Aesthetic Evolution Research Articles

The Musicality of Birds: From Charles Darwin to Hermeto Pascoal

Traditionally, music is studied from an anthropocentric point of view, which neglects the wealth of knowledge that can be learned from considering the role of the natural world in the creation of music. One of the most notable contemporary jazz composers to draw inspiration from the natural world is the Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal. Throughout Hermeto’s prolific career, he has written numerous compositions that were inspired by nature. This essay explores several compositions by Hermeto that were directly inspired by birds and examines the musicality of birds through the lens of evolutionary biology and aesthetics. To demonstrate the intricacies of bird songs, I will explore Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, aesthetic mate choice, and his ideas concerning aesthetic evolution. By understanding the function of bird songs and how they have evolved, new insights can be gained that will offer a new way to appreciate Hermeto Pascoal’s music. I argue that the complexity of aesthetic mate choice is manifested in the intricacies of bird songs and has subsequently influenced the compositional output of contemporary musicians such as Hermeto Pascoal, which has led to a deeper appreciation of biotic art in the jazz idiom.

Making Pictorial Print: Media Literacy and Mass Culture in British Magazines, 1885–1918 by Alison Hedley

Reviewed by: Making Pictorial Print: Media Literacy and Mass Culture in British Magazines, 1885–1918 by Alison Hedley Emma Liggins (bio) Alison Hedley, Making Pictorial Print: Media Literacy and Mass Culture in British Magazines, 1885–1918 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021), pp. 187, $85/ £70.99 hardcover. Drawing on media studies approaches and new understandings of technology, Making Pictorial Print gives a lively, broad-ranging account of the significance of images in the periodical at the fin de siècle. Whilst recent studies have paid welcome attention to illustration and image reproduction in nineteenth-century journalism, Alison Hedley's timely intervention broadens conceptualisations of text-image relations across a number of representative magazines and encourages us to rethink their complex visuality and rapidly increasing audiences. She demonstrates that what she terms "the technological imagination," encompassing the modernity of new communication technologies from the gramophone to the camera, is hugely significant for appreciating "readers' enhanced awareness of media materiality" (16). As she argues, "Popular illustrated magazines prepared mass readerships for modern media systems," helping to usher in a new media age (17). Analysing advertisements, photographs, magazine headers, wood engravings, and scrapbooks, Hedley shows how pictorial magazines, and indeed popular culture in general, became increasingly visual and multimodal as the twentieth century approached. This new media landscape "created new possibilities for readers to exert agency" and make meaning at a time of periodical diversification (62). She takes as her case studies the Illustrated London News, the Graphic, Pearson's Magazine, and the Strand Magazine, all popular Victorian publications with long print runs surviving into the 1930s and beyond. Although oriented around general [End Page 459] interest periodicals and omitting the widely read women's magazines of this era, this selection allows Hedley to examine reader engagement and different aesthetic representations in detail. A good range of periodical pages are included to demonstrate the variety and variability of images in circulation. Beginning with the new visuality of the Illustrated London News (ILN) at the turn of the century, Hedley argues that print's "established text-image hierarchy" was subverted at the fin de siècle (29). She draws on André Gaudreault and Phillipe Marion's three-phase model for constituting media—appearance, emergence, and advent—to demonstrate that advances in print technology and changing attitudes to visual communication transformed the balance between letterpress and pictures in the ILN. Her quantitative analysis of random sample numbers shows that image-dominated pages increased from 42 percent of the issue in 1880 to 85 percent by 1907, correlating with the rise in halftones from photographs. Hedley reads a representative item from 1907, "Fairy Stories by Photography: Grimm Illustrated," in terms of a hybrid intermediality that "[juxtaposes] old and new aesthetic techniques" through a combination of photography and hand-drawn or painted images (55). The second chapter focuses on advertisements and consumer culture in a comparison between the ILN and the Graphic, examining the metamorphosis of the advertising pages into a "visual bazaar of images of slogans" built on greater "extravagant aesthetics" (63). This adds to critical discussions of advertising though a greater emphasis on readers' engagement with mass culture and "counter-interpretative hyper-reading" (87). Hedley's new readings of advertisements for cocoa and Pears soap emphasise the techniques of mélange and hybridity while also thinking about ways in which readers could resist advertisers' strategies. This resistance could take the form of curatorial remediations, as shown in her analysis of a scrapbook from the Harry Page collection of ephemera at Manchester Metropolitan University, which contains elaborate pictorial scenes accompanied by handwritten comments. I was fascinated to read about this subversive commentary on consumerism evident in the fetishized displays of commercial brands on scraps cut from periodical advertisements, a lesser-known tactic of alternative interpretation. Possibilities for subversive engagement are also highlighted in the third chapter, which explores data visualizations in Pearson's Magazine (1896–1902) in relation to reader engagement with population journalism. Photorealistic representations of statistical data on such subjects as marriage or suicide rates function as further examples of the aesthetic evolution through which illustrated periodicals of this time "responded to innovations in mass image reproduction" (112). Readers have the chance to...

