Violence in the Arts: Performing & Witnessing (original) (raw)
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(A)Esthetics and Violence Psychology
Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts
The two concepts, aesthetics and violence, produce each other and give an idea of the individual's object orientations. Therefore, it seems necessary to analyze these two concepts. In this chapter, violence and aesthetics are discussed on the assumption that violence and aesthetics affect the inner backwardness and tension under the advanced activism of the individual, how violence and aesthetics work abstractly. The performing arts chosen to analyze the concepts of violence and aesthetics are discussed to understand this area. The chapter aims to look at the foundations of the relationship between aesthetics and violence and open a place of thinking in the literature within the framework of a new meaning. The two concepts to be used in this study are used outside of the basic meaning of violence and aesthetics.
The Sublime and Depictions of Violence in Some Contemporary Artworks
International Journal of Education and the Arts, 2009
Images of extreme and ever more graphic violence are a part of contemporary culture. Since students cannot avoid them, such images should be addressed by aesthetic educators. But this will require a theory for the analysis and evaluation of the aesthetic properties of violent imagery. The main thesis of this essay is that depiction of violence in certain recent art works can be understood as aiming at aesthetic perception of the sublime. We develop a model for interpreting works in this way by first presenting and then drawing on Kant's analysis of aesthetic perception of the sublime. Our thesis is important for both aesthetic and moral education. According to Kant's remarkably sensitive analysis, aesthetic perception of the sublime plays a large role in developing moral and social awareness. Using Kant's theory as our main source, and drawing on some recent artworks for illustrative purposes, we offer an analysis of how artistic depiction of violence may promote moral and social awareness. We nevertheless consider images of extreme violence morally problematic, and outline a model for educating reflection on the morality of using them.
The Role of Art in Society with Particular Reference to the Problem of Violence
The Open Psychology Journal
Background: According to the Latin poet Virgil, art is capable of revealing to us what no science can ever reveal to a human mind. The main thesis of this paper is that art can play an extremely beneficial role in society as it can strongly foster humans’ efforts to attain a deeper and broader comprehension of reality. Objective: The experience of art can provide a powerful contribution to the efforts to avoid resorting to violence and to address conflicts constructively. Violence or, more exactly, unjustified violence, basically rests on an irrational and short-sighted analysis and interpretation of reality. Results: The psychological processes relating to the aesthetic experience and to its connections with violence are described. It is also pointed out that this theoretical perspective does not fully coincide with the theoretical theses underpinning art therapy. In fact, in this paper art is not considered as a mere therapeutic instrument. Instead, an attempt has been made to con...
Ars Aeterna Vol.8/ No.1, 2016
The article discusses Nicolas Winding Refn’s film Only God Forgives (2013), and focuses on questions of artistic representation and reception in relation to such cinematic elements as genre film, style, mise-en-scène, graphic violence and art experience. The arguments for the analyses are supported by John Dewey’s theory of art as experience where he claims that aesthetic experience is essentially infused with emotions that provide for a unifying quality cementing diverse constituent parts of the artwork. The article also takes into consideration Refn’s standpoint on the use of violence in art. While violence is a way of externalizing emotions, as Refn claims, it may not necessarily be the real experience viewers want to entertain; however, through an art experience, which is integral and complete as Dewey asserts, they are able to perceive and detect meanings that were “scattered and weakened in the material of other experiences”.
This study looks at a selection of artistic texts that serve as testimony to what is called "workplace harassment," "mobbing," or "workplace bullying ." This is the first part of a three-part series relating to harassment and also to the transformation that comes out of artistic communication. First, I establish a general approach in order to situate a number of artistic resistance works created during the process of workplace harassment and psychological violence, particularly in relation to surveillance and watching. Then, using the same methodological approach, the subsequent texts explore the topics of isolation and the collective dimension of creation as a means of overcoming situations of violence. Beginning with experiences that involved anonymous messages, along with situations of being watched and symptoms of hyper-watchfulness as a target of harassment, a series of works emerged, mainly as art objects, which take on a greater meaning when exam...
