Aesthetic Object Research Articles

Secondary Reconstruction of Panfacial Fractures With Virtual Reality Surgical Planning Using Both Pre and Postreconstruction Scans.

Late secondary reconstruction is sometimes required in patients with suboptimal primary panfacial fracture repair. At this stage, it can be difficult to discern original facial architecture due to malunion and bony remodeling. By utilizing the original postinjury CT scan to complete fracture reduction in the virtual reality (VR) planning environment, the surgeon may attempt to recreate an "ideal" facial bony anatomy for patients. This technique was completed in 2 patients presenting with facial deformity secondary to malunited panfacial fracture. Each had a cone-beam CT (CBCT) scan taken at presentation and the initial postinjury CT scans were obtained. Fracture reductions were completed in VR to recreate the preinjury anatomy. The resulting model was overlaid with current anatomy to create surgical aids. The first patient, a 23-year-old man, presented with malunion of all bones of the midface. Cutting guides were designed for the Lefort 1 segment, left zygomaticomaxillary complex (ZMC), and naso-orbito-ethmoid (NOE) osteotomies. The second patient, a 30-year-old woman, had bilateral ZMC and subcondylar fractures, midface retrusion, and malunion of parasymphyseal fracture. A 2-stage procedure was planned, including an initial Lefort I and bilateral sagittal split osteotomy with midline wedge excision. To address malar projection, a second surgery was planned using custom MEDPOR midface implants for the NOE and zygomatic regions. Both patients were discharged home, and all surgical goals and esthetic objectives were achieved.

A volitional account of aesthetic experience.

Aesthetic experience is an altered state of consciousness characterized by a detached absorption in an aesthetic object; it is a pleasant-sometimes ecstatic-liberation from the self and its agenda. I briefly review perceptual-cognitive and affective approaches used by psychologists to understand the phenomenon and suggest the need for a volitional perspective. To illustrate the nature and scope of aesthetic experience, I discuss nine varieties, elicited by different qualities in objects and evoking distinctive responses in perceivers. Over centuries, aesthetic devices have been developed that induce the aesthetic state by manipulating such psychological mechanisms as attention, appraisal, and empathy. I propose explanations for how several important devices operate, and why they are particularly effective in individuals high in the personality trait of Openness to Experience.

Controls on regional sulphate distribution in shallow groundwater in the western Canadian Interior Plains

Sulphate (SO4), predominantly derived from sulphur (S)-bearing glacial sediments distributed widely across the Canadian Interior Plains, contributes to high groundwater salinity and can be detrimental to riparian and dry-land ecosystems, agricultural production, and water use. While previous researchers investigated SO4 distribution and dynamics in shallow groundwater at local scales (<1500 km2), we examine SO4 occurrence in groundwater at larger scales, and to depths of ~150 m, considering variations in geology, glacial history, climate, and geochemical and hydrogeological settings in the Canadian province of Alberta. Sulphate concentrations in groundwater vary considerably, with 15 % of 139,130 samples above the 500 mg/L Canadian drinking water aesthetic objective. Analysis of δ34SSO4 and δ18OSO4 from 179 wells throughout Alberta shows SO4 is dominantly derived from oxidation of S-bearing material. At this large scale, marine shale bedrock subcrops, glacial ice flow directions, and climate control SO4 distribution. Groundwater contains less SO4 (<200 mg/L) in western Alberta compared to the east due to a lack of S-bearing bedrock, higher groundwater recharge rates, thinner glacial sediments, and increased groundwater circulation. Focusing on a region in south-central Alberta (Red Deer area), hydrogeological characteristics relating to SO4 formation, recharge, permeability, hydraulic gradient, and travel time are included in a principal component analysis to identify six groundwater groups at varying stages of evolution and SO4 concentrations depending on their hydrogeological setting. Low SO4 concentrations are associated with areas of high recharge, where SO4 has been leached from the sediments, or with more evolved bedrock groundwater where SO4 has been reduced or was recharged in pre-glacial times. High SO4 concentrations are found in areas of lower recharge and permeability, where flushing occurs more slowly. Combining the Red Deer area and province-wide analyses, we identify seven regions across Alberta with characteristic distribution and controls on SO4 occurrence in shallow groundwater.