Social inheritance and the social mind: Introduction to the Synthese topical collection The Cultural Evolution of Human Social Cognition

In this introduction to the Synthese SI: The Cultural Evolution of Human Social Cognition, we introduce some basic theoretical terms that will help readers to navigate the volume. Subsequently we describe the papers that make up the volume and draw attention to points of agreement and disagreement between the authors. We also identify a number of outstanding issues for the field of cultural evolution research. The papers in the volume can be divided into three sections: (1) The Cultural Evolution of Mindreading, (2) The Cultural Evolution of Ethics and Aesthetics, and (3) Methodological Challenges.

Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood, and Politics in Balinese Music Ensembles

Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood, and Politics in Balinese Music Ensembles

A Form to Dwell In: Narrative and ‘Rhetorical’ Unreliability in Alejandra Pizarnik’s Diaries

This article examines the impact of form on the delivery of information in Alejandra Pizarnik’s Diaries. Literary unreliability - both narrative and what I call ‘rhetorical’ - questions the one-to-one correspondence between content and form. Through rhetorical strategies such as paradox and metaphor, the Diaries subvert notions of authorial control, revisiting the ‘death of the author’, as well as the relationship between the literary and the psychological. Instead of promoting an autobiographical reading of this work as a linear story marked by tragedy, these considerations suggest an alternative, interpretive path: one in which the diaristic text tends towards the absurd and the production of a fruitful ‘nothingness’. Considering linguistic manipulation in this way allows us to situate the Diaries within Pizarnik’s aesthetic evolution, not in terms of biographical content, but according to its critical and experimental engagement with a central, theoretical issue: the (im)possibility for language to represent a reality beyond itself.

Earrings Culture of Ancient Chinese Han Nationality and Its Aesthetic Evolution

This paper takes the typical earrings shape system of ancient Chinese Han nationality as the starting point, briefly analyzes the development situation and characteristics of earrings in successive dynasties, and discusses the evolution of aesthetic consciousness in ancient Chinese society. It can be seen that the earrings culture of ancient Chinese Han nationality has continued up to now and gone through five stages of origin, development, silence, revival and prosperity, which reflects the aesthetic consciousness of ancient Chinese society gradually developing from the original religious belief to the royal power aesthetics as the center, and then to the secular aesthetics as the center.

The Avian Sense for Beauty: A Posthumanist Perspective on the Bowerbird

This essay uses the bowerbird's practice of collecting and arranging decorative objects to attract a mate as a point of departure to question the humanist commitments of art history as a discipline, and to explore what establishing a posthumanist art history might involve. I look to Charles Darwin's concept of sexual selection and the questions that it raised regarding the evolutionary origins of human creative activity. I discuss early natural history illustrations of bowerbirds along with Darwinian anthropologies of art, which bring human and avian aesthetic practices into dialogue. Finally, I draw on Richard Prum's theories on aesthetic evolution, Elizabeth Grosz's posthumanist perspective on art's origins, the emerging discipline of multispecies ethnography, and Indigenous Papuan understandings of the bowerbird, to ask how art historians might begin to restore human animals to a larger ecology of creative beings.

