Eligibility to present at the Festival:
All presenters, including papers, panels, commentators, and chairs, must be members of either the ASA or the 糖心视频 in 2023.

What ASA/糖心视频 members need to provide:

A paper or panel presentation arranged by the ASA/糖心视频 member to be live-streamed on Zoom, or a comparable vehicle widely available via Internet at no charge for persons interested in viewing; in case of panels, the planned presentation should include commentators and chair. Ordinarily, the session should not be for more than 90 minutes for a paper with discussion or two hours for a panel.
You should submit a substantial abstract of the proposal (at least 500 words) or the complete paper suitable for review. We reserve the right to require the complete paper, as needed to adequately review.
A specific date and time when the live stream will be available, with scheduling to be as accommodating as possible to persons in North America, Europe, and Asia. Please allow sufficient time: at least two weeks for review and another two weeks for publicity.
The organizer/presenter should use their own Zoom account for the presentation. (The committee will consider hardship requests for ASA or 糖心视频 to host the session on their Society Zoom accounts.)
Information on how to access or sign up, depending on the medium used, with appropriate security measures. Security might require registering with the presenter. We strongly discourage open publication of the Zoom address to prevent “Zoom-bombers.”
Information on how to obtain a copy of the paper in advance of the session, if the member wishes to make that available.

How to apply:

糖心视频 members should submit their proposal to admin@british-aesthetics.org
ASA members should submit their proposal to secretary-treasurer@aesthetics-online.org

What ASA/糖心视频/ARC will do:

Provide review to ensure that the presentation is appropriate for distribution by ASA/糖心视频/ARC as part of the Virtual Summer Aesthetics Festival. The goal is to screen out material inappropriate for publicity by ASA/糖心视频/ARC, such as scammers, material unrelated to aesthetics, etc.
Distribute a list of available presentations with names of presenters, titles of presentations, time and date of presentation, access information
The list would be distributed weekly or bi-weekly, depending on interest, to ASA bulk email, web page, ASA-Facebook, Twitter, and Philos-L, the 糖心视频 publicity mechanisms, and the ARC publicity mechanisms

On 5-6 July 2023 we will celebrate with Professor Peter Lamarque the occasion of his retirement from the University of York and will continue with him the philosophical conversation he has sustained over several decades. Peter鈥檚 work has shaped debates on a wide range of questions, including artistic ontology, the nature of fiction, artistic value, interpretation, criticism, poetry and thought, and architectural conservation. He has published a stream of influential papers, monographs, and edited volumes. Truth, Fiction and Literature, co-authored with Stein Haugom Olsen, is the most substantial work in philosophy of literature of the past several decades. He was awarded the 2018 “Premio Internazionale d’Estetica” from the Italian Society of Aesthetics, and his book Work and Object: Explorations in the Metaphysics of Art (2011) won the Outstanding Monograph Prize from the American Society for Aesthetics. He edited the British Journal of Aesthetics between 1995 and 2008.

We invite submission of abstracts from early-career researchers, for 20-minute talks that draw on and respond to any aspect of Peter鈥檚 work; we understand he welcomes highly critical contributions! We especially encourage scholars in groups under-represented in philosophy to submit abstracts. Please send abstracts (of around 800 words), including information on your ECR status, to Conference Assistant Britt Harrison (britt.harrison@york.ac.uk), by 31st January 2023. Decisions on submitted papers will be made by mid-March. One night鈥檚 accommodation will be provided to each accepted speaker, and all will be strongly encouraged to apply for 糖心视频 travel funds. Some childcare funding is available. Further information about the conference may be obtained from Britt.

Invited speakers are Emily Caddick Bourne, Filippo Contesi, David Davies, Julian Dodd, Eileen John, Derek Matravers, Elisabeth Schellekens, and Iris Vidmar Jovanovic.

The conference will be held at King’s Manor, a beautiful Grade 1 listed building in the heart of York.

