Paloma Atencia-Linares (Kent) @ London Aesthetics Forum (Institute of Philosophy)
Wednesday, 14 January 2015 (4-6pm) Senate House, G35
In this talk I explore the peculiar phenomenology of photographic pictorial experience and propose a novel account for the special relation in which photographs seem to put us with respect to objects and events. Firstly, I clarify what we mean when we say that photographs have a special phenomenology and I claim that photographs are a perceptually recognisable category. I discuss some influential views that propose different properties to account for this phenomenology and propose my own view. I claim that the property of “particularity” best explains the visual phenomenology of photography. I compare the case of perceptual and memory experiences to the case of photographs, and I claim that, although photographs resemble perceptual experiences in various respects, they are actually more similar to episodic memories. I suggest that photographs preserve not only visual similarity but also, the particular character of the original scenes.
The talk will be free and open to all. For more information please visit the website www.londonaestheticsforum.org
The London Aesthetics Forum (Institute of Philosophy) is supported by the British Society of Aesthetics