Handbook of Phenomenological Aesthetics.

Marlboro Man

There is a new post on Phenomenology and Photography. It is about a new book from German Springer: Handbook of Phenomenological Aesthetics. An impressive work. Click image to go there.

Enjoy.

The Photographer´s Eye.

Photographer's Eye. Copyright 2010: Knut Skjærven

“The first thing a photographer learned was that photography dealt with the actual; he had not only to accept this fact, but to treasure it: unless he did, photography would defeat him. He learned that the world itself is an artist of incomparable inventiveness, and to recognize its best works and moments, to anticipate them, to clarify them and make them permanent, requires intelligence both acute and supply.”

John Szarkowski: The Photographer’s Eye, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 2009.

Barthes on Studium and Punctum

Screen Shot from Phenomenology and Photography

You may have noticed that there is a new post on Phenomenology and Photography. Click the link, or click the picture above to go there.  The post is about what Barthes actually meant with the terms studium and punctum applied to photography. You will find the answers in that post.

Enjoy.

Kairos – Phenomenology and Photography.

Decisive Moment, Copyright 2009: Knut Skjærven.

I can’t say much about this book yet. Other than it is here. I got a mail from Zeta Books yesterday, and they told me so.

I wrote to the author Chan-fai Cheung, Dr. Phil.. Besides being a keen photographer and a teacher of phenomenology, he also is Professor and Chairman, Department of Philosophy, at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Among many other things.

One review copy is in the post to me from Hong Kong, and I really look forward to reading and reviewing it. I already downloaded an ebook version, but that will never be the same, will it?

Stay tuned for a review, and probably much more on this book. Oh,  Kairos is an old Greek word, and it basically means “decisive moment”.

Have a good day.

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For full information about the book, please go here.

Yet this is a delusion.

Kids in Alley. Knut Skjærven.

“The world of perception, or in other words the world which is revealed to us by our senses and in everyday life, seems at first sight to be the one we know best of all. For we need neither to measure nor to calculate in order to gain access to this world and it would seem that we can fathom  it simply by opening our eyes and getting on with our life. Yet this is a delusion. In these lectures, I hope to show that the world of perception is, to a great extent, unknown territory as long as we remain in the practical or utilitarian mode. I shall suggest that much time and effort, as well as culture, have been needed in order to lay this world bare and that one of the great achievements of modern art and philosophy (that is, the art and philosophy of the last fifty to  seventy years) has been to allow us to rediscover the world in which we live, yet which we are always  prone to forget.”

Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The World of Perception, Routledge London New York  2004. (Translated by Oliver Davis).

This is a barebones pitstop post. For more of the same, please go to pitstop puzzle.

Library Thing.

No substitute for the individual’s own seeing.

“Each person must go through his own philosophical performance, interrogate his experience, and come to terms with what he can make of his fellow man’s claims and pronouncements. The burden of responsibility falls always, again and again, on the concrete individual who has to find his point of access to philosophy The significance of an egological orientation becomes apparent here. There is no substitute for the individual’s own seeing. But is should also be clear that the ultimacy of an egological ground does not mean that “seeing” is an easy or automatic affair”.

Maurice Natanson: Edmund Husserl. Philosopher of Infinite Tasks, Norwestern University Press, Evanston 1973.

PUZZLE POST.

Well, why not?

Oprah Winfrey. Copyright 2009: Knut Skjærven.

Well, why not?

You probably didn’t think I had a picture of Oprah Winfrey. True, this morning I didn’t, but now I do. Just to remind you that absence can be turned into precence if you work on it. Please read this post and stay alert for more .

As I told you, Oprah Winfrey is in Copenhagen for the last push for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Chicago. Here leaving the lunch at the Royal Palace Amalienborg in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Yes, the Danish Queen was there too. In pink.

Go here for more images moving into precence .

Phenomenology: The Larger Picture.

Presence and Absence. Copyright 2009: Knut Skjærven

Following this blog you will agree with me that it stills needs a more practical approach to phenomenology. We need some tools that can be applied when doing, understanding and analyzing pieces of communication. Being it text or pictures or other.

Aspects of gestalt psychology have been pretty well covered in a number of posts. So have certain practical aspects of semiology. And there are plenty of useful information on both advertising efficiency and human behaviour, for readers that seek that kind information. (To be linked later).

The next series of posts will deal with a more practical approach to phenomenology. This is important since we have stated several times, already, that phenomenology takes up a special position within the barebones universe being both the basic of reflection as well as a particular area of investigation. Normally you refer to phenomenology as the method of phenomenology. The phenomenological method has been randomly covered by a series of posts taking it offset in the big book on phenomenology by late philosopher Herbert Spiegelberg. The big book being his The Phenomenological Movement. This however is by far not enough. Spiegelberg’s steps of phenomenology may be good, but not very practical.

Making the whole area more practical shall be very interesting since a similar effort had never been done before. Correct me if I am wrong here, but in my humble opinion this is the case. I am pretty sure that this effort have never been tried in anything that resembles a communication theory. So, it will be interesting to see what develops in the course of the future posts on barebones.

It is all in the photograph above. I call it Presence and Absence. There may be some presence, but there are certainly more absence. Let’s see, then,  if we can get more absence present.

Please take a note that this post is written the day before President Obama arrives for the IOC conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Michelle Obama arrived early yesterday and so did the Spanish King, The Brazilian President, and Oprah Winfrey. And many more celebrities doing a warm up of for the 2016 Olympics. Chicago Tribune calls it The Big Push. Friday all will be settled since the voter’s votes will have been cast. And all the presidents will leave.

What this last information has to do will phenomenology? Well, the facts are certainly there, aren’t they? And the celebrity information around IOC’s meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, is likewise missing from the picture above, right? That is precisely why this information belong to the photograph.

Confused? Just wait till you read the next post on phenomenology. That post will deal with presence and absence and everything will become clear to you .

Have a good morning.

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More posts in this section.

Library Thing.

… a profile is private and subjective.

Modiglianis. Copyright 2009. Knut Skjærven.

“As I move away from the spot and you move into it, you see the same aspect that I just saw, but you will be experiencing profiles that are different from the ones I experienced, because the profiles are the momentary presentations, not the look or the view or the aspect that can be seen by many viewers. An aspect, a side, and of course the building itself are all intersubjective, but a profile is private and subjective”.

Robert Sokolowski: Introduction to Phenomenology,  Cambridge University Press, New Yourk 2000.

Paintings by Amadeo Modigliani. Painting at left hand side: “Alice” (about 1918). Painting at the right hand side: “Self Portrait as Pierrot” (1915). Both are at Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark), Copenhagen, Denmark.

Minkowski’s Measure

Minkowski's Measure. Copyright 2009: Knut Skjærven.

“I say that I am expressing myself in an inexact manner. This is true. This imperfection, however, is not due to the insufficiency of the means at my disposal but result from the fact that becoming does not try to be expressed. What I mean to say is that, in its mysterious power, becoming leaves no island upon which we can set foot in order to arrive at a definition or a judgement in its regard. With its waves is covers over all that we might be tempted to set over against it. It known neither subjects nor objects. I has neither distinct parts, nor direction, nor beginning, nor end. It is neither reversible nor irreversible. It is universal and impersonal. It becomes chaotic.  And yet, it is quite close to us, so close that it constitutes the very base of our life. We would almost like to say that it is the synonym of life in the broadest sense of the word.”

Eugène Minkowski: Lived Time. Phenomenological and Psychopathological Studies, translated by Nancy Metzel, Northwestern University Press, Evanston 1970 page 18.

Library Thing. More on pitstops.