Papers by stefano velotti
The Conundrum of Control. Making Sense Through Artistic Practices., 2024
Every day we encounter situations in which "things spin out of control" or in which our forms of... more Every day we encounter situations in which "things spin out of control" or in which our forms of life are subjected to increasingly stringent controls. Our daily lives seem to oscillate between these two poles. However, the nature of control is a difficult conundrum to probe. Art practices help us make sense of the paradoxes related to the enhancing interplay between control and non-control by putting them on display. The author argues that cooperation between these two poles is essential but is currently hindered, leading to a sterile bipolarity. What happens if this interplay between the two poles collapses?
The essay is structured into three parts: the first defines control and its relationship with law, life, and art. The second part characterizes artistic practices based on their functions in human experience. The third part delves into two exemplary cases: Taiwanese artist Tehching Hsieh and Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn.
C. Cieri et. al. (eds.), Leo Steinberg Now, Campisano, Roma , 2022
Aesthetic judgments have acquired a dubious reputation in the last decades. Judging has been cons... more Aesthetic judgments have acquired a dubious reputation in the last decades. Judging has been considered in bad taste, a symptom of being out of tune with contemporaneity. Being non-judgmental has been perceived to be the right attitude for scientifically serious, or politically progressive, or well-educated people. This attitude has been shared for different reasons by a variety of scholars who otherwise would not share much else: analytic philosophers interested in art, supporters of postmodern "anti-aesthetic", followers of Deleuze, cultural and visual studies experts, structuralists and deconstructionists, anthropologists, neurologists and art historians fascinated by the study of non-aesthetic image response. Today we could add the weight of big data, which discourages any exercise of articulated judgment, individual or shared. From the analytic aesthetics field, I can mention Nelson Goodman, according to whom the «question of aesthetic value» is «of very little value for aesthetics». Richard Wollheim and Arthur Danto, both distant from Goodman's theoretical assumptions, both agreed on this point 1. Danto, along with many others, for a long time thought that one could give a descriptive definition of art in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions, as if a value judgment-being uninformative-were something that one could freely add or omit in talking about art 2 ; as if "art"-in the modern sense of the word-were not an evaluative concept. From a different point of view, which is more complicated and interesting than the previous ones, in 1964 Susan Sontag identified and analyzed a new taste, «camp», that was spreading in urban society: «Camp taste turns its back on the good-bad axis of ordinary aesthetic judgment. Camp [...] doesn't argue that the good is bad, or the bad is good. What it does is to offer for art (and life) a different-a supplementary-set of standards». Camp could still be considered as an exer
2023, Disinterested Pleasure and Beauty. Perspectives from Kantian and Contemporary Aesthetics. Berger, Larissa (Ed.). Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, pp. 105-30
This essaya ims to show how the transcendental aestheticp rinciple soughtbyKant reveals itself no... more This essaya ims to show how the transcendental aestheticp rinciple soughtbyKant reveals itself not onlyasthe principle of determination of aesthetic experience, both artistic and non-artistic, but also as an ecessary principle for making sense of human experience in general. Ib egin by addressingsome fundamental misunderstandingsthat still plague thestudyofKantian disinterestedness, as well as by questioning its psychological redescription. Rejectingt he thesis according to which works of art ought not to be considered examplesof"free beauty" but onlyof"dependent beauty," the essayreconsidersthe meaning to be attributed to "nature" as the "supersensible substratum" of our faculties. What emergesfrom my analysis here is avision of Kant'st ranscendental as essentially in the making, at once both "natural" and "to be acquired." Andy et,n otwithstanding our moral responsibility to try to make sense of experience, we cannot pursue this end merely by clingingt ow hat we can directlyc ontrol.
Aut Aut, 2023
Si fa presente che "aut aut" non pubblica recensioni e non accetta testi di ampiezza superiore a.... more Si fa presente che "aut aut" non pubblica recensioni e non accetta testi di ampiezza superiore a. battute (note e spazi compresi).