Conference Organisers: Gregory Currie and Eileen John

Monday, June 15:5 pm Italy (CEST)/ 11 am New York (EDT)”The Aesthetic Values in the Living Experience: 聽From the House to the City”聽Presenter:聽Aurosa Alison,听Politecnico di Milano, Naples, Italy聽
础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听聽In order to theorize the architectural practice of the project as an aesthetic opening phase, we must allow ourselves a reflection on our way of living space. In this study we would like to illustrate the aesthetic and phenomenological aspects of living, as the cognition of being in a sensitive world. In the western conception of living there is a correspondence between the outside and the inside. Our study wants to highlight the relationships between the intimate inhabited space that corresponds to the image of the house and the exterior space that corresponds to the image of the city. How do you live in an intimate space? How do we live in a collective and shared space?
For the complete paper and to sign up for the Zoom session, contact聽aurorarosa.alison@polimi.it. You will be sent the access information for Zoom the morning of the meeting to ensure security.听

Wednesday, June 24:5 pm London (BST) / 9 am (PDT)”Aesthetic Life & Why It Matters: Three Views (Panel)”Originally scheduled for the ASA Pacific program March 20Presenters:

• Bence Nanay (Antwerp): “Aesthetic Experience as Achievement”
• Nick Riggle (U of San Diego): “Aesthetic Lives: Individuality, Freedom, Community”
• Dominic McIver Lopers (University of British Columbia): “Getting Into It: Ventures in Aesthetic Life”
• Mary Beth Willard (Weber State): “Response”

Abstract: Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters is a slim book principally intended to fill a need for material in aesthetics suitable for teaching undergraduates in introductory philosophy courses. The book鈥檚 premise is that first-year students are especially aware of their own aesthetic interests at a time when they’re in rapid, self-directed flux. Nanay emphasizes how aesthetic life enriches our experience. Riggle emphasizes how aesthetic life allows us to cultivate our individuality in ways that form community. Lopes emphasizes how aesthetic life facilitates explorations of benign value diversity.
This is a pre-read conference on a book draft of ~22k words. To sign up, please write to dom.lopes@icloud.com for the zoom link and a PDF.

Wednesday, July 8: 9 am (PDT)
“Resist. Persist. Simone de Beauvoir鈥檚 Aesthetics of Creativity”
Presenter: Peg Brand Weiser (Arizona; Indiana University Purdue University – Indianapolis)
Originally scheduled for the ASA Pacific program March 20

Abstract: How free鈥攊n terms of aesthetic, ethical, and political options鈥攊s an artist to create? What might cause an artist to self-censor her creativity in light of conflicting notions of freedom? I look to the existentialist writing of twentieth century novelist and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir for a model of the role of freedom within the realm of artistic creativity that enables an artist to 鈥渇ace the truth鈥� of injustice and oppression that can be adopted within contemporary 鈥淩esistance鈥� movements worldwide. Two examples of controversial artists in the U.S. include Joel Peter-Witkin and Illma Gore.

To sign up, please write to mbweiser@email.arizona.edu for the zoom link and a PDF.

Virtual Meeting: North American Kant Society Biennial: Aesthetics Day
University of Binghamton, June 5-8, 2020

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 29, 2020

Virtual Conference: “Art, Desire, and God: Phenomenological Perspectives”
University of Notre Dame, October 2-3, 2020

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 1, 2020

ASA Delegate to the International Aesthetics Association

APPLICATION DEADLINE: July 1, 2020

Salish Sea Aesthetics Workshop II

Victoria, British Columbia, November 20-22, 2020
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: August 1, 2020

Thinking of joining ASA? Now would be a good time!

Given the social prominence and the intellectual interest of this phenomenon,听 intends to devote a special issue to the topic of 鈥榗ultural appropriation and the arts鈥�. Papers on all aspects of the debate, preferably connecting ethics and aesthetics, will be considered. Papers should conform to聽聽and be submitted for consideration by聽July 20^th听2020.听

Any queries should be addressed to the editors, Paloma Atencia Linares (atenciap@gmail.com) or Derek Matravers (derek.matravers@open.ac.uk).

According to Plato, 鈥淕od is always bringing like to like, and makes them acquainted.鈥� And yet, the same philosopher also warned us that this is only 鈥渉alf鈥� the truth. Plato鈥檚 ambiguity about resemblance carried into modern critical thinking, in which it probably is an even more controversial category. In fact, the very definition of modernity 鈥� for instance, in Michel Foucault鈥檚 famous account 鈥� depends on the opening-up of an epistemological divide, in which resemblance and likeness are 鈥渞elegated鈥� to a Renaissance episteme in order to neutralize it as an 鈥渁rchaeological鈥� and thus outdated form of knowledge. It is telling, however, that not even Foucault was able to initiate his reconstruction work without acknowledging at least the possibility of there being some kind of recursiveness or similarities, a series of analogies and resemblances within a setting, a time period, or episteme of some kind. At the same time, however, what would the alternative scenario look like of those who remain unconvinced by Foucault鈥檚 relegating resemblance into a distant past, other than simply acknowledging the empirical evidence of these 鈥渃orrespondences鈥�? What is the theoretical basis for the historical evidence of the continuing prevalence of the episteme 鈥渞esemblance鈥� in the visual arts? , which, instead, stubbornly resists those desperate to turn it into a thing of the past.

