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HORIZON 6 (2) 2017 : III. Discussions: U. Vëgners, M. Grafelde : 358-365 ФЕНОМЕНОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ • STUDIES IN PHENOMENOLOGY • STUDIEN ZUR PHÄNOMENOLOGIE • ÉTUDES PHÉNOMÉNOLOGIQUES
III. ДИСКУССИИ
REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "PHENOMENOLOGY AND AESTHETICS. THE 3RD CONFERENCE ON TRADITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES OF THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL MOVEMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE" (June 29 — July 1, 2017, Riga, Latvia)
ULDIS VËGNERS
PhD in Philosophy, Researcher.
University of Latvia, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. LV-1015 Riga, Latvia.
E-mail: uldis.vegners@gmail.com
MÀRA GRlNFELDE
PhD in Philosophy, Researcher.
University of Latvia, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. LV-1015 Riga, Latvia.
E-mail: mara.grinfelde@gmail.com
The report presents an overview of the international conference Phenomenology and Aesthetics. The 3rd Conference on Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe, which took place from June 29 to July 1, 2017, at the University of Latvia in Riga, Latvia. The report briefly outlines the aim, history, and future plans of the conference series dedicated to the traditions and perspectives of the phenomenological movement in Central and Eastern Europe, provides information about the aim and structure of the conference, and gives short summaries of the keynote lectures.
Key words: Phenomenological movement, phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe, aesthetics, philosophy of art, imagination, embodiment.
© ULDIS VËGNERS, MÄRA GRlNFELDE, 2017
ОТЧЕТ О МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЙ КОНФЕРЕНЦИИ «ФЕНОМЕНОЛОГИЯ И ЭСТЕТИКА. III КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ, ПОСВЯЩЕННАЯ ТРАДИЦИЯМ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВАМ ФЕНОМЕНОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО ДВИЖЕНИЯ В ЦЕНТРАЛЬНОЙ И ВОСТОЧНОЙ ЕВРОПЕ» (29 июня — 1 июля 2017 года, Рига, Латвия)
УЛЬДИС ВЕНГЕРС
Доктор философии, научный сотрудник.
Университет Латвии, Институт философии и социологии.
LV-1015 Рига, Латвия.
E-mail: uldis.vegners@gmail.com
МАРА ГРИНФЕЛЬДЕ
Доктор философии, научный сотрудник.
Университет Латвии, Институт философии и социологии.
LV-1015 Рига, Латвия.
E-mail: mara.grinfelde@gmail.com
Отчет содержит обзор международной конференции «Феноменология и эстетика. III конференция, посвященная традициям и перспективам феноменологического движения в центральной и восточной Европе», которая прошла с 29 июня по 1 июля 2017 года в Университете Латвии в Риге, Латвия. В отчете кратко охарактеризованы цель, история и планы на будущее серии конференций, посвященных традициям и перспективам феноменологического движения в Центральной и Восточной Европе, содержится информация о цели и структуре конференции, а также дан краткий обзор пленарных докладов.
Ключевые слова: Феноменологическое движение, феноменология в Центральной и Восточной Европе, эстетика, философия искусства, воображение, телесность.
From June 29 to July 1, 2017 in Riga (Latvia) the international conference Phenomenology and Aesthetics. The 3rd Conference on Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe took place. The conference was organized by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia and University of Latvia Faculty of History and Philosophy with the financial support of the State Culture Capital Foundation (Latvia). The chairs of the organizing committee were Uldis Vegners and Mara Grinfelde (University of Latvia).
The conference in Riga was the third conference in a series of conferences dedicated to the Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe. The inaugural conference Horizons Beyond Borders. Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in
Central and Eastern Europe was held in Budapest (Hungary) in 20151, and the second conference Phenomenology and Practice. The 2nd Conference on Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe took place in Gdansk (Poland) in 2016 .
