A Study On The Aesthetic Turn Of Contemporary Thingness Art

Thingness is both an artistic and aesthetic concept that became prominent in contemporary art theories.This new concept has seen its rudiment back in the 10's of the 20^th century.Ever since,avant-garde artists'revolutionary practice and pioneer artists'experimental innovations of thing arts had never stopped.This novel artistic trend witnessed its explosion after the 60's of the 20^th century and has been expanding in almost all directions in contemporary art.These thingness artworks completely disempowered the traditional aesthetic principles,leaving only the“cultural criticism”from a social perspective andthe“aesthetic sensibility”from a phenomenological perspective,struggling with the artistic development,knowing there are still a lot more influential art types are far out of their reaches.Take some latest aesthetic terms such as“(subject)engagement”,“appearing”,“atmosphere”for example,though have brought significant change to the traditional object status of the art objects,are still confined in an territory of subjectivity.In comparison to the unceasing increase of art practices and critic discourses produced for art things,an aesthetics that truly look into the thingness art has been long absent in contemporary artistic thinking.On the basis of this,this study attempts to take a systematic research on contemporary thingness artworks and their aesthetic potentials.We will follow such a rationale in the search:there can be new aesthetic pattern beneath the thingness artworks than that of the traditional“subject-object”relationship.If so,it is probably a reversed one.That is to say,in a sense of intersubjectivity,the thingness art already implied an aesthetic turn to“the others”.In order to draw a thorough survey of this inappropriately overlooked realm of thingness art,this thesis will be progressed through three chapters.Chapter 1 explores the chronological development of thingness art practice.The early forms of thingness art can be dated back to the historical avant-garde and pioneer art in the 1910s till the new-avant-garde art in the 1970s.Thingness art practices at this early phase are characterized by“the anything whatever”and“the continuous presentment”.These two figures further developed into the basic qualities of contemporary thingness art since the 1980s.The audiences of contemporary times learnt to appreciate and understand the art things which suggest“co-existence”,“memory”,and“engaging”.The previous two characteristics together make a foundation for the third.By engaging the audience,a thingness artwork enlightens,gives,donates to the audience,invites game and dialogue.It is this engaging that makes the thingness accessible to the audience.It is the methodology of thingness art that is also characterized by qualities as“self-reference”,“relation”and“event”.Chapter 2 turns to a theoretical perspective.Theories from both art philosophy and aesthetics are considered according to their relevance to“thingness”.A thorough survey reveals a trend from“consciousness thing”to“phenomenological thing”and“existing thing”,which shows a strong tendency of thingness over the subjectivity.Moreover,Bergson's memory theory suggests a memory subject that is potentially more of importance in the appreciation of thingness artworks than the traditional transcendental subject.This tendency was reinforced in the theory of contemporary hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer,the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion,and the Actor-Network Theory of Bruno Latour.All these new thingness perspectives claims a new potential of thingness art and its undeniable influence upon the audience's consciousness and perception development.Chapter 3 makes an analysis of the aesthetic pattern caused by contemporary thingness art upon the memory subject both mentally and socially.This is shaped by two types of aesthetic turns,respectively“epistemological turn”and“ethic turn”.The former is a result of the marriage of sensitivity and reflection,and the latter is mostly a result of the memory subject's aesthetic attitude.Accordingly,The“epistemological turn”endows a continuous renewal of the subject's perception,while the“ethic turn”functions as a rescue and response to various social and environmental issues.And both are working together with the subject's increased aesthetic potential,to contribute to a more respectful realm of human spirit and in the end a better real world.