Non-Monotonic Theories of Aesthetic Value

ABSTRACT Theorists of aesthetic value since Hume have traditionally aimed to justify at least some comparative judgments of aesthetic value and to explain why we thereby have more reason to appreciate some aesthetic objects than others. I argue that three recent theories of aesthetic value—Thi Nguyen’s and Matthew Strohl’s engagement theories, Nick Riggle’s communitarian theory, and Dominic McIver Lopes’ network theory—face a challenge to carry out this explanatory task in a satisfactory way. I defend a monotonicity principle according to which the strength of our aesthetic reasons to appreciate varies monotonically with aesthetic value and claim that these theories, because they do not respect the principle, are non-monotonic. If they cannot find a plausible way to preserve the link between the aesthetic goodness of an object and our aesthetic reasons to appreciate it, these non-monotonic theories should be rejected.

Mimicking power

This article explores performances of satire as a form of journalism in Zimbabwe by analysing performances by satirists who mimic to mock journalistic conventions and political authorities. Through analyses of YouTube videos, the article explores the ways in which satire as journalism is visualised. Onscreen, satirists mimic the gestures, mannerisms and aesthetic objects connected to both political figures and state journalists on the state-run television station for ridicule. This paper argues that the parodying and mimicking of aesthetics of authority legitimises and professionalises satire as journalism, even as it seeks to critique notions of journalistic authority in an authoritarian state. Through analyses of three Zimbabwean satire shows on YouTube, the paper finds that, while satirists mimic journalistic practices and journalistic authority with the goal of mocking state media and the censorial state, a closer reading of their practices shows that they themselves become legitimate news tellers. This kind of satire plays with familiar broadcasting television aesthetics to signal authority, providing current news and otherwise censored critique.

A Critical Exploration of Cultural and Aesthetic Representation of Shandong Dialect Translation in Red Sorghum

The translation of the Shandong dialect, specifically in the novel Red Sorghum authored by Mo Yan and translated by Howard Goldblatt, posed significant challenges to both translators and readers due to its local Chinese cultural richness. Previous researches mainly focused on its traditional translation strategies including foreignization and domestication. Exploration of the aesthetic value of dialect and its cultural representations in modern literature is a relatively new area of research yet to be developed. This paper revealed that translation operates in a complicated three-dimensional structure of translator (aesthetic subject), translated text (aesthetic object), and culture (social environment). In the process of translating dialect, the aesthetic experience and the Aesthetic Regulation Devices (ARD) adopted by the translator, as well as the beauty of characterization and symbolization come into play. Therefore, aesthetic values and cultural uniqueness are represented not only on the linguistic, but also on the spiritual level by contrasting the purity of the villagers in rural China and the brutality of the social turbulence that surrounds them. The paper demonstrated that dialect translation involves a multifaceted and dynamic equivalence between source and target language. The research findings indicated that translation techniques of domestication and foreignization are utilized significantly more often (82%) than the strategy of ARD (18%) during the translation process. This imbalance in strategy usage may result in a deficient representation of aesthetic and cultural values. The significance of this study lies mainly in its intention to reconstruct a more effective theoretical paradigm for dialectal translation procedures.

Achieving a Strong and Straight Septal Extension Graft: A Novel Four-step Surgical Approach in Rhinoplasty.

Septal extension grafts allow the precise elongation of the nasal septum to attain facial harmony and optimize aesthetic outcomes. In this context, septal surgery requires meticulous design to address both functional and aesthetic goals. Traditional septoplasty techniques often overlook aesthetic considerations and postoperative nasal structural stability, resulting in unresolved or recurrent deviations, nose tip drooping, and obstruction recurrences. Despite advancements in surgical techniques, achieving simultaneous septal alignment and long-term stability remains a significant challenge. This study introduces a systematic 4-step technique. The procedure encompasses caudal septum liberation, placement of the septum extension cartilage graft, positioning of an ethmoidal bone graft, and redefinition through an intermediate cartilage. A retrospective analysis of outcomes involving 753 patients was conducted with a minimum follow-up of 6 months. During follow-up visits, 1.73% of cases exhibited residual columellar asymmetry, and 0.66% showed tip asymmetries. The infection rate was 0.40%, with no cases of tip drop identified. The overall satisfaction rating on the Rhinoplasty Outcomes Evaluation questionnaire at 12 months postoperative was 9.3. The technique provides a systematic approach to integrate functional and aesthetic objectives, emphasizing septal stability and alignment while concurrently addressing tip projection and stability. The study provides comprehensive insights into the principles, methodology, and advantages of this rhinoplasty technique. The outcomes underscore the efficacy of the technique, presenting a reliable and long-term stable solution.

