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CFP: “Behavioral Aesthetics. Techne–Desire–Savoir-faire”, 52 (1/2019).

CFP: “Behavioral Aesthetics. Techne–Desire–Savoir-faire”, 52 (1/2019).

Editors: Daniel Ross (Universidad de Investigación de Tecnología Experimental Yachay, Ecuador) and Adrian Mróz (Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland). Preface with Anaïs Nony (Florida State University). Submission Deadline: September 30, 2018.

Issue “Behavioral Aesthetics. Techne–Desire–Savoir-faire”, 52 (1/2019). Editors: Daniel Ross (Universidad de Investigación de Tecnología Experimental Yachay, Ecuador) and Adrian Mróz (Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland). Preface with Anaïs Nony (Florida State University).

This issue will explore answers to the question “what does art do?” rather than “what is art?”. Topics on behavioral modernity, psychology, ethics, politics, sociology, economics or axiology, the philosophy of technology, culture, the philosophy of art, media, video games, memes, and education or other interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary are all welcome as well as any others related to the behavioral dimension of aesthetics. We invite authors to explore the expansion of the notion of the aesthetic to include the ancient Greek (αἴσθησις, aisthesis) meaning of sensibility, sentience, and perception. Thus, the issue is not limited to art, but invites reflections on the various practices and behaviors involved with the aesthetic such as decision making, playing, desire, acting, judging, evaluating, the problem of intimacy, and also the body or soma, feeling, sensation, the ability to suffer, trans and ecstasy, trans-formative powers, symbolism and symbolic violence, synesthesia, anesthesia, and so on. This also encompasses new perspectives on the notion of art as experience, as well as any arts (τέχνη, techne) embodying knowledge (ἐπίσταμαι, epistemai) of doing or making (savoir faire). Furthermore, we would appreciate articles that address the problem posed by the Greek (φάρμακον, pharmakon) in art, as not only as drugs, poisons and medicines, but also as the painter’s paint, scapegoats (social catharsis–φαρμακός, pharmakós), cosmetics, magic talismans and spells, songs, charms and enchanting, as well as rites and rituals.

We may not agree on what art is in a strict metaphysical or ontological definition, but we act as if we do, since works of art and anti-art are commonly considered to be results of action. To behave could be looked at as a joining of being and having, to contain oneself, to be-have, sich behaben, or se porter. Such a “behavioral stance” explores methods of analysis of the manipulative, regulating, and steering aspect (ethics, politics, markets, and economy) of the aesthetic and arts, searching for neobehavioral points of view on symbols and sensation as well as inter-behavioral and intra-behavioral aspects on relations and relationships like in view of new materialism or through the concept of intra-action. Some anticipated topics include:

     •Techne incorporates the philosophy of technics and technology in addition to traditionally understood art. What is the role of technology in aesthetics today? How do they impact our habits? How do they create systems of value and evaluation? How do laboratory technologies like brain-Internet connections, brain-to-brain connections, the SciFi hive-mind, or modern Artificial Intelligence impact art? What are the technics of aesthetics? 

     •The aspect of desire would not only include problems of will, but also of attention, care, forgetting and lack. What does the aesthetic do with desire? What does desire do with behavior? How are art, desire, and behavior related? Is art addictive? Can designer drugs be works of art? How is desire (distraction) depicted in art, such as the narcotic soma of Huxley's Brave New World. 

     •The notions of savoir-faire and can-do denote an active rather than passive form of achieving artistic or aesthetic affect, perhaps in opposition to simple behavioral drives, like the ones behind market values. What forms of knowledge are gained from artistic experience? Does the aesthetic wrought capabilities? What is the relationship between behavior and stimuli? Is a work of art the mind itself?

The search for the know-how of how to live (savoir vivre) and the can-do in response to such questions is an issue faced by all living in contemporary hyper-industrial culture and society. We hope to provide some reflection that will give society an ability to shape its own aesthetic habits.

Submission deadline: September 30, 2018.

We invite all Authors to read the instructions, ‘For Authors’, and make sure that each article is complete (including an abstract, keywords, a bibliography, and note on the author) at the time of submission. Full papers should be submitted using the submissions page, which can be found here.