Storia universale della natura e teoria del cielo
La "Storia unviersale della natura e toeria del cielo" (1755) costituisce il vertice de... more La "Storia unviersale della natura e toeria del cielo" (1755) costituisce il vertice del cosiddetto periodo "precritico" di Kant e contiene la celeberrima ipotesi sull'origine del sistema solare poi denominata di Kant-Laplace.In questo testo Kant, all'epoca poco pi\uf9 che trentenne, affaccia l'ipotesi dell'origine del sistema solare, inserita nel solco della grandiose costruzioni concettuali di Cartesio, Leibniz e Newton e che successivamente verr\ue0 riorganizzata da Laplace secondo principi strettamente matematici. Ma nell'opera del giovane Kant, oltre all'audace concezione del meccanismo generatore del Sole e dei suoi pianeti e satelliti, si trova anche un'immagine credibile della Via Lattea e delle altre nebulose, come il prodotto di leggi uniformi e identiche a quelle che operano nel modno che conosciamo. Infine, lo scenario di un cuore ancestrale del cosmo da cui tutto proviene e si dilata in una progressiva fuga e rarefazione della materia, sembrerebbe quasi anticipare la tesi del "big bang" dei giorni nostri
L'estetizzazione del mondo. Vivere nell'era del capitalismo artistico di Gilles Lipovetsky e Jean Serroy
Iride, 2022
Elena Gagliasso, Eugenio Lecaldano and Stefano Velotti discuss Telmo Pievani’s Finitudine.
Un rom... more Elena Gagliasso, Eugenio Lecaldano and Stefano Velotti discuss Telmo Pievani’s Finitudine.
Un romanzo filosofico su fragilità e libertà. The authors critically present both the main themes and the method of Pievani’s philosophical novel from different viewpoints.
Gagliasso, in particular, highlights how the philosophical climate (the times of Camus and Monod) in which Pievani’s novel takes place is different from the contemporary time we are living in with its specific challenges (like the climate change). Lecaldano focuses on the consequences raised by Pievani’s treatment of finitude for morality and the need for an ethics centered on virtues rather than on obligations. Finally, Velotti comments Pievani’s work by presenting how nowadays finitude is challenged by philosophical theories discussing the relation of humanity with the non-human world.
Keywords: Finitude, Death, Extinction, Anthropocene, Evolutionary Theory.
The Mandragola has been studied and analysed from countless points of view. Such interpretations,... more The Mandragola has been studied and analysed from countless points of view. Such interpretations, however, fall schematically in two opposing fields. On the one hand, it is viewed as a serious and bitter meditation on both the world it belongs to and (human) nature, while on the other hand it is seen as an irresistibly funny comedy aimed at depicting Florence and mocking its inhabitants ; a comedy which, through its happy ending, communicates possible future opportunities for the exercise of ‘virtù’. Through a re-elaboration of textual evidence, these notes aim at underscoring the inseparable interrelationships of the two main interpretative lines of the comedy – and its paradoxical intertwining of comic illusion and serious meditation, rebirth and death, fertility and sterility – to argue that this twofold unity is the most adequate perspective to grasp its sense.