Considerations on Pain and Suffering in VestAndPage’s performance art
Repertório, 2019
Este texto é formado a partir de uma série de conversas detalhadas com Andrea Pagnes, do duo de performance arte VestAndPage (artista italiano Andrea Pagnes e artista alemã Verena Stenke) sobre as questões de dor, sofrimento e rituais de sangue em suas performances. O VestAndPage realiza atos físicos extremos em situações físicas constritivas, não para glorificar a dor, mas como possibilidades de um encontro poético com o sofrimento como fonte de criatividade, para assim libertar a estética da justificação do sacrifício. A partir de sua experiência de vida pessoal, eles traduzem suas feridas em ações performativas para buscar autenticidade e falar sobre preocupações existenciais pertencentes à humanidade, ao indivíduo e à sociedade. RESUMEN Este texto está formado de una serie de conversaciones detalladas con Andrea Pagnes, del dúo de performance arte VestAndPage (artista italiano Andrea Pagnes y la artista alemana Verena Stenke) sobre las cuestiones de dolor, sufrimiento y rituales de sangre en sus performances. El VestAndPage realiza actos físicos extremos en situaciones constrictivas, no para santificar el dolor, y sí como posibilidades de un encuentro poético con el sufrimiento como fuente de creatividad, para de esta forma, libertar la estética de la justificación del sacrificio. A partir de su experiencia de vida personal, ellos traducen sus heridas en acciones performativas para buscar autenticidad y hablar sobre preocupaciones existenciales pertenecientes a la humanidad, al individuo y a la sociedad.
Playing with Fire: Art and the Seductive Power of Pain
Jerrold Levinson (ed.), Suffering Art Gladly, 2013
I discuss the aesthetic power of painful art. I focus on artworks that occasion pain by “hitting too close to home,” i.e., by presenting narratives meant to be “about us.” I consider various reasons why such works may have aesthetic value for us, but I argue that the main reason has to do with the power of such works to transgress conversational boundaries. The discussion is meant as a contribution to the debate on the paradox of tragedy.
Violence and the Other in Contemporary Art: A Question of Ethics for Art Education
2014
Images of killing and cannibalism occupy a significant site within popular imagination and visual culture, through prohibited, interrelated, and reinforced acts of social violence. While death itself is overdetemined in a broad range of representations, killing the other and eating the other, together or in their respective manifestations, are frequently described as unthinkable transgressions of social codes which help construct us as rational and disciplined human subjects. In psychoanalytic terms, we are subjects of the Law i. Killing, and cannibalism, both affirm and transgress the limits of the social and it's Law. To speak of killing or eating flesh is, in many cases, to speak of monstrous, evil violence. This discourse is imbricated realms of social and cultural deviation, madness, and primitivism, among others. According to Žižek (2008), this discourse is mostly a subjective form of violence that disturbs the "normal" peaceful state of things.... in opposition; Objective violence is precisely the violence inherent to the "normal" state of things. Objective violence is invisible since it maintains the very zero-level standard against which we perceive something as subjectively violent. (p. 2) Subjective violence is considered overt violence, such as images seen in film or television and in news broadcasts, and understood through forms of mass shootings, terrorism, civil unrest, or international conflict. Objective violence, on the other hand, is considered unseen violence-either symbolic in terms of language, for example, or systemic, such as capitalist or communist political economies. Objective violence as systemic is inherent in societies that, despite recent economic downturns, avow that the political economic system is running smoothly. Behind this smooth force of freedom, however, is the Real ii (in Lacanian terms) Note: This article was previously published as, Tavin, K. & Kallio-Tavin, M. (2014). The cat, cradle, and the silver spoon: Violence in contemporary art and the question of ethics for art education. Studies in Art Education, 56(1), 426-437.