Institute of Philosophy London Aesthetics Forum: 2017-8 Report
During 2017-8 the Institute of Philosophy London Aesthetics Forum (LAF) has continued to hold its regular series of seminars on topics in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. The LAF aims to provide a lively environment for those already working in aesthetics and philosophy of art, and to foster new interest.
LAF events are open to all, both inside and outside the University of London. Audiences tend to be multi-disciplinary, and talks are followed by extended discussion where the philosophical topics raised by the talks are explored in depth from a variety of perspectives. As attendance at the sessions fluctuates depending on the time of year, with generally higher attendance during university term-time, we have been pleased to see that this format works well with different audience numbers, allowing small groups (e.g. of 8-10 people) to pursue detailed trains of discussion with the speaker, whilst also allowing enough time for everybody to ask substantial questions in a larger group (e.g. of 20-25).
The LAF now has 673 Facebook followers and 1804 followers on Twitter, and the website received many thousands of hits in the past year. We continue to post podcasts of many of our talks on iTunes. Our podcasts enable more people to engage with the Forum, including listeners from outside the UK, and have a very substantial number of monthly downloads.
One of the LAF鈥檚 aims is to benefit students who are working in aesthetics or related areas, providing opportunities for graduate researchers to engage with cutting edge work and meet other academics working in the area. Graduate students in the University of London also play a central role in organising the Forum鈥檚 activities, and in 2017-8 year this has included help on various organizational tasks, as well as participating actively in discussions.
Thanks to the funding from the 糖心视频, we鈥檝e been able to put on a strong program of offerings, including 10 talks.
We have aimed for a diverse programme, including talks by early career philosophers as well as by those more established in the field. Talks in 2017-8 have included a number of speakers from abroad that we were fortunate to catch while they were in Europe. Our speakers were as follows:
- Paul Guyer (Brown), 鈥淢endelssohn, Kant, and the Aims of Art鈥�
- Keith Lehrer (Arizona/ Miami), 鈥淎rt, Exemplars, Knowledge鈥�
- Errol Lord (UPenn), 鈥淣on-Foundational Direct Access: What It Is and Why It Matters for the Epistemology of Aesthetics鈥�
- Lisa Jones (St. Andrews), 鈥溾�楾his is Awesome!鈥� But is it Art? The Aesthetics of Pro-wrestling鈥�
- John Kulvicki (Dartmouth), 鈥淢etaphor in Pictures鈥�
- Vid Simoniti (Cambridge), 鈥淲hat Can Art Say about Politics?鈥�
- Michael Newall (Kent), 鈥淧ainting With Impossible Colours鈥�
- Keren Gorodeisky (Auburn), 鈥淭he Authority of Pleasure: a Neglected Alternative in Aesthetics鈥�
- Anna Cristina Ribeiro (Texas Tech), 鈥�(When) Is Poetry Fiction?鈥�
- Amy Kind (Claremont McKenna), 鈥淔iction and Imagining Across Different Experiential Perspectives”
SWIP: LAF aims for gender diversity in our talks. Four of our 10 speakers this year have been women. In the coming year, we have been aiming for similar gender parity, and our invitations reflect that.
The LAF would like to thank the 糖心视频 for their continued support.
Andrew Huddleston
On behalf of the LAF鈥檚 2017-8 organising group: Andrew Huddleston (Birkbeck), Stacie Friend (Birkbeck), Alex Grzankowski (Birkbeck); Jack Davis (PhD Student, UCL); Sarah Kiernan (PhD Student, Birkbeck); Pablo Olvera Mateos (PhD Student, Birkbeck)