POLITICA & SOCIETÀ ISSN 2240-7901 1/2022, 97-116, 2022
Aesthetic experience. Four types of uncertainty
Aesthetic experience highlights some fundamental ... more Aesthetic experience. Four types of uncertainty
Aesthetic experience highlights some fundamental features of human nature. The conditions that make it possible are internal to every kind of experience, but they emerge in the foreground on the occasion of a particular kind of pleasure. This pleasure – mixed with emotions, concepts, skills, and imaginative performance – can be experienced exemplarily in the enjoyment and production of works of art but is by no means limited to them. On the contrary, it reveals something about the very faculty of judgment in general. However, aesthetic experience would not be such if it were not essentially marked by different kinds of uncertainty: about its nature, its criteria, its genuineness, and the judgments derived from it. And, in a certain respect, aesthetic experience is indeed uncontrollable, because it reveals the indeterminacy that is internal to any kind of experience. Thus, its complex of uncertainties cannot be eliminated by a surplus of knowledge or information. However, the principle on which aesthetic experience depends is not merely contingent but can claim its peculiar necessity and universality. Paradoxically, it guarantees the possibility of making sense of our experiences through the impossibility of mastering them and
empirically totalizing their meaning
Dialettica del controllo, 2017
No society and no individual can live and prosper if it fails to integrate forms of control and n... more No society and no individual can live and prosper if it fails to integrate forms of control and non-control. Today, however, we are witnessing a growing gulf between these two poles, at all levels. And, at the same time, a paradoxical coincidence between them. Increasingly invasive instruments of control and self-control are turning into rampant phenomena of loss of control, and vice versa. The increasingly urgent reflection on this oscillation leads to the proposal to observe artistic practices as exemplary laboratories for understanding the complex 'dialectic of control' that grips our contemporaneity.
Nessuna società e nessun individuo può vivere e prosperare se non riesce a integrare forme di controllo e di non-controllo. Oggi però assistiamo a una divaricazione crescente tra questi due poli, a tutti i livelli. E, insieme, a una loro paradossale coincidenza. Strumenti di controllo e autocontrollo sempre più invasivi si trasformano in fenomeni di perdita di controllo dilaganti, e viceversa. La riflessione, sempre più urgente, su questa oscillazione approda alla proposta di osservare le pratiche artistiche come laboratori esemplari per comprendere la complessa “dialettica del controllo” che attanaglia la nostra contemporaneità.
Dialettica del controllo. Limiti della sorveglianza e pratiche artistiche
Società del controllo o società allo sbando? Nessuna società e nessun individuo può vivere e pros... more Società del controllo o società allo sbando? Nessuna società e nessun individuo può vivere e prosperare se non riesce a integrare forme di controllo e di non-controllo. Oggi però assistiamo a una divaricazione crescente tra questi due poli, a tutti i livelli. E, insieme, a una loro paradossale coincidenza. Strumenti di controllo e autocontrollo sempre più invasivi si trasformano in fenomeni di perdita di controllo dilaganti, e viceversa. La riflessione, sempre più urgente, su questa oscillazione approda alla proposta di osservare le pratiche artistiche come laboratori esemplari per comprendere la complessa “dialettica del controllo” che attanaglia la nostra contemporaneità. «Il sogno moderno di diventare “padroni della propria vita” si realizza solo in forme perverse: quanto più diventiamo padroni di noi stessi, tanto più siamo asserviti agli imperativi sociali. I vari dispositivi elettronici, per esempio, che controllano incessantemente le nostre funzioni vitali (salute, attività, ...
Mandragola una e bina
The Mandragola has been studied and analysed in time from innumerable points of view. Its interpr... more The Mandragola has been studied and analysed in time from innumerable points of view. Its interpretations, however, fall schematically in two opposing fields: on the one hand, it is viewed as a serious and bitter meditation on both the world it belongs to and (human) nature; on the other hand, as an irresistibly funny comedy, aimed at depicting Florence and mocking its inhabitants; a comedy which, through its happy ending, communicates possible future opportunities for the exercise of “virtù”. Through a re-elaboration of textual evidence, these notes aim at underscoring the inseparable interrelationships of the two main interpretative lines of the comedy - and its paradoxical intertwining of comic illusion and serious meditation, rebirth and death, fertility and sterility - to argue that this twofold unity is the most adequate perspective to grasp its sense.The Mandragola has been studied and analysed in time from innumerable points of view. Its interpretations, however, fall schema...