Investigating the Relationship between Balanced Composition and Aesthetic Judgment through Computational Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetic Approaches

Background: Symmetry is a special kind of balance. This study aims to systematically explore and apply the role of balanced composition in aesthetic judgments by focusing on balanced composition features and employing research methods from computational aesthetics and neuroaesthetics. Methods: First, experimental materials were classified by quantifying balanced composition using several indices, including symmetry, center of gravity, and negative space. An EEG experiment was conducted with 18 participants, who were asked to respond dichotomously to the same stimuli under different judgment tasks (balance and aesthetics), with both behavioral and EEG data being recorded and analyzed. Subsequently, participants’ data were combined with balanced composition indices to construct and analyze various SVM classification models. Results: Participants largely used balanced composition as a criterion for aesthetic evaluation. ERP data indicated that from 300–500 ms post-stimulus, brain activation was more significant in the aesthetic task, with unbeautiful and imbalanced stimuli eliciting larger frontal negative waves and occipital positive waves. From 600–1000 ms, beautiful stimuli caused smaller negative waves in the PZ channel. The results of the SVM models indicated that the model incorporating aesthetic subject data (ACC = 0.9989) outperforms the model using only balanced composition parameters of the aesthetic object (ACC = 0.7074). Conclusions: Balanced composition is a crucial indicator in aesthetics, with similar early processing stages in both balance and aesthetic judgments. Multi-modal data models validated the advantage of including human factors in aesthetic evaluation systems. This interdisciplinary approach not only enhances our understanding of the cognitive and emotional processes involved in aesthetic judgments but also enables the construction of more reasonable machine learning models to simulate and predict human aesthetic preferences.

The Architecture of the Rzeszów Downtown from the Flâneur Perspective

The paper attempts to study architecture as an esthetic object with the use of mobile methods. I develop the concept of the flâneur view: an act of perception associated with a casual walk, enriched with reflections on the environment. The aim of the text is to describe the intricacies of the process: what makes the flâneur interested in particular architectural object, how one valorizes it, and what role the esthetics plays in the activity. This research walk was carried out by students in the Rzeszów Downtown. It included observation, taking notes, and photography. For the purpose of the paper, I analyze thirteen journals. The main finding is that students value visual and spatial harmony, and look for it in the cityscape. They are positive toward well-maintained, mostly historical buildings. Nature is also important to them. In their descriptions, they use everyday language and their type of esthetic reception can be named non-professional.

FUZULIY SHE’RIYATIDAGI BA’ZI OBRAZLARNING ASKETSIZM NUQTAYI NAZARIDAN FALSAFIY TAHLILI

In this philosophical analysis attempt, the nature of the relationship (the act of thinking) between the poems of the wise poet Fuzulî and his mental world will be tried to be explained by the method of philosophical analysis. Our main purpose in doing this is to explain how the aesthetic bond (taking into account internal and external elements) is established between Fuzulî's poetry, an aesthetic object, and the aesthetic subject (Fuzulî) who created it. If it is possible to achieve this, it will be shown that the knowledge of the aesthetic subject (as aesthetic knowledge) will to some extent be free of subjectivity and have an informational value equivalent to rational knowledge. Fuzulî lived between approximately 1480-1556 and is a well-known figure as a man of letters and poet in the Turkish and Islamic world with his poems. He is one of the groundbreaking artists of Classical Islamic and Turkish Literature, with his knowledge of Arabic and Persian, which he knows well enough to write poetry, as well as his native language, Turkish. According to Fuzûlî, the art of poetry creates a privileged position that offers people the opportunity to rise above the total existence. Although Fuzûlî clearly demonstrates his superiority in the art of poetry in his ghazals, he deserves his fame as a poet with his masnavi named Leyla vü Mecnûn.

