Untitled

[jonverbeten]

Assignment #5 Jonathan V. 2

"...aesthetic disqualification is not merely a matter for art critics or museum directors but a political process of concern for us all."

Tobin Siebers, "The Aesthetics of Human Disqualification," in Disability Aesthetics, page 26.

This quote is taken from a passage Siebers uses to shed light on societies role in the disqualifying of certain people due to their purported abnormalities (whether it be physical, racial, gendered, sexual, or any other oppressed group). He uses this section in his chapter to define three important terms in disability studies: disqualification, aesthetic, and oppression. Aesthetic is defined by the involuntary reaction at the visual appearance of another body. Siebers broadens the term body to not only the physical, but also sculptures, architecture, animals, large groups of people, and so on. He claims that the art world has uniquely positioned itself to make aesthetic criticism against bodies. From this he considers modern art which reflects disabled images, in comparison to idealized presentations of the human physique. Siebers argument is that distinctions are made which disqualify certain social groups, genders, ethnicities, and those with disabilities. Because artwork has established itself as a discipline which openly criticizes aesthetic value in a work, Siebers uses it as a tool for considering the aesthetic criticism given to disabled humans and their visual representation. The above quote seeks to broaden the understanding of the term aesthetic, positing that our understanding of aesthetics speaks to more than just our personal value of a visual image. Instead, aesthetics should be acknowledged for its role in larger criticisms and therefore should not be confined solely to art criticism. With this knowledge in mind, Siebers discusses three examples in the visual arts that highlight a societal reception to images that reflect disabilities.     

[jonverbeten]

Assignment #4 Jonathan V. 1

"With its acknowledgement of agential matter, neo-materialism questions the anthropocentric narrative that has underpinned our view of humans-in-the-world since the enlightenment, a view that posits humans as makers of the world and the world as a resource for human endeavors."

-Barbara Bolt, "Toward a New Materialism Through the Arts" in Carnal Knowledge, page 2. 

Bolt begins her article by questioning the need for a return to materialism, a movement she says died with the humanistic worldviews associated with the enlightenment. In the above quote, she presents the challenge that neo-materialism poses to the human/non-human binary central to enlightenment thinking. According to Bolt, humanism sees humans as makers of the world and the world as a resource for humans. She cautions that “the idea that the world is a passive resource for use by active humans is no longer sustainable.” Because of this, neo-materialism rejects humanism and instead focuses on the role matter plays within human creations. With this definition of neo-materialism in mind, Bolt applies the notion of agential matter to the arts, with a special emphasis on film and visual arts.