Aesthetics of disaster as decolonial aesthetics: making sense of the effects of Hurricane María through Puerto Rican contemporary art

ABSTRACT

On 20 September 2017, Hurricane María made landfall on Puerto Rico causing unprecedented disaster. From that day onwards, the Puerto Rican multi-layered colonial, social and political context was further complicated by the traumatic acceleration of a human disaster via this natural disaster. This crystalized the urgency of using art as vehicle for (social) catharsis, a practice that continues to be used by individual artists, collectives, community organizations, art projects, and other art institutions on the island and abroad, through mural art, community paintings, art exhibitions, literature, music, and many other aesthetic expressions. This article examines, from a decolonial and critical cultural studies perspective, post-Hurricane María artistic expressions in contemporary art as decolonial aesthetics through the cathartic use of the frame of an aesthetics of disaster. It is argued that, an aesthetics of disaster aims to re-assert an artistic form that is able to accelerate the discursive nullification of a deeply rooted colonial, social and cultural problem by way of art as catharsis inspired by the way that Hurricane María unveiled these problems. The piece briefly contextualizes Puerto Rico, and it examines the idea of Puerto Rican contemporary art as catharsis. Then, it describes how Puerto Rican contemporary art exhibitions and associated aesthetic production are processing urgent post-hurricane issues through three illustrative pieces in exhibitions in PR and abroad in the United States (US). Lastly, decolonial aesthetics is reexamined and re-understood, informed by Édouard Glissant's view expressed in Poetics of Relation which aids to the conclusion that Puerto Rican contemporary art using the frame of an aesthetics of disaster functions as a powerful form of decolonial aesthetics.     

Filling the ‘empty space’: Site-specific dance in a techno club

While organisational space has received broad scholarly attention, movement in organisational spaces remains under-researched. This paper introduces the notion of site-specific dance from dance theory to consider the dynamic relationship between space and people, emphasising that movements are a response to a space, its materiality and context. Berghain, in Berlin and one of the world’s most famous techno clubs, is discussed as a case. An interdisciplinary analysis shows how a site-specific performance is created through the interplay of the architecture, the sound and the music organised by the DJ, and the dancing crowd. Methodologically, the dance and performance studies approach develops suggestions for how to analyse movement interaction in organisational space. Reference to dance theory broadens our understanding of how organisational spaces and human interaction enable, produce and negotiate experiences that are transitory, embodied and difficult to pin down.     

竖屏短视频中的身体呈现与身体消费

随着应用平台的不断完善和用户习惯的逐渐养成，竖屏短视频俨然成为身体视觉形象荷载和身体审美的绝佳场域，用户也在表演与欣赏的过程中实现自身表达，获得价值认同。不仅如此，竖屏短视频还利用单手竖持、影像竖制及大数据反馈实现身体在场和人机交互的升级，进一步收割用户注意力并成为新一轮互联网商业模式演进新入口。值得注意的是，当前在改变用户消费观念和方式的同时，竖屏短视频也被消费主义裹挟，一度陷入媒介伦理失范、传播生态失衡的发展阵痛之中。     

新乡土世界的美学建构——新世纪河南女作家乡土小说分析

新世纪以来,一批河南籍女性作家开始崭露头角,并取得了引人注目的成绩。面对急剧转型的时代,传统乡土叙事经验已经无法涵盖已经发生巨变的乡土社会,河南籍女作家以一种更加开放的姿态面对新的乡土世界,她们的创作把日常生活经验转化成一种叙事伦理,从而以独特的乡土感知,细致的文字表述拓宽了传统乡土小说的表现领域,更新补充了乡土小说的叙事内涵,为河南乡土文学注入了新质。     

幼儿自然色彩教育：价值、目标与对策

大自然是色彩的宝库，是幼儿自然色彩教育的最好课堂。幼儿自然色彩教育的根本目的不是掌握色彩知识或技巧， 而是通过大自然丰富多彩的色彩美激发幼儿对自然美的敏感性、好奇心，培养幼儿的审美素质，萌发幼儿热爱自然的情感，培 养幼儿健全的生命意识。幼儿自然色彩教育应让幼儿面对活的、灵动的自然色彩，在自然情境中唤醒幼儿的色彩敏锐性，激 活幼儿对美的感受力，让幼儿在一花一草的色彩变化中体悟一种生命滋养另一种生命的神奇，感悟生命的真谛，从而学会感 恩自然。     