Exploring the Influence of Object, Subject, and Context on Aesthetic Evaluation through Computational Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics

Background: In recent years, computational aesthetics and neuroaesthetics have provided novel insights into understanding beauty. Building upon the findings of traditional aesthetics, this study aims to combine these two research methods to explore an interdisciplinary approach to studying aesthetics. Method: Abstract artworks were used as experimental materials. Based on traditional aesthetics and in combination, features of composition, tone, and texture were selected. Computational aesthetic methods were then employed to correspond these features to physical quantities: blank space, gray histogram, Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), and Gabor filters. An electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment was carried out, in which participants conducted aesthetic evaluations of the experimental materials in different contexts (genuine, fake), and their EEG data were recorded to analyze the impact of various feature classes in the aesthetic evaluation process. Finally, a Support Vector Machines (SVMs) was utilized to model the feature data, Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), context data, and subjective aesthetic evaluation data. Result: Behavioral data revealed higher aesthetic ratings in the genuine context. ERP data indicated that genuine contexts elicited more negative deflections in the prefrontal lobes between 200 and 1000 ms. Class II compositions demonstrated more positive deflections in the parietal lobes at 50–120 ms, while Class I tones evoked more positive amplitudes in the occipital lobes at 200–300 ms. Gabor features showed significant variations in the parieto-occipital area at an early stage. Class II LBP elicited a prefrontal negative wave with a larger amplitude. The results of the SVM models indicated that the model incorporating aesthetic subject and context data (ACC = 0.76866) outperforms the model using only parameters of the aesthetic object (ACC = 0.68657). Conclusion: A positive context tends to provide participants with a more positive aesthetic experience, but abstract artworks may not respond to this positivity. During aesthetic evaluation, the ERP data activated by different features show a trend from global to local. The SVM model based on multimodal data fusion effectively predicts aesthetics, further demonstrating the feasibility of the combined research approach of computational aesthetics and neuroaesthetics.

Sharada Man Shrestha: The Artist Who Transforms Junks and Scraps into Aesthetic Objects

Contemporary Nepali artist Sharada Man Shrestha uses scraps, junks, leftovers and found objects in his sculptures, paintings and installations. He transforms junks and leftovers into beautiful and fine aesthetic objects. The scraps and junks in mess distract the pedestrians but his artworks provide aesthetic pleasure to the viewers. Use of such materials in art contributes to manage the junks and scraps, recycle the used things, save the resources, reduce the environmental pollution, create cultural identity of the artist and the nation and earn livelihood for the artist. Shrestha has created both figurative and abstract artworks using scraps like used bottles, tires, pipes, grinding wheels and thrown away motorcycle parts. He has created high relief, low relief and freestanding sculptures. Due to the presence of physical material in the works rather than the creation of illusion through colors and light, the creative works provide a sense of connectedness to the earth. This article explores the principles behind the use of junks and interprets the artworks of Sharada Man Shrestha and shows how junks get transformed into the aesthetic objects. Since the thesis statement is supported through the interpretation of artworks, it is qualitative research.

Study of Wang Yangming's Philosophical Thought on Music

Wang Yangming's philosophical thought on music is an extremely important part of his teleological system, which profoundly embodies the core philosophical concept of the unity of mind and reason. In Wang Yangming's view, music is not only an aesthetic object, but also a key way to realize personal moral cultivation and spiritual enhancement. His emphasis on ancient music and his suggestions for the improvement of folk music demonstrate his deep insight into the role of music in shaping social mores and cultural inheritance. These ideas not only had a significant impact in his time, but also still provide rich educational resources and practical guidance for modern music education. In this paper, we will look at the origin of Wang Yangming's music thought, “music is the essence of the heart”, “music is based on neutrality and harmony”, “re-establishing ancient music” and “restoring the true self”, as well as a review of Wang Yangming's music thought. "and the value judgment of Yangming's music philosophical thought are discussed and analyzed in five aspects.