The overall objectives of the conference series are to explore and communicate knowledge and understanding about the phenomenological movement and its development in Central and Eastern Europe, to present original contributions and discuss the current trends and future perspectives of phenomenology in this part of the world, as well as to promote and expand international networking and cooperation . The 3rd conference Phenomenology and Aesthetics was dedicated to the issues of aesthetics, exploring historical contributions found in the phenomenological movement in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as presenting and evaluating contemporary and original contributions. It aspired to bring together various topics and authors, important for the phenomenological aesthetics, and to further explore the legacy and the future of the phenomenological movement in the Central and Eastern Europe. In the context of the conference aesthetics was defined broadly incorporating not only the issues of beauty and the art, but also the issues of sensations, affectivity, embodiment, and imagination. The amount and the quality of submissions from which, unfortunately, only a limited number could be included in the conference schedule serve as a proof that phenomenology is not a historical tradition that has exhausted itself but rather an active movement with a fruitful future. Moreover the wide range of topics submitted concerning the yet unexplored aspects of the phenomenological movement in the Central and Eastern Europe indicate the richness of this tradition and the unique research potential offered by it. During the three days of the conference 5 keynote lectures and 37 presentations in 15 parallel sessions from the scholars representing 19 countries were given.
The conference was opened with a keynote lecture The Poet as Philosopher by Rudolf Bernet (KU Leuven, Belgium). In his lecture Bernet discussed ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre in speaking about the constitutive, creative role literary work and, especially, poetical language play in transformation of language and subjectivity. Bernet focused on Merleau-Ponty's
1 For more information see the conference report by W. Plotka (Plotka, 2016b).
2 For more information see the conference report by J. Buzniak (Buzniak, 2017).
3 There is a special issue of Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology that is dedicated to the traditions and perspectives of the phenomenological movement in Central and Eastern Europe, in which articles from the 1st conference are gathered (Artemenko, 2016). The issue also includes an introduction by W. Plotka outlining the main idea of the initiative (Plotka, 2016a).
distinction between literary, poetical language, on the one hand, and ordinary language, on the other hand. While ordinary language is characterized by universality, orientation, and efficiency, literary language is about details and singular events, it disorients and puzzles, and it speaks to our imagination and elicits emotions. Literary language, as was argued by Bernet, not only has the creative power to rejuvenate language, but also challenges and lets us rethink philosophical ideas of identity and truth. Our identity has an imaginative character. With the help of projective imagination literature forms and transforms our identity.
The second keynote lecture on the first day was given by Nicolas de Warren (Husserl Archives, KU Leuven, Belgium). The lecture, entitled The Gaze Disarmed: Warhol's Aesthetics, examined the aesthetic form and significance of Andy Warhol's work comparing it with phenomenological interpretations of Paul Cezanne's work. De Warren claimed that with his attempts to become a machine by mechanically producing his works Warhol tried to rethink the production of aesthetics and to produce a rupture in the self-absorption and narcissism that prevailed in the culture of commodities and celebrities. The aim of mechanical production of his work was to free the object from the subject and thus to free it from the desire as subject's relation to it. Warhol's attempts to become an object according to de Warren was connected to his anxiety about death.
On the second day the first keynote lecture was presented by Saulius Geniusas (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China). His lecture Between Pathos and Logos: Miki Kiyoshi and the Logic of Imagination concentrated on Japanese philosopher Miki Kiyoshi's conception of imagination as expressed in his work Logic of Imagination against the background of Martin Heidegger and Ernst Cassirer's works. It was stated that Miki finds imagination to be rooted not in contemplation, but rather in action. As such imagination has an embodied, expansive, social and historical character. According to Miki, there is a logic to imagination which serves as a mediating or unifying force between pathos and logos, intellect and embodied existence. All other forms of logic, including the formal logic, are derived from the logic of imagination.
The second keynote lecture of the day Speech in the Belly: The Ear of Critical Thought by Cecilia Sjoholm (Sodertorn University, Sweden) focused on the inner voice as the listening dimension of thinking that opens the subject to the world and puts oneself in the place of the other. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's idea that all human activities, including thinking, have different modes of moods or tonalities, it was claimed in the lecture that the inner voice provided by
imagination and literature moves and pushes us in directions we are not used to go. The tonalities of inner voice can lead to a differentiation in oneself, encroachment of plurality.
