The Fourth British Society of Aesthetics Postgraduate conference was held in Durham on the 27th and 28th April 2018. The conference title was Movement and Aesthetics. The concept of movement is central to aesthetics – [as] our ascription of aesthetic qualities may be essentially grounded on some experience of movement and gestures.
The talks raised many key questions that lied at the intersection between aesthetics, phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and the psychology of perception. Pr. Barbara Montero’s keynote focused on the aesthetic experience athletes may have via proprioception. Dr. Jenny Judge’s keynote explored the beat experience and the evaluative attitude involved while moving to the beat.
One line of discussion concerned the capacity of paintings to represent and/or depict movement. Besides, one talk explored the fundamental relation between movement and aesthetics, arguing that the perceptual criteria for ascribing aesthetic qualities are movements. Some of the questions raised also focused on one’s experience of spatiality while moving, as well as on the experience of musical stasis.
This conference broke open the field of investigation in aesthetics in many ways. Many of the participants were themselves artists, and several presentations included artistic material from various locations and temporal eras (e.g. Indian Classical dance inscribed in the tradition of Bharata’s Natyasastra). Further information can be found on the following site: https://bsapostgrad2018.wixsite.com/durham