Home » Call for papers » CFP: Kant, aesthetics and contemporary art

CFP: Kant, aesthetics and contemporary art

posted in: Call for papers

Conference and Kantian Review special issue: Kant, aesthetics and contemporary art
Cardiff, Wales, UK, 23–24 October 2020.

Abstract submission deadline: April 3, 2020
Notification of acceptance for conference: April 20, 2020.

Keynote speakers:
Diarmuid Costello (University of Warwick, UK)
Paul Guyer (Brown University, USA)
Fiona Hughes (University of Essex, UK)
Katarzyna Zimna (Technical University of Lodz, Poland)
Rachel Zuckert (Northwestern University, USA)

Kant’s aesthetics is rarely discussed in relation to contemporary art. If the artworld wants a philosophical framework born of German idealism, it is usually Hegel’s dialectic, with predictions of the end of history and the death of art, that is drawn upon. Furthermore, while Kant’s treatment of the sublime might attract interest, the fact that the greater part of the Critique of Judgment focuses on beauty and judgments of taste can give the impression that his aesthetics has little to offer contemporary art. But there is much in Kant that can both inform and question recent art theory and practice:

• the scope of aesthetics in and after conceptual art
• the nature of aesthetic judgment
• the role of concepts in aesthetic experience
• how actions of appropriation and transposition might draw upon Kant’s epistemology
• the status of sensibility as a faculty that challenges (the) understanding
• Lyotard’s reading of Kant and the sublime.

The editors of the journal Kantian Review invite submissions for a conference and a special issue of the journal on the relation between Kant’s aesthetics and contemporary art. Authors of papers presented at the conference are invited to submit their finalized, post-conference papers to the journal for publication in a special issue, subject to peer review. Contributions are welcome from established scholars, young researchers, PhD students, and artists. Presentation time will be up to 40 minutes, with 20–30 minutes for discussion.

Abstracts (maximum 500 words) should be sent in Word format as an attachment to Clive Cazeaux, ccazeaux@cardiffmet.ac.uk

Abstracts, including the title, should be prepared for double-blind review by removing any identification details. The author’s name, paper title, institutional position and affiliation, as well as contact information, should be included in the body of the email.

Prof Clive Cazeaux
Professor of Aesthetics
Cardiff Metropolitan University