Scene, Aesthetics and Industry Chain: Postmodern Cultural Thinking of Films in 5G Era

With the in-depth influence of 5G technology on film art, the postmodern culture contained in it is also becoming more and more obvious. Understanding the context of the 5G era and clarifying the origin of film postmodernism culture will help us deeply analyze the cause of the rise of postmodernism film culture, especially the important influence of the expansion of film application scenes, the innovation of the whole industry chain and the evolution of film aesthetics on the rise of postmodernism film culture. In addition, we should also think deeply about the film culture under the post-modernism of 5G era, and explore the way to stick to the benign development of film creation and film industry. To enhance our cognition and appreciation of post-modern film culture, to give play to the positive factors of post-modern film culture, and to promote the healthy and prosperous development of Chinese film production, creation and industry.

The Causes and Enlightenment of Post-Modern Film Culture in the 5G Era

With the increasing influence of 5G technology on film art, the postmodern culture contained therein is also gradually becoming obvious. Understanding the context of the 5G era and clarifying the origin of postmodern film culture can help us analyze the cause of the rise of postmodern film culture, especially the important influence of the expansion of film application scenes, the innovation of the whole industry chain and the evolution of film aesthetics on the rise of postmodern film culture. In addition, we should also consider the film culture under the postmodernism of 5G era, and explore the way to stick to the benign development of film creation and film industry in order to enhance our cognition and appreciation of postmodern film culture, to maximize the positive factors of postmodern film culture, and to promote the healthy and prosperous development of Chinese film production, creation and industry.

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

Tiled Interiors on Paper: Trade Catalogues as a Key Source to Understand the Use of Floor and Wall Tiles in European Interiors

The enormous popularity of decorated industrial wall and floor tiles in Europe in the years 1840–1940 is strongly linked to the standardization, technical quality, and aesthetic variety of the products that were well marketed through often lavishly colored trade catalogues. More than the study of existing tile schemes in interiors, a systematic study of these trade catalogues leads to a better understanding of the general use of tile in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century interior. They inform us about factories and offer invaluable information on the technical and aesthetic evolution of tiles. They help us to date the designs and acquire a better knowledge of changes in taste in applying them. They are also a valuable source for documenting differences and similarities between factories and countries in matters of tile design and reveal opportunities to better understand the global export success or stylistic influence of many European factories in other countries on the continent as well as overseas. In this paper a general and theoretical approach is elucidated by referring to concrete cases based on a research collection of more than 600 tile catalogues from all over the world.

HugForUs, opera di relazione tra persone

Exploring new forms of socialization by creating artwork in transformation, reinventing communication, is the goal of HugForUs. Amedani, the author, becomes a creator of tools, providing technological devices that make the forms of design and participation accessible to all, towards a collective pro- cess of creation. The redefinition of space, through collective action, widening the possibilities of the user, allows invisible identities to appear in the visible. The project triggers an active process that goes from individual to collective in a continuous semantic and aesthetic evolution, extending the capabilities of the subject-user. Overcoming the object-art identifier through public actions that exploit online platforms. The operation is defined, using the words of Giacomo Verde, as a «artwork of relationship between people». Amedani was able to activate creative contexts that allow the different processes of relationship.

Is Aesthetic Evolution Possible in Birds? —Conceptual Considerations

The adaptive mate choice theory is believed to provide a general explanation of sexual selection. Females are thought to choose males based on direct benefits or because they have perceivably good genes based on visual indicators of male quality, involving adaptive qualities acted on by natural selection in the current environment. However, a recent hypothesis, called “Beauty Happens” has been proposed based on Darwin's “Really Dangerous Idea,” an idea that has been criticised, to explain sexual selection in animals, including human beings. Accordingly, it has garnered widespread attention and evoked controversial debate. Here, I review the Beauty Happens hypothesis and clarify the arguments that focus on the sexual autonomy and aesthetic perception of females. I found that, in the case of sexually dimorphic birds, unambiguous evidence is absent in support of the adaptive mate choice theory. Although the Beauty Happens hypothesis is logically feasible, aesthetic perception could possibly evolve and develop on the basis of sexual autonomy and resource-independence in females. Therefore, aesthetic radiation among females may lead to beauty radiation in males, and female mate choice as a selection process may act independently of natural selection, favouring good-to-pass-on genes rather than good genes. However, the Beauty Happens hypothesis seems to be more applicable when explaining the behaviour of sexually dimorphic birds than other animal taxa. I suggest that the mechanisms of female mate choice and intrasexual competition in males may lead to biological evolution, depending on the degree of autonomy of females in different animal species.

