Abstract
Artistic practice and education build on a long tradition of aesthetic critique and problem solving. This tradition has later on influenced also practice-led and practice-based research approaches centering on the artistic process. Although these research approaches depend on the processes and objects that essentially have not only cognitive but aesthetic qualities, the role of the aesthetics in these research processes still lacks an analytical discussion in this context. In this article we explore the process aesthetics in the context of artistic, practice-led research. Namely, we examine the potential of the concept of aesthetic engagement as a framework for understanding and analyzing the involvement with the artistic process. The results of this investigation are the two complimenting degrees of involvement with the artistic process through making and perceiving, and the relations that activate these different ways of engagement. To illustrate and concretize the subject, we employ an example of video material capturing moments of experimentation with ceramic art.
Keywords
Aesthetic engagement; aesthetic experience; process aesthetics; practice-led research; video works
Citation
Falin, P., and Falin, P. (2014) Making and perceiving - Exploring the degrees of engagement with the aesthetic process, in Lim, Y., Niedderer, K., Redström, J., Stolterman, E. and Valtonen, A. (eds.), Design's Big Debates - DRS International Conference 2014, 16-19 June, Umeå, Sweden. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2014/researchpapers/89
Making and perceiving - Exploring the degrees of engagement with the aesthetic process
Artistic practice and education build on a long tradition of aesthetic critique and problem solving. This tradition has later on influenced also practice-led and practice-based research approaches centering on the artistic process. Although these research approaches depend on the processes and objects that essentially have not only cognitive but aesthetic qualities, the role of the aesthetics in these research processes still lacks an analytical discussion in this context. In this article we explore the process aesthetics in the context of artistic, practice-led research. Namely, we examine the potential of the concept of aesthetic engagement as a framework for understanding and analyzing the involvement with the artistic process. The results of this investigation are the two complimenting degrees of involvement with the artistic process through making and perceiving, and the relations that activate these different ways of engagement. To illustrate and concretize the subject, we employ an example of video material capturing moments of experimentation with ceramic art.