Dear students of Philosophy and Theory of Art 2
The theme/genre of Philosophy and Theory of Art 2, spring 2022, is HUMAN HABITATS. Habitats are home environments for e.g. plants and animals. Lions live in grassland habitats. Penguins live in chilly arctic habitats. Although there are quite perfect natural habitats for human beings to live in, we also build and manipulate our habitats. For privileged people all interiors are warm and dry. We do not just build parks. We build forests too. The forest you jog in might be designed in the 1970s on spoil. We fill landscapes with trash and clutter. We appropriate architecture and town planning with parkour and skateboarding. These are some of the themes that will be covered on the course.
Study method: We will read and discuss texts. Read the texts before the sessions. Everyone needs to say something about every text.
To get the credits you need to
To get the credits you need to
* be on the first session. We need to be able to share some ideas about the course and some facts too, to be able to build a discussion later on. To make it easy, I have chosen the first lecture to be shared by everyone, as it is also a good way to confirm that you are on the course.
* be present 80% of the lectures (i.e. you can be away once) and take part in the discussions.
* you have to write an essay. As the course requires discussion in the sessions, you need to produce only a minimum of 4 pages for me. Choose freely from the scholars, texts and discussions we have had - also your perspective and style. Format: paragraph 1,5, Times New Roman. The deadline is April 19. Please send it to me to the address myfirstname.mylastname@aalto.fi. Now you know it, and you have plenty of time to write it. I will immediately after the deadline print the essays, read them, and grade them - and I will also remember our discussions on the course, when I am thinking about the grade.
GRADES
I will grade the course essays with the following system:
1 you have sent me text, and it made sense
2 you have also understood something and you have presented some of your own thoughts that make sense
3 you have a good understanding of the content and you have some meaningful thoughts about the issues we discussed (just accentuating: 3 is good)
4 you have done a very good work, referred well to the texts given and you have come up with some well-developed thoughts
5 je ne sais quoi (a quality that cannot be described or named easily): to get this grade you probably have to be attentive during the sessions to understand what I consider to be really, really good work - or then you are just lucky... anyway: I think that you have done a superb work and it is hard, if not impossible, to explain the difference from 4 to 5!
SCHEDULE AND TEXTS/CONTENT
Session 1
10.1, 3-5 PM
Tom Leddy, "The Aesthetics of Junkyards and Roadside Clutter" (2008)
Session 2
24.1, 3-5 PM
Madalina Diaconu, "The Weather-Worlds of Urban Bodies" (2019) PDF by mail
Session 3
31.1, 3-5 PM
31.1, 3-5 PM
Arnold Berleant, "Aesthetic Paradigms for an Urban Ecology" (1978)
Session 4
7.2, 3-5 PM
Ossi Naukkarinen, "Aesthetics of Popular Culture as Environmental Aesthetics" (Popular Inquiry, Vol 1, 2017)
Session 5
28.2, 3-5 PM
28.2, 3-5 PM
Pauline von Bonsdorff, "Agriculture, Aesthetic Appreciation, and the Worlds of Nature" (2005). Pauline von Bonsdorff will join us.
Session6
14.3, 3-5 PM
14.3, 3-5 PM
Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place (1977, excerpts) PDF by mail
Session 7
28.3, 3-5 PM
More information soon.