Collingwood and the Nature of Consciousness

This essay touches on the following topics: imagination, caprice, relative and absolute presuppositions, language, knowledge, moral and aesthetic values, art, evolution, and dreams. Collingwood distinguished between pre-reflective and reflective consciousness and identified four features of consciousness: forms (simple or primitive, practical, and theoretical or specialized), objects, feelings, and selective attention or focus. He also spoke of the corruption of consciousness that psychologists of his day called repression. This is a way in which we can falsify consciousness that can lead to inauthentic thinking and to error. The phenomenological description of these processes that he gave us is a promising over-all account. This essay also utilizes some of the contemporary literature on consciousness to draw comparisons and contrasts with Collingwood’s account. As a historical note, it offers some parallels between Leibniz and Collingwood on attention, awareness, and consciousness.

Manchas extrínsecas negras em dentes deciduos e permanentes: revisão da literatura

As manchas extrínsecas pigmentadas negras (MEPN) são caracterizadas como pontos pigmentados, de coloração negra, que ocorrem em diferentes localizações da arcada, comprometendo a estética dentária do paciente. Neste artigo foi investigado as causas, o diagnóstico e o tratamento das MEPN, objetivando contribuir com uma maior compreensão sobre o assunto. Atualmente, com a evolução da estética odontológica, aumentou a procura e melhorou o acesso ao cirurgião dentista para tratar situações como as MEPN. A ocorrência das MEPN é relacionada na literatura a presença de alguns microrganismos, como os Actinomyces sp. e a Prevotella Melaninogenicas, na composição do biofilme oral, assim como a dietas ricas em substâncias utilizadas por esses microrganismos para a produção do pigmento, como o Cálcio e Ferro, principalmente. O diagnóstico da MEPN é realizado clinicamente, sendo o diagnostico laboratorial considerado padrão ouro a cultura microbiana, possibilitando a identificação e o teste de sensibilidade. Associada a ocorrência das manchas está um fator protetivo contra cáries promovido por este biofilme específico. Dentre os tratamentos disponíveis, técnicas abrasivas são as mais utilizadas, mas não resolvem os problemas de reincidivas, comuns aos pacientes afetados, sendo o atual desafio a ser superado por novas metodologias que venham a ser desenvolvidas.

MEMORY, BIAFRA AND THE QUESTION OF NATIONHOOD IN BIYI BANDELE’S HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

The essential place of film in engaging the idea of memory and collective memory is established by the fact of its historical origins and development over the centuries. This, in every sense is connected to the socio-cultural, political as well as economic and aesthetic evolution, influenced and controlled by the reality of the people’s experience. From classical to the contemporary times, film makers have drawn montage-like pictures of their world, in concrete terms as historical films for the world to see. However, through the approaches of Social Interaction and Trauma Theories, Image Analysis and Historical Contextualization, this paper interrogates Biyi Bandele’s Half of a Yellow Sun, an adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s novel of the same title and how it has been deployed as a tool for the construction of collective memory of the Biafra/ Nigerian civil war experience. Data were collated through library research and critical study of related films. The findings therefore, reveal that memory plays cogent roles in the process of reconstruction of history. The film therefore serves as a point of reference for Nigerians to have reminiscence over the negative effects of the war on the people. It is however clear that the agitation by some groups to call for the renegotiation of the country’s unity is meant for the purpose of self- interest rather than collective. The reconstruction of the memory of agony of the war in the film, if not properly managed could be burdensome to the country, and may degenerate into another internal crisis. Hence, there is the need for any aggrieved party to be cautious in their approaches towards the question of National unity and perceived marginalization.