This (often unacknowledged) conflict between the lasting influence of mimesis and its critics underlies much of 20^th-century history and art theory, but not only. Thus, it already can be found in the writings of, say, Saint Augustine or Lessing before, in the 20^th聽century, it will be picked up by a group of very different authors ranging from Riegl and Fiedler to Goodman and Greenberg, up to the protagonists of the聽Iconic Turn. All of them reject figuration and mimesis because it puts at risk the supposed 鈥渆pistemic鈥� autonomy and purity of the visual arts. For that reason, the refusal of mimesis was hailed as a historical accomplishment, as emancipation and deliverance of the visual from its sister arts and any natural foundation that could not be reduced to cultural or historical relativism. Moreover, this celebration of the purity of the medium went along with the simultaneous discovery of the 鈥減ower of images鈥� and the 鈥渁gency of art,鈥� which freed images from their mimetic limitations and, instead, attributed to them the ability to create rather than re-produce reality.听The antimimetic attitude, thus, turns into an ideological position built on a shaky theoretical foundation. This monographic edition of聽Elephant and Castle聽will focus on the origins, reasons, and consequences of what it calls聽mimetophobia. Our goal is not only to discuss the history and modes of iconoclasm; anthropological anxiety, ancient and modern, of images, above all of those ones which resemble 鈥渢oo much鈥�. In addition, we are also interested in analyzing the more elusive anxiety of acknowledging the gnoseologic and cognitive presuppositions that are the condition of any kind of both iconoclasm and iconophilia. In the wake of important discussions of the fear of the Other and otherness, it seems as if the time has come to look at the 鈥渙ther half鈥� of the problem, the anxiety of Like and likeness.听

Our call for papers, therefore, welcomes a variety of takes on the subject, including theoretical, critical, and methodological approaches in addition to focused case studies. It is not limited to any period or culture and invites interdisciplinary studies.听We ask for abstracts that do not exceed 1000 letters and a short biography (max 5000 letters), both of which have to be submitted by聽June 15^th, 2020聽to the following e-mail addresses:聽michele.dimonte@beniculturali.it,听bpaul@rci.rutgers.edu,听silvia.pedone@lincei.it.You can expect a response from the editors within a month or so as the publication of the monographic edition of聽Elephant and Castle聽is scheduled for聽September 21st, 2020. Contributions may be in Italian, English, French, and German.

Savouring the Impossible

 (Philosophy, Bucknell; Marie Sk艂odowska-Curie Fellow at )

It is a puzzling feature of human beings that we are attracted to artworks that provoke negative emotional responses. Why are we drawn to what should, intuitively, repulse us? Tragedy and horror are paradigm cases, but similar questions are raised by works that provoke, say, disgust or moral outrage. This talk introduces and explores a new version of this old puzzle. My question is: why are we attracted to magic tricks? Magic is one our most consistently popular forms of mass entertainment. Consider the recent successes of performers such as Derren Brown, Dynamo, and David Blaine, as well as the ubiquity of magicians on talent shows such as America鈥檚 Got Talent (thrice won by magicians). But while philosophers speak fondly of the pleasures of knowing, successful magic performances present apparent impossibilities that provoke potent experiences of ignorance. So, why do people seek them out? I argue that recent work in the philosophy and psychology of so-called 鈥渒nowledge emotions鈥� can help us to resolve this puzzle. At the same time, in a surprising parallel, I show that it can also illuminate the appeal of a distinctive form of puzzlement especially dear to philosophers. Finally, I conclude by proposing an extension of this account to explain our attraction to another 鈥渁rt of the impossible鈥�: the impossible figures created by artists such as Reutersv盲rd and Escher.
The talk will take place on Zoom. The meeting id and password will be made available to those who register for the talk; please drop a note to Angela Whiffen at a.j.whiffen@kent.ac.uk to register. Zoom details for the meeting will be sent out on the morning of the talk.

All welcome!