schedules and commitments.
  4. Recognise, on a theoretical and practical level, the peculiarities of artistic knowledge, especially where it intersects with science, technology and literature.
  5. Search for, select and manage information autonomously, both from structured sources (data bases, bibliographies, specialized journals) and from information distributed on the web.
  6. Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
  7. Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.

Content

The Applied Aesthetics course will deal with two current examples of this discipline:
 
1. The Gustatory Aesthetics, which is the aesthetic derived from the study of phenomena around taste in the literal sense, gastronomy and artistic practices linked to food.
 
2. Iconic Thought, that is, the ways of thinking through images or with images, as opposed to thinking about images.
 
Five sessions will be devoted to each of these topics.

Methodology

The methodology is worked on four fronts:
 
 
 
1. Theoretical class. The program is configured according to a calendar. Each day the teacher will present a subject that students must have prepared. The session will work based on an electronic presentation with concepts and texts and will include the discussion with the students.
 
2. Tutorials individualized or in small groups.
 
3. Elaboration of personalized itineraries for the student's independent work.
 
4. Study outside the seminar, at home, the library and other practical activities such as visits and experiential practices.
 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Tutorials 20 0.8 1, 5, 3, 2, 6, 4, 7
Type: Supervised      
Study out of classroom 5 0.2 1, 5, 3, 2, 6, 4, 7
Type: Autonomous      
Class discussion 75 3 1, 5, 3, 2, 6, 4, 7

Assessment

The evaluation of the module will be done taking into account two elements:
 
a) The presentation of a text in class (30%)
 
b) The elaboration of two brief papers on the matter taught, to be agreed with the professor before, with a minimum extension of 1500 words (35% each).
 
The teacher will mark a date and place for the review of the evaluation tests. There will also be a recovery date that will be agreed with the Faculty.
 
Single assessment:
 
The single assessment consists of a  5000 words paper on one of the two themes of the module. This work will have to be agreed with the professor and the student have to carry out at least two tutorials before the final release date of the work.
 
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity,
regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
 
In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Paper 1 35% 15 0.6 5, 2, 6, 4, 7
Paper 2 35% 15 0.6 5, 2, 6, 4, 7
Presentation 30% 20 0.8 1, 5, 3, 2, 6, 4, 7

Bibliography

A. Basic Readings

topic 1:

ADRIÀ, F. - JAQUES, J., "For an Applied Philosophy of Gastronomy". Cosmo 6 (2015): 163-172.  http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/COSMO/article/view/930 

RANCIÈRE, J., “Pensar entre las disciplinas”. Brumaria 268 (2008).

NOË, A., Strange Tool. Art and Human Nature, Nueva YorK: Hill & Wang, 2015.

JAQUES, J., "Main Issues in Gustatory Aesthetics". Cosmo 6 (2015): 173-189.

VOLTAIRE, "Goût" (1757), a l'Encyclopédie de Diderot i d'Alembert, http://obvil.paris-sorbonne.fr/corpus/critique/voltaire_encyclopedie/GOUT

KORSMEYER, C., Making Sense of Taste: Taste, Food and Philosophy. New York: Cornell University Press, 1999. El sentido del gusto, Paidós (Cap. III)

KANT, I., Crítica de la facultat de jutjar. Barcelona, Ed. 62, 2004 (1790), selected fragments.

JAQUES, J., "Food (Aesthetics of)", Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2014).

JAQUES, J.& VILAR, G., “Feeding Thought. Por una filosofía de la cocina y la gastronomía”, Disturbis 12 (2012): http://www.disturbis.esteticauab.org/DisturbisII/Indice_12.html

CASACUBERTA,D., JAQUES,J. & VILAR, G. "Cocinarte", Nomade 5. http://www.espacionomade.com/es/numero/cocinarte/

PERULLO, N., Taste as Experience. The Philosophy and Aesthetics of Food, Columbia University Press, 2016.

 

Topic 2: 

 

Gerard Vilar, "Salvador Dalí: Pensar en imatges", Mirmanda

Gerard Vilar, Pensamiento Estético,  PUV, (en prensa).

Karina Winkelvoss, “Bild – Text” a Claudia Öhlschläger/Michael Niehaus (eds.), W.G. Sebald-Handbuch. Leben-Werk-Wirkung, Suttgart: Metzler, 2017, pp. 114-121.

Liliane Louvel, The Pictorical Third. An Essay into Intermedial Criticism, Nova York i Londres: Routledge, 2018.

John M. Carvalho, Thinking with Images. An Enactivist Aesthetics, NY:Taylor & Francis, 2019.

Bernd Herzogenrath (ed.), Practical Aesthetics, Bloomsbury, 2021.

 

At the beginning of the course, an exhaustive bibliography of the subjects of the subject will be given. 

 


Software

No special digital program is used in this course.