Founded in 2006, the LAF aims to provide a lively environment for those already working in aesthetics and philosophy of art and to foster new interest. LAF events are open to all, both inside and outside the University of London. Audiences tend to be multi-disciplinary, and talks are followed by extended discussion where the philosophical topics raised by the talks are explored in depth from a variety of perspectives. This year in particular, we had a plethora of academics and students working in art history and neuroscience attending our talks, as well as gallery curators.
This year we had a full schedule of in-person seminars, 13 in total. The attendance per talk averaged to 19 per session, with some as high as 38 attendees. The LAF has 1921 followers on Twitter, and the website received 4082 unique visits in the past year. We continue to upload our podcasts onto the LAF website. Our podcasts enable more people to engage with the Forum, including listeners from outside the United Kingdom.
One of the LAF’s aims is to benefit students who are working in aesthetics or related areas, providing opportunities for postgraduate researchers to engage with cutting-edge work and meet other academics working in the area. We were delighted to include an early career researcher (Christopher Earley) as well as a professional working artist (Claire Anscomb) within our range of speakers this year.
Our team this year has primarily consisted of PhD students who have organised the speaker list, chaired and facilitated the sessions, and helped with various organisational tasks. The posters, website, and podcasts are overseen by the student team.
We are appreciative of the funding from the BSA which has allowed us to put on a fantastic programme of seminars this year. We aim for gender diversity in inviting speakers, and, same as last year, achieved near-parity, with 6 women and 7 men (2 of the speakers were POCs).
The comprehensive Speaker Programme 2023-2024 is as follows:
Catharine Abell (Oxford): “Art, Medium and the Challenges of the Conceptual”
Wednesday, 11 October 2023
Elisabeth Schellekens Dammann (Uppsala): “Thinking the Aesthetic: The Noetic Conception of Aesthetic Experience”
Thursday, 02 November 2023
Aaron Ridley (Southampton): “Sketchbooks of Genius”
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Stacie Friend (Edinburgh): “Fiction, Fact and Value”
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
James Wilson (UCL): “Symbolism and Art”
Wednesday, 17 January 2024
Christopher Earley (Liverpool): “Co-Producing Art’s Cognitive Value”
Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Claire Anscomb (De Montfort): “Understanding and Appreciating Uses of AI in Image-making Practice”
Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Eileen John (Warwick): “What Is the Point of Evaluating Art?”
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Katherine Thomson-Jones (Oberlin): “Rule-Bound Creativity in AI Art”
Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Nikhil Krishnan (Cambridge): “The Rights of Texts”
Wednesday, 24 April 2024
James Grant (Oxford): “Does It Matter If Beauty Is Objective?”
Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Patrik Engisch (Geneva): “Locked-In and Expandable Creative Domains”
Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Jonathan Gingerich (Rutgers): “Kantian Genius Reconstructed”
Wednesday, 05 June 2024
In addition to our programme, we hosted complementary events:
LAF Special Event: “The Ethics of Arts Funding” (Collaboration, Royal Institute of Philosophy)
Monday, 30 October 2023
Diarmuid Costello (Warwick): “Wrongful, Degrading, or Merely Indecent? Exploitation in Three Works by Santiago Sierra” (Collaboration, Birkbeck Philosophy Society)
Thursday, 07 March 2024
Going forward:
We are delighted that our team will carry on in their current roles, with continued oversight from Professor John Hyman (UCL) and Dr Alex Grzankowski (Birkbeck, Institute of Philosophy). The student team includes: Sailee Khurjekar (PhD Student, Birkbeck); Oscar Hillyer (Undergraduate Student, Birkbeck); Alice Harberd (PhD Student, UCL); and Taylor Enoch (PhD Student, UCL).
The LAF would like to thank the British Society of Aesthetics for their continued support.– Sailee Khurjekar On behalf of the LAF’s 2023-24 organising group
