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Design is not merely about aesthetics, and aesthetics is not limited to appearance alone. An in-depth study of aesthetics leads us back to the roots of modern philosophy, beginning with Kant’s critique and evolving through subsequent philosophers. This evolution challenges the outdated notion of aesthetics that isolates objects from their context, thereby disrupting and obstructing the appreciative experience.
It's difficult to defend the idea of pure disinterest in aesthetic experience when market interests often shape our perception and consumption of beauty. However, beauty and refinement are not the sole components of aesthetics. Aesthetics involves evaluating a range of qualities - both positive and negative - within an object. This evaluation is not confined to artistic works but extends to anything that affects our senses or emotions.
The myth of purity and exclusivity no longer holds in contemporary aesthetics. In response to the limitations of Cartesian thought, Husserl’s phenomenology and Goethe’s empirical approach advocate for experiencing phenomena with concentrated, sincere, and unconditional attention. This approach emphasizes engaging with phenomena without preconceived notions and considering their meaning within context and from the investigator’s perspective. There is a reciprocal relationship between people, objects, and their conditions, which forms the basis of the aesthetic experiment, such as the self-portrait presented here.
Everything that exists is not isolated. Phenomenologically everything – as the content of perception - exist in coherent union in a relationship of mutual dependence and conditioning. An exploration rooted in a methodology that seeks to engage with subject in itself, a priori to considerations of cultural categories and preconceptions opens interpretations to increased sensitivity of the context of the relationship between perceiver and perceived and an increased liberty of encounter.
Aesthetic experience rooted in such a phenomenological approach has potential for a revolution in the relationship process of interaction between human beings and with their environment. The reproduction of this approach in different areas of knowledge, presents a new way of relating to the world, changing preconceived patterns of behavior rooted in a perspective limited to the pursuit of - conscious or unconscious - personal interests.
My research began with a reflection on images produced for my clients in my studio over a 10 year period, together with an exploration of the relationship with images as drawings, prints and sculptures that began in 2017. The analysis of the inseparability of being-in-itself and the phenomena reflected from the environment, resulted in a reorientation of the process of creation of self-portrait drawings replacing the mirror I originally used with sitting models - i.e other people. The creation of the drawings, which begins and ends in a single meeting, is undertaken during a “meditative” process in which there is a silent exchange between the artist and the sitter (the mirror-self), whose attention is focused on the representation of sensory organs.
This ongoing project involves an exploration of the relationship between the self as an individual and the process I undergo when producing an image of one self – a self-portrait, using a phenomenological approach. Self-portraiture is rooted in the construction and reconstruction of an image through a shifting process ingrained in the patterns of our sensory perception and an awareness underlying socio-cultural aesthetic norms. An awareness of this dynamic can result in increased understanding and empathy in human relationships.
"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. ... We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive." (Albert Einstein apud ROBBINS, 2006, p. 1)
For more information on this research, please contact me.
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