Between diaspora and region: Tony Gatlif and Mehdi Ben Attia

The article investigates the creative tensions between diaspora and region as they appear in queer Maghrebi francophone visual culture. By examining two important films from Maghrebi-French cinema – Tony Gatlif’s Exils (2004) and Mehdi Ben Attia’s Le fil (2009) – the article theorizes an affective understanding of diaspora and regionality wherein ephemeral aesthetic objects constitute regional archives of feeling and assemblages that reveal the messy complexities of identity, space, and belonging in a Maghrebi postcolonial setting. In so doing, the article also aims to ascertain how regional constellations of queer diasporic aesthetics may lead to new forms of kinship and community for minority ethnic and sexual subjects.

Phillippa Pitts. Review of "The Medicine of Art: Disease and the Aesthetic Object in Gilded Age America" by Elizabeth L. Lee.

Phillippa Pitts. Review of "The Medicine of Art: Disease and the Aesthetic Object in Gilded Age America" by Elizabeth L. Lee.

Neurodynamics of Relational Aesthetic Engagement in Creative Arts Therapies

Aesthetic experiences, emerging saliently in the arts, play a pivotal role in transformative learning and creative processes that elicit physiological, affective, and cognitive responses associated with mental health indices. Interactions between subjects and aesthetic objects (e.g., visual artwork, music, and moving bodies) often entail elements of surprise and uncertainty that drive the inference of the hidden causes in the subject’s internal and external environment. These generate dynamics that align with the action-oriented Predictive Processing framework of brain function. Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) harness these dynamics by cultivating relational engagement using the arts modalities, prompting affective and cognitive processing. In this manuscript, we offer a review and conceptual analysis of recent empirical findings and theoretical premises that underpin aesthetic experiences and their relation to the psychotherapeutic use of the arts with a broad spectrum of populations and mental health conditions. We present a neuroscience-based approach to aesthetic intra- and inter-personal experiences, integrating therapeutic change factors of externalization-concretization, embodiment, and symbolization with functional network configurations, and interpersonal brain-to-brain coupling, to support predictive processing, learning, and creativity. Present and future interdisciplinary collaborations are underlined to elucidate the neurodynamic mechanisms driving psychological transformations, bridging neuroaesthetics and CATs.

In Search of the &amp;quot;Other&amp;quot; into the Night: A Study of the Double in a Polyphonic Perspective

From the perspective of psychology, the individual becomes conscious of or rethinks about themselves in the relationship with their double, represented artistically through conflicts that constitute the human psyche. From the perspective of the philosophy of language, especially the Russian scholar Mikhail Bakhtin, the double consists of the fear of others, that is, the image others make of the subject. Whichever the perspective adopted is, the literary work, as it represents the man and his world, provides an effective means of understanding the subject’s conflicts and existential and identity crises evidenced in the discourses registered in the aesthetic object. This paper intends to analyze how duplicity-understood here as multiplied consciousness-takes place among characters in the narrative of Night, by the Brazilian author Erico Verissimo, in which the duplicated individual is the sign of a fragmented self. The aim is to examine which enunciative-discursive positions the protagonist assumes in the narrative to emphasize the duplicity of the subject from a polyphonic perspective; that is, by the biases of philosophy, psychology, and psychoanalysis and philosophy of language. As theoretical support for the examination of the double, we invite authors who navigate through philosophy, such as Clément Rosset; psychology and psychoanalysis, such as Otto Rank, Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and C. F. Keppler; and, in the field of philosophy of language, Mikhail M. Bakhtin. Although the theorists adopt different views in re-examining the double, the approach is possible given that most admit certain correlations regarding the subject of otherness.

The shape of chance: what can stones tell us about artistic creativity and literary theory?

