Space Oddity: Exercises in Art and Philosophy
a cura di
abstract
The volume includes papers presented at the 4th Postgraduate International Conference of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Venice, 5-7 October 2022). Our understanding of reality is filtered through myriad media, and we have the ability – and power – to gather, ignore, tweak, and explore the information needed to define what we mean by ‘reality’. The concept of ‘space’ – in its broadest sense – plays an essential role in an individual’s explanation of reality, and we must deal with a plurality of models and concepts of it. As elaborated in the text Space and Time in Art, the Russian theologian, philosopher, and art theorist Pavel Florensky states: “all culture can be interpreted as the activity of organising space”. Starting from this culturological reading, Florensky identifies three spatial “dimensions” and three corresponding genres of activity: (1) The space of our strong relations and the activity of ‘Technique’; (2) The mental space and its organisation and the activities of ‘Science’ or ‘Philosophy’; (3) The space between the previous two, and the activity of ‘Art’. Ultimately, all have the same aim: to change reality to reconstruct space. According to leading scholars and critics, the late 1980s saw a “spatial turn” take place in literary, social, and cultural studies. In 1991 Fredric Jameson theorised a shift from the paradigm of time to the paradigm of space, from modernism to postmodernism. The pandemic era has refocused investigation on the present paradigm, where Florensky’s spaces have been concentrated through cyberspace almost overnight. Through the notion of the ‘semiosphere’ – as elaborated by Juri Lotman 100 years ago – we collectively pondered the question: “should we reconsider the concept of space as a cultural category altogether?”.
Field • Folklore • Philosophy • Drawing • Chile • Performance installation • Image Theory • Arts and crafts • Landscape • Musical repatriation • Power • Digital archives • Communal apartments • Crucifixion • Coloniality • Conspicuous • Visual culture • Curatorial theory • Opacity • National image • History of art • Void • Technology • Altar • Late Middle Ages • Cultural decolonialism • Venice Biennale • Archival turn • Blind man’s stick • Hudinilson Jr • Photography • Skill • Hauntology • Isa Genzken • Visual studies • Eline Mugaas • Absence • Architecture exhibition • Cultural space • Inflatables • Visual identity • Space • Displaying • Architecture • Ritual • Knapping • Transparency • Ephemera • Scrapbooking • Artist • Museum • Historiography • Dance • Non-human • Exhibition theory • Cultural discourse • John of the Cross • Russian style • Topology • Kustar • Conflagration • Martha Rosler • Ephemeral architecture • Ship models • Audience • Visual semiotics • Orbit • Scrapbook • Bird’s-eye View • Ethnomusicology • Fyodor Stravinsky • Art • Dwelling • Presence • Heidegger • Modernity • Elise Storsveen • Nefs • Hypercomfort • Early Modern Age • Architecture curation • Organism • Material culture • Public space • Archival spaces • Malafouris • Biennial Art • Incorporeals • Enunciation • Home • Room • Louis Marin • Visibility • Ancient Stoicism • Kommunalka • Transición • Architectural design • Place • The Tupikov House • Architecture representations • National Pavilion • Igor Stravinsky • Body • Sound and audiovisual archives • Consumption • Stravinsky’s family • Ontology • Krzysztof Wodiczko • Art history • Mies van der Rohe • Analogue photography