The last keynote lecture Phenomenology of Suffering and Pain: Paradoxes and Dialectics of Life and Death was given on the last day of the conference by Maija Kule (University of Latvia, Latvia). In her lecture she drew attention to suffering as a paradoxical phenomenon. Suffering, as was argued, should not be considered as a negative and meaningless experience, which should be avoided, but instead should be looked at as something positive, because it makes us think and reflect about our life and because it is a source of a meaningful life and humanity.
Apart from the keynote lectures the work of the conference was divided in 15 parallel sessions with 37 presentations in total. On the first day the sessions Imagination & Phantasy I and Imagination & Phantasy II with talks "Ingarden and Blaustein on Phantasy and Imaginary Consciousness" by Witold Plotka, "A Glimpse of the Unperceivable. On Phantasy As an Access to the Phenomenological Field" by Istvan Fazakas, "Husserl's Theory of Physical Imagination" by Regina-Nino Mion, "Embodied Imagination and Aesthetic Experience" by Dalius Jonkus, and "Patocka's Aesthetic Experience" by Jan Josl were dedicated to conceptual problems of imagination and phantasy in relation to perception, embodiment and image-consciousness. The session Phenomenology of Architecture with talks "Architecture as Intervention in Nature: The Possibility of Nature Between Jan Patocka and Timothy Morton" by Michael Lucas, "Temporality of the Work of Art: A Consideration of Gadamer's Concept of Gleichzeitigkeit" by Patrick Martin, and "Phenomenology of Our Everyday Aesthetic Experience of Architecture" by Abel Franco and the session Experience of Music in which presentations "Moritz Geiger and Edward Bullough on the Objective Experience of Art" by Martina Stratilkova, "Experience of Music and Phenomenology of Attention" by Ignas Satkauskas, and "Deleuze's Sonic Territories and Husserl's Meaningful Worlds: Phenomenological Approach to Music" by Ineta Kivle were given dealt with phenomenological approaches to music and architecture by both providing historical analyses of these topics and offering new applications. On the second day the session Experience of Aesthetic Values with presentations "Russian Elements in the Aesthetics of Nicolai Hartmann and Vasily Sesemann" by Frederic Tremblay, "The Feeling of Beauty: The Role of the Body in Aesthetic Experience" by Thomas Byrne, and "Early Heideggerian Approach to the Beauty" by Andrej Demuth and Slavka Demuthova
was dedicated to the different approaches in the history of phenomenology to the concept of aesthetic values, especially focusing on the analysis of the beauty. Talks "On Ingarden's Ontology of Other Than Literary Artworks" by Gabriel Marko, "Art and Modernity in the Philosophy of Jan Patocka" by Eddo Evink, and "Art as the Silence of the World. An Attempt at a Phenomenological Interpretation" by Leo Luks in the session Ontology of Artwork investigated the ontological dimension of the work of art. The session Literary Work & Poetical Language in which Maria Kozlova gave her speech "Martin Heidegger and Osip Mandelstam on the Essence of Poetical Word" was dedicated to the phenomenological approach to literature and poetry, while the session Phenomenology of Performing Arts with talks "Understanding the Acts of Another: Edith Stein and Konstantin Stanislavski" by Erik Rynell, "Phenomenology and Dance. The Experience of Embodied Reflection" by Camille Buttingsrud, and "Phenomenology and Aesthetic Experience in the Context of the Musical Avant-Garde" by Magdalena Krasinska considered such forms of art as theatre, dance and music viewed from the phenomenological perspective. Presentations "The Awakening of Rationality. Reflections on Husserl's Genetic Phenomenology" by Andrea Cimino, "The Sublime Bodily Experience of Architectural Space" by Irene Breuer, „Die ,Phanomene von dem funesto veterno des Weltalters': Johann Georg Hamanns Kritik von Kants ,Kritik der reinen Vernunft' im Kontext der Lebensphilosophie und der Phanomenologie-Debatten des 20. Jahrhunderts" by Raivis Bicevskis, "The Transcendental Status of the Body in Genetic Phenomenology" by Andrea Pace