What does literature tell us about the concept of chance? And how is chance relevant to literary theory and comparison? Relating chance to theory is counter-intuitive, because the very attempt to theorise seems to aim at reducing the coincidental and advancing systematic interpretations of literature. But writings about stones tell us otherwise. By highlighting stones’ aesthetic qualities and quasi-artistic status, these writings raise questions about the role of chance in the natural processes that form stones, and in the human perception that frame them as aesthetic objects. I read Roger Caillois’s lithic writings alongside the poetics of Chinese scholars’ rocks and poet Lu Ji’s 陸機 (c. 261-303) Rhapsody on Literature (文賦 Wenfu). Their writings raise questions about the intersections between chance, writing, and literary theory: What can stones tell us about our understanding of chance and creativity? Can creativity and criticism flourish by promoting instead of calculating or eliminating chance? If yes, how? I discuss how lapidary writings and practices posit stones as poetic and discursive objects that engage with chance reveries, aesthetic sensations, and effects of human-mineral symbiosis.

Kant’s Fantasy

Abstract Throughout his lectures and published writings on anthropology, Kant describes a form of unintentional, unstructured, obscure, and pleasurable imaginative mental activity, which he calls fantasy (Phantasie), where we ‘take pleasure in letting our mind wander about in obscurity’ (LA 25:480). In the context of his pragmatic anthropology, Kant is concerned not only to describe this form of mental activity as a fact of human psychology, but more importantly, to criticize and discourage it. But must we share Kant’s negative evaluation? Could fantasy play a positive role in some kinds of experience? In this paper I first reconstruct Kant’s conception of fantasy, and then consider what role fantasy might play in aesthetic experience. Precisely because of his anxieties about fantasy, Kant is careful to distinguish between the lawless freedom of the imagination in fantasy and the ‘free lawfulness’ of the imagination in aesthetic judgment. Departing from Kant, and with help from Susan Sontag, I argue that certain aesthetic objects, especially certain works of modernist art, positively invite fantasy, making fantasy part of proper aesthetic appreciation. I conclude by suggesting that while fantasy can indeed play a positive role in aesthetic appreciation, there is still reason to regard fantasy as ‘normatively ambiguous’.

Энергия эстетического переживания

&lt;p&gt;The article is devoted to the comparison of classical and modern understanding of the subject of aesthetics. During the theoretical self-definition of aesthetics in the system of philosophy (Baumgarten, Kant) it was understood as a bridge uniting empiricism of individual sensuality with universality of rational knowledge, as an experience of unity of sensual and supersensual activity of aesthetic consciousness of the subject. Such an interpretation corresponded to the ideal of a whole person in the unity of reason, feeling, spirit, will, and imagination. Contemporary aesthetics defines its subject matter as individual sensual experience, removing from it the basis of the cultural subject's self-consciousness of value. The central problem of the article is a characteristic of aesthetic experience as a procedural form of living through the value and meaningful depth of the experienced aesthetic feeling. Experiencing is treated as an emotional and intellectual process, producing inner work of comprehension of the feeling of staying in the self-relation of the cultural-historical subject with the world. The inner energy of aesthetic experience is born through the creative work of intuition and imagination, creating the likeness of a work of art, but not materialised in the language of art, but staying in the continuing state of internal residence of the imaginary image. The aesthetic experience expands the threshold of human sensibility and reveals the dimension of each phenomenon of reality in such a way that the aesthetic object is more than the object, and the subject more than the empirical individual. This is the essence of the aesthetic, indicating the difference between the aesthetic sense and the mere sensual response of individual consciousness to contact with an object. The subject of aesthetic experience is the subject of a world-relationship, experiencing the world differently in images of chaos or harmony, eternity or the mutability of time of being. Space and time in the axiosphere of culture become subjectivized and are experienced as sensual and semantic phenomena included in the aesthetic thesaurus of culture. In his analysis of the sublime, Kant spoke of the special creative energy of the aesthetic feeling, giving it the depth and duration of the subject's state of mind. Due to the inner tension of the interaction of feelings and meanings, aesthetic experience evokes a vivid sensual and supersensual response of man to his belonging to being. It extends the range of emotional and intellectual faculties of consciousness, which remains as the memory of aesthetic experience, multiplying the possibilities of future experiences. Aesthetic experience expresses the process of synergy between sensuality and the existential meanings of the historical subject's existential world. The final conclusion of the article is that in aesthetic experience based on a complex set of sensual and supersensual transformations of aesthetic existence of man in the world, sensual experience is only one of the components, which convinces the need for modern research to address the totality of the contents of aesthetics, especially its axiological aspects.&lt;/p&gt;