Rancière: Aesthetics

The aim of this paper is to present the „late” philosophy of Jacques Rancière and the theory of the image which it involves. Rancière’s philosophy can be divided into three main stages. The first was characterized by the interest in the „classical” Marxist philosophy . The second comprised the philosophy of history and political philosophy . The third involves the issues of art and politics and relations between them. In this article I primarily concentrate on the analysis of the Jacques (...) Rancière’s program „esthétique comme politique”. I am particularly interested in the problem of „initial introduction” to the Rancière’s theory of the image. In my article I analyze the main points of the philosophy of Le partage du sensible, in particular: „ontologie de la visibilité” and the theory of regimes of arts . Then I summarize the conclusions from Rancière’s Le destin des images and present the main assumptions of his philosophy of the image. In the last part of my paper I present a „photo illustration” to the considerations of Jacques Rancière — Konrad Pustoła’s album, Views of Power. (shrink)

In this interview, Jacques Rancière describes the character of the aesthetic regime and the relationship between politics and aesthetics in his work, along with the role of artistic practices, technological innovations, and the institution of the museum in the redistribution of the sensible and the similarities and differences between his theories and Walter Benjamin’s work on modernity. Rancière argues that the aesthetic regime entails both a rupture with what came before it and the possibility of recycling and reinterpreting works of (...) the past, what Benjamin described as the surrealist practice of evoking the outmoded. While emphasizing the political and military preconditions to the aesthetic regime over technological or economic considerations, Rancière also warns against drawing strict parallels between aesthetic regimes and political presuppositions of equality or inequality. Furthermore, Rancière refuses to privilege Marcel Duchamp’s readymades in the aesthetic regime’s redistribution of the sensible, pointing, instead, to Emile Zola’s Le ventre de Paris and the creation of the modern institution of the museum as key moments that broke with preexisting distributions of the sensible. Rancière also distinguishes his discussion of novelistic realism and narration from Benjamin’s characterization of modernity as the decline in the ability to narrate experience, critiquing Benjamin’s nostalgia for the past while recognizing as fruitful his linking of new possibilities in aesthetic experience to the creation of new technologies. (shrink)

The first collection of critical essays on the film work of the philosopher Jacques Ranciere. Jacques Ranciere rose to prominence as a radical egalitarian philosopher, political theorist and historian. Recently he has intervened into the discourses of film theory and film studies, publishing controversial and challenging works on these topics. This book offers an exciting range of responses to and assessments of his contributions to film studies and includes an afterword response to the essays by Ranciere himself.

Mass culture nourishes itself through cinematographic comedy, considered as alternative Gestalt that binds us to our little world. In doing so, mass culture return us an ideal mirror image of our life allowing us to consider ideal our daily life. Therefore distance between cinema and life tends to reduce and aesthetic education programme is completed. This essay examines this process in reference to some contemporary thinkers – from Schmitt to Benjamin up to Rancière.

Written in relation to After the Last Sky, WJT Mitchell notes how ‘extraordinarily limited’ the image of the Palestinian is. Obscured from the dominant field of vision, Mitchell suggests that ‘visual facts’ which everyone knows in theory, but is rarely seen in practice – the Palestinian woman, the domestic space and children are subsequently constituted as ‘icons’ of an unseen reality that underpin Edward Said and Jean Mohr’s project. As a photo-essay, After the Last Sky has been referred to as (...) a ‘nation-making’ text that sought to produce a new type of visibility concerning the Palestinian. With this in mind, my paper will focus on an online photo-essay facilitated by the Israeli activist photography collective, Activestills in 2012. Based in the Bedouin village of Susiya, located in the Southern Hebron Hills of