Young people and the gendered and aesthetic dimensions of ‘enterprise’: stories from a ‘Rust Belt’ city

ABSTRACT

In the ‘Rust Belt’ city of Geelong in Victoria, Australia, discourses of young people’s enterprise and innovation provide a counter-narrative to the prevailing material and symbolic consequences of industrial decline, job losses, and the growing insecurity of employment and income. GT Magazine is a weekly, large circulation magazine in Geelong with a significant focus on the activities and aspirations of enterprising young people. In this paper, we examine, by utilising techniques of content analysis and discourse analysis, the particular ways in which young people’s innovation and enterprise are framed and enacted in GT Magazine. Our analysis reveals that ‘youth’ and ‘enterprise’ are, in GT Magazine, given an embodied form that is powerfully marked by aestheticised, normalised enactments of gender, class and race. In doing this work, we make productive contributions to three key themes in contemporary youth studies: new work orders and the youthful self as enterprise; the gendered and aesthetic dimensions of affective labour in these new work orders; and the emerging spatial turn to examine young people's embodied, place-based experiences of employment and enterprise. We seek to make problematic the sense that solutions to multiple disruptions and crises in capitalism and the environment are to be found in young people’s enterprise. Particularly when that enterprise is given form in ways that are aestheticised, gendered, classed, individualised and responsibilised.     

西利亚·撒克斯特作品中灾难书写的美学意蕴

西利亚·撒克斯特是19世纪美国女作家,其作品以其所居住的海岛为背景,记录了她在岛上的生活以及周围的自然景色。她在作品中表达了对自然之美的无尽热爱,这份热爱不仅局限于传统的田园牧歌式的自然景致,也延伸到了神秘而令人胆怯的荒野之中。本文结合当代环境美学家关于“非美自然”的论述,并参考康德对于纯粹审美判断的阐释,从“距离”与“道德”两个角度对西利亚作品中关于灾难性自然景观的言说进行审美意义上诠释。西利亚坚持以自然的名义欣赏自然,希望借助康德式的纯粹审美还原审美自然灾难的合理性。此外,她选择成为灾难的“旁观者”而非“参与者”,克服了“恐惧”对于审美自然灾难所产生的阻碍,证明了欣赏自然灾难的可行性。分析西利亚作品中所体现的自然审美思想,不仅是对自然文学研究领域的进一步延伸,也是对当代环境美学理论的一次反哺与验证。西利亚对自然灾难的审美言说是一次勇敢的尝试,不仅为人类积极地理解自然灾难提供了一种可能性,也扩宽了“非美自然”的审美疆域。     

从翻译美学角度论公共标识语翻译策略

随着我国旅游产业的快速发展,公共标识语翻译已成为一个重要的研究领域,其翻译质量将直接影响到中国在国际上的形象。以翻译美学理论为基础,通过分析公共标识语的英译现状及其美学特征,试图提出公共标识语的主要翻译策略。     

布依族文学中的生态观探析

生态美是一种主客体平等、和谐共生的美。布依族作为我国历史悠久的少数民族之一，保留着许多具有生态意识的民俗风情。文章主要从流传于民间传说中的山水情结、布依族原始先民对动植物的崇拜及布依语三个方面，探究布依族民间文学中的生态意识，以期为应对当代生态危机提供有益的参考。     

Boon or bust? Heidegger,disability aesthetics and the thalidomide memorial

Disability Studies has begun to interrogate the aesthetics of disability, both in terms of artwork and sensuous apprehension more generally. The present paper is a contribution to this burgeoning literature. Here I seek to demonstrate what the aesthetics of Martin Heidegger offer to that project. I do so in three stages. I begin by reviewing some relevant disability studies literature, highlighting some general themes in Disability Studies’ recent engagement with ‘the aesthetic’, widely defined. Next, I turn to the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger, to add some further philosophical depth to this project. In third and final section, I apply Heidegger’s aesthetics to the recently unveiled thalidomide memorial, to demonstrate the empirical worth of his analysis of artwork. I conclude with suggestions for future Disability Studies.