History of the museography of the National Sculpture Museum of Valladolid. A reflection on the reciprocal relationship between museums and society or the museum as an instrument of the new social paradigms

ABSTRACT Since the first Wunderkammern to modern museums, the way museums have been envisioned has changed over time to mirror the social and cultural trends of each historical moment. At the same time, museums have been used as instruments from where innovative ideas were promoted to society. In this study we analyse the reciprocal interaction between museums and society by studying the changes in museology and exhibition techniques. Our hypothesis is that each change in the concept and role of museums was also reflected in the museology, which was adapted to better reproduce the ideals that the museum wanted to show to society. We studied the historical evolution of the museography of the National Museum of Sculpture of Valladolid, as well as the social and cultural trends of each historical moment to establish a correlation between them. The results confirm the direct and intimate relationship between museums, museography and changing social paradigms. We can conclude that the aesthetic evolution of the public presentation of the collections determines the image and self-identity, both that of the museum in itself and that which it projects externally. Simultaneously this evolution also reflects innovative ideas about the role of culture within society.

Aesthetic “sense of the world” of Nikolai Berdyaev: origins and approaches to the philosophy of beauty

This article analyzes the origins of one of the core problems of philosophical-aesthetic thought of N. Berdyaev – the philosophy of beauty. Importance of the phenomenon of beauty for the formation of its aesthetic concepts and worldview overall is demonstrated. The author determines the main sources that determines the heightened interests towards the phenomenon of beauty, which affected the peculiarities of solution of this problem. Considering the defining character of Berdyaev’s personal and emotional attitude to the surrounding beauty, major attention is given to revelation of this source as most significant for understanding the entire further evolution of his philosophical-aesthetical thought as a whole, as well as establishment of the philosophy of beauty in particular. Therefore, the article reviews a number of life circumstances that defined his aesthetic development, which in the end leads to the fact that the aesthetic component becomes paramount in his worldview, and beauty turns into a universal criteria of assessing other diverse phenomena. The study carries a holistic character, being at the intersection of aesthetics, philosophy, culturology, biographical genre, which determines the applied complex historical-philosophical and philosophical-culturological methodology. This article is first attempt within the national literature to examine and reconstruct the origins of Berdyaev’s aesthetic evolution. The author reveals the key role of the problematic of beauty not only on formation of his aesthetic concept, but philosophical thought overall. Analysis is conducted on the source of Berdyaev’s aesthetic views that drastically affected the development of his philosophy of beauty.

A Year United in Fragmentation: An Examination into the History of Modernist Aesthetics and Their Culmination in 1922

When I was first introduced to Abel Gance's La Roue, I was rather interested in the fact that it was released in 1922. I knew that this was also the year that James Joyce's Ulysses and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land were published. I began to wonder why this year produced such significant works of modernism. I repeatedly asked a professor of mine, Bruce Kawin, a number of questions about 1922. My core questions were: "Why then?" and "What happened before?" At some point, Professor Kawin suggested that I write an honors thesis on 1922. After some discussion about what the thesis should contain, I decided that I was interested in the history of modernist aesthetics. I wanted to determine what occasioned the emergence of modernism and why it arrived at an apex in 1922. With this goal in mind, I began reading and watching a number of significant modernist works that were released before 1922. In addition to this project, I tried to isolate a number of historical factors (outside of artistic tendencies) that may have occasioned the creation and evolution of modernist aesthetics. I discovered that the events of 1922 were the culmination of an evolution of aesthetic tendencies. Also, modernist aesthetics were the response to a particular consciousness that was occasioned by a number of significant historical events that occurred around that time. In discussing this, my thesis aims to provide a some coherence to the vast and complex artistic movement known as modernism.

《맨 오브 스틸》의 서사와 심미의 변천

《맨 오브 스틸》의 서사와 심미의 변천