This is quite evident in several contemporary studies that by following a basically externalist account of aesthetic perception aim to determine what organizations of features elicit aesthetic responses (see, e.g., Locher, 2003 Bar and Neta, 2006 Noble and Kumar, 2010). While fields such as interaction design and psychology offer promising new methods and tools to study “the aesthetic” beyond transcendental explanations, in many of these writings we can still see a strong influence of the art-centered approach (see, e.g., Berlyne, 1971). In the last few years, models and explanations from other scientific fields, which traditionally investigate cognitive behavior, have been added to this approach. When the above conditions are not met, the object cannot be perceived aesthetically, which suggests that it was not an aesthetic object.Ĭurrent practitioners of the above “art-centered” approach still maintain a sharp distinction between works of art and everyday objects that afford aesthetic and common perceptions, respectively. For Kant (1998, 2000) and his followers, the experience of the transcendental aesthetic is possible only when, during perception, someone can remove any conceptual (e.g., purposive intention, an interest that may serve an instrumental or ulterior purpose) and sensual processes, so that one has only a pure intuition and the mere form of appearance. This is a tradition that persists from Plato to the contemporary literature on aesthetics, and was re-enforced when Kant intoduced the term of “disinterestedness” so as to express the state under which this exceptional form of perception is possible. These special objects are connected to a superior reality, one that demands exceptional cognitive skills in order to be properly grasped. The problem of rightness was introduced when scholars in the humanities attempted to explain our interest in some objects (rather than others) in terms of aesthetic values and properties that are connected to “ideals” about beauty and ugliness, which provoke pleasure and displeasure, respectively, in a perceiver. However, from a phenomenological point of view, there was at least an unspecified interest in some objects rather than others. The proposed model overcomes several problems of transcendental, art-centered, and objective aesthetics as it offers an alternative to the idea of aesthetic objects that carry inherent values by explaining “the aesthetic” as emergent in perception within a context of uncertain interaction.īefore explicit aesthetic judgments emerged in human culture, individuals did not necessarily discriminate objects 1 as exhibiting a type of rightness– a “proper” organization of features 2 –in their structure from other objects that did not ( Beardsley, 1975). This conception of aesthetic perception is compatible with contemporary evidence from neuroscience, experimental aesthetics, and interaction design. Aesthetic perception allows an agent to normatively anticipate interaction potentialities, thus increasing sense making and reducing the uncertainty of interaction. Considering perception as an anticipatory and preparatory process of detection and evaluation of indications of potential interactions (what we call “interactive affordances”), we argue that the minimal content of aesthetic perception is an emotionally valued indication of interaction potentiality. Adopting a naturalistic perspective, we here view aesthetic perception as a normative process that enables agents to enhance their interactions with physical and socio-cultural environments. Despite the vast number of approaches and models, we believe that these explanations do not resolve the problem concerning the conditions under which aesthetic perception occurs, and what constitutes the content of these perceptions. Over the last few years, several studies have attempted to determine “how aesthetics is represented in an object,” and how a specific feature of an object could evoke the respective feelings during perception. Aesthetic perception is one of the most interesting topics for philosophers and scientists who investigate how it influences our interactions with objects and states of affairs.
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