Giannotta, and "Phenomenological Exploration of Passivity and Nancy's 'Look of the Portrait'" by Mara Rubene in the sessions Rationality & Sensation and Passivity, Affectivity & Embodiment explored the issues in genetic phenomenology and investigated the relationship between the active, rational and predicative dimension and the passive, affective and pre-predicative dimension of experience. On the last day of the conference the session Embodied Aesthetics in which presentations "Women's Embodied Experience and the Problem of Artistic and Aesthetic Values: How Can Roman Ingarden's Phenomenological Theory of Art Support Feminist Aesthetics?" by Natalia Anna Michna, "On the Phenomenology of Disgust. Starting from a Text by Alexandru Dragomir" by Remus Breazu, and "Clandestine Communication: Michel Henry's Study of the Inner World of Culture" by Max Schaefer were given, aimed to describe the work of art and aesthetic experiences in terms of embodiment. Leszek Sosnowski's presentation "Roman Ingarden: Aesthetics As a System of Internal Relations" in the session
Theory of Aesthetics and Aesthetics of Theory dealt with systematic issues in Ingarden's theory of aesthetics, while talks "Phenomenological Interpretations of Kant's Transcendental Aesthetics: A Reassessment" by Antonio Cimino and "'Leaving Philosophy': Heidegger's Critique on Kant" by Elvira Simfa in the session Transcendental Aesthetics: From Kant to Phenomenology presented phenomenological interpretations of transcendental aesthetics and questioned the influence of Kant's philosophy in the phenomenological movement. The session Aesthetics, Structuralism & Hermeneutics with presentations "Aesthetics Rising from Crisis" by Jakub Votroubek and "The Hermeneutic Interpretation of Art in the Approach of Hans-Georg Gadamer Viewed in the Light of Roman Ingarden's Concept of Aesthetic Concretisation" by Dominika Czakon explored hermeneutical and linguistic dimensions of aesthetics and the work of art, and talks "Phenomenological Aspects of T.S. Eliot's Aesthetical Theory" by Kirill Fomin, "Knud L0gstrup on the Aesthetic Suspension" by Velga Vevere, and "'Sensitive Hearing' as a Ground for Suffering in Human Existence (The Rethinking of Heidegger's Daseinsanalytic in Phenomenological Psychotherapy of Alice Holzhey-Kunz)" by Tatiana Shchyttsova in the session Phenomenological Aesthetics and Beyond considered phenomenological approach to aesthetics and the work of art in relation to other theoretical approaches.
The first three conferences have already gathered together more than 120 scholars from all over the globe interested in and participating in the research concerning the traditions and perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe. Taking into account the growing number of researches that have shown interest in the initiative of the conference series a "Research Network on Central and Eastern European Phenomenology" was established, the aim of which is to keep the researchers informed about international projects and events related to phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe. At the end of the conference the 4th conference in the series Phenomenology of Emotions was announced to be held in Kaunas (Lithuania) in 2018 with Dalius Jonkus as the chair of the organizing committee.
REFERENCES
Artemenko, N. (Ed.). (2016). Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe. Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 5 (1).
Buzniak, J. (2017). International Conference "Phenomenology and Practice: The 2nd Conference on Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in
Central and Eastern Europe" (September 8-10, 2016, Gdansk, Poland). Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 6 (1), 235-240. Plotka, W. (2016a). Introduction: Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe. Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 5 (1), 10-15.
Plotka, W. (2016b). Report on the International Conference "Horizons beyond Borders. Traditions and Perspectives of the Phenomenological Movement in Central and Eastern Europe" (June 17-19, 2015, Budapest, Hungary). Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 5 (1), 299-304.