La “dialettica del controllo” e “il momento della non intenzionalità”. Note sul rapporto tra arte, cultura e società a partire da Adorno (e Kant)
Benché per Adorno il momento della non intenzionalità (Unwillkürlichkeit, da comprendere in relaz... more Benché per Adorno il momento della non intenzionalità (Unwillkürlichkeit, da comprendere in relazione ad altre parole chiave del suo lessico, quali «mimesis», «configurazione», «espressione», Spontaneität) sia irrinunciabile, la porta attraverso cui può farlo accedere al suo pensiero è stretta. E tuttavia, alla luce di una particolare “dialettica” che sembra dominare le nostre attuali società – quella che chiamerò “dialettica del controllo” – tale momento sembra essere oggi ancora più illuminante di quanto lo fosse cinquanta anni fa. Tanto più se si considerano le pratiche artistiche maggiormente esemplari e diffuse del nostro tempo (a cominciare dalla fotografia e dall’uso del digitale – con la sua promessa di controllo integrale - anche all’interno di attività artistiche tradizionali quali la scultura e l’architettura). Il momento della non intenzionalità risulta di particolare interesse per sostanziare l’ipotesi proposta di un peculiare “dialettica del controllo” che pervade le n...
I 'primi esempli' dell' 'umana ragione'. Note su Vico
Universali fantastici e universali astratti. Note su Locke, Leibniz, Vico e l'estetica
Introduzione a A. Danto, La trasfigurazione del banale
Art/Arte
Rapporto tra la produzione artistica e la facoltà di rifinalizzare prodotti umani e naturali
La cultura è antiquata? Aporie di Günther Anders
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Papers by stefano velotti
The essay is structured into three parts: the first defines control and its relationship with law, life, and art. The second part characterizes artistic practices based on their functions in human experience. The third part delves into two exemplary cases: Taiwanese artist Tehching Hsieh and Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn.
Un romanzo filosofico su fragilità e libertà. The authors critically present both the main themes and the method of Pievani’s philosophical novel from different viewpoints.
Gagliasso, in particular, highlights how the philosophical climate (the times of Camus and Monod) in which Pievani’s novel takes place is different from the contemporary time we are living in with its specific challenges (like the climate change). Lecaldano focuses on the consequences raised by Pievani’s treatment of finitude for morality and the need for an ethics centered on virtues rather than on obligations. Finally, Velotti comments Pievani’s work by presenting how nowadays finitude is challenged by philosophical theories discussing the relation of humanity with the non-human world.
Keywords: Finitude, Death, Extinction, Anthropocene, Evolutionary Theory.
Aesthetic experience highlights some fundamental features of human nature. The conditions that make it possible are internal to every kind of experience, but they emerge in the foreground on the occasion of a particular kind of pleasure. This pleasure – mixed with emotions, concepts, skills, and imaginative performance – can be experienced exemplarily in the enjoyment and production of works of art but is by no means limited to them. On the contrary, it reveals something about the very faculty of judgment in general. However, aesthetic experience would not be such if it were not essentially marked by different kinds of uncertainty: about its nature, its criteria, its genuineness, and the judgments derived from it. And, in a certain respect, aesthetic experience is indeed uncontrollable, because it reveals the indeterminacy that is internal to any kind of experience. Thus, its complex of uncertainties cannot be eliminated by a surplus of knowledge or information. However, the principle on which aesthetic experience depends is not merely contingent but can claim its peculiar necessity and universality. Paradoxically, it guarantees the possibility of making sense of our experiences through the impossibility of mastering them and
empirically totalizing their meaning
Nessuna società e nessun individuo può vivere e prosperare se non riesce a integrare forme di controllo e di non-controllo. Oggi però assistiamo a una divaricazione crescente tra questi due poli, a tutti i livelli. E, insieme, a una loro paradossale coincidenza. Strumenti di controllo e autocontrollo sempre più invasivi si trasformano in fenomeni di perdita di controllo dilaganti, e viceversa. La riflessione, sempre più urgente, su questa oscillazione approda alla proposta di osservare le pratiche artistiche come laboratori esemplari per comprendere la complessa “dialettica del controllo” che attanaglia la nostra contemporaneità.