Dominic Lopes

What is computer art? Do the concepts we usually employ to talk about art, such as ‘meaning’, ‘form’ or ‘expression’ apply to computer art? A Philosophy of Computer Art is the first book to explore these questions. Dominic Lopes argues that computer art challenges some of the basic tenets of traditional ways of thinking about and making art and that to understand computer art we need to place particular emphasis on terms such as ‘interactivity’ and ‘user’. Drawing on a wealth of examples he also explains how the roles of the computer artist and computer art user distinguishes them from makers and spectators of traditional art forms and argues that computer art allows us to understand better the role of technology as an art medium.

A Philosophy of Computer Art

Berys Nigel Gaut

The second edition of the acclaimed Routledge Companion to Aesthetics contains fifty-four chapters written by leading international scholars covering all aspects of aesthetics. This companion opens with an historical overview of aesthetics including entries on Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sibley and Derrida. The second part covers the central concepts and theories needed for a comprehensive understanding of aesthetics including the definitions of art, taste, value of art, beauty, imagination, fiction, narrative, metaphor and pictorial representation. Part three is devoted to the topics that have attracted much contemporary interest in aesthetics including art and ethics, environmental aesthetics and feminist aesthetics. The final part addresses the individual arts of music, photography, film, literature, theatre, dance, architecture and sculpture. With nine new and revised entries, and up to date suggestions for further reading, The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics is essential for anyone interested in aesthetics, art, literature, and visual studies.

The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics

There is not one but many ways to picture the world - Australian `x-ray' pictures, cubist collages, Amerindian split-style figures, and pictures in two-point perspective each draw attention to different features of what they represent. The premise of Understanding Pictures is that this diversity is the central fact with which a theory of figurative pictures must reckon. Lopes argues that identifying pictures' subjects is akin to recognizing objects whose appearances have changed over time. He develops a schema for categorizing the different ways pictures represent—the different kinds of meaning they have—and he contends that depiction's epistemic value lies in its representational diversity. He also offers a novel account of the phenomenology of pictorial experience, comparing pictures to visual prostheses like mirrors and binoculars. The book concludes with a discussion of works of art which have made pictorial meaning their theme, demonstrating the importance of the issues this book raises for understanding the aesthetics of pictures.

Understanding Pictures

This book offers a bold new approach to the philosophy of art. General theories of art don't work: they can't deal with problem cases. Instead of trying to define art, we should accept that a work of art is nothing but a work in one of the arts. Lopes's buck passing theory works well for the avant garde, illuminating its radical provocations.

Beyond Art

Professor of Philosophy Dominic McIver Lopes

Evaluating Pictures

Sight and Sensibility

Berys Gaut

The third edition of the acclaimed Routledge Companion to Aesthetics contains over sixty chapters written by leading international scholars covering all aspects of aesthetics. This companion opens with an historical overview of aesthetics including entries on Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Adorno, Benjamin, Foucault, Goodman, and Wollheim. The second part covers the central concepts and theories of aesthetics, including the definitions of art, taste, the value of art, beauty, imagination, fiction, narrative, metaphor and pictorial representation. Part three is devoted to issues and challenges in aesthetics, including art and ethics, art and religion, creativity, environmental aesthetics and feminist aesthetics. The final part addresses the individual arts, including music, photography, film, videogames, literature, theater, dance, architecture and design. With ten new entries, and revisions and updated suggestions for further reading throughout, The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics is essential for anyone interested in aesthetics, art, literature, and visual studies.

Nick Riggle

Bence Nanay

"You have a complex and detailed aesthetic life. You make aesthetic decisions every day. You wake up, shower, and dress. When you decide what to wear, you think about how it feels and fits, how it expresses your style. You wander into the kitchen and think about what to eat. When you decide what to eat, you think about flavor, texture, smell. You head out into the world. You see your car, your bike, your shoes and appreciate how they look. When you decide what to buy, you think about how it will look in your house, or how it sounds or feels. You make aesthetic decisions every day-about what to listen to, what to watch, whether to arrange things just so, about how to sit, strut, or sing. You have aesthetic feelings and reactions every day. The sunset swings into view as you turn a corner and you think, "That's beautiful." A wave of calm and pleasure wash over you. You take a bite of cake and you think, "Wow, that's sweet." Maybe too sweet. You hear that new song and it blows you away. You play it on repeat and for your friends. You try the new restaurant and you think: "It's bland, boring, awesome, exciting, brilliant, bold." The novel is wonderful, the film disappoints, the dress looked better in the store. You have aesthetic feelings and reactions every day and these reactions move you through the world and shape your sense of self and well-being. You create aesthetic looks, atmospheres, and objects every day. When you dress you create an outfit that you put into the world. When you have friends over you play music, light a candle, arrange the dinner table, set a mood. You exercise aesthetic creativity when you design your tattoo, put on makeup, pierce your ear or nose, spritz cologne or perfume, or pay close attention to your hair. Almost everything you do has an aesthetic dimension-from the way you make your bed, prepare your coffee, and tie your shoes, to the way you speak to others and adjust photos to post on social media. You create aesthetic value every day. You have a complex and detailed aesthetic life that you orchestrate every day through your aesthetic decisions, reactions, feelings, and actions"--

Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters

Matthew Kieran

Imagination, Philosophy and the Arts is the first comprehensive collection of papers by philosophers examining the nature of imagination and its role in understanding and making art. Imagination is a central concept in aesthetics with close ties to issues in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language, yet it has not received the kind of sustained, critical attention it deserves. This collection of seventeen brand new essays critically examines just how and in what form the notion of imagination illuminates fundamental problems in the philosophy of art.

Imagination, Philosophy, and the Arts

The third edition of the acclaimed Routledge Companion to Aesthetics contains over sixty chapters written by leading international scholars covering all aspects of aesthetics.This companion opens with an historical overview of aesthetics including entries on Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sibley and Derrida. The second part covers the central concepts and theories needed for a comprehensive understanding of aesthetics including the definitions of art, taste, value of art, beauty, imagination, fiction, narrative,

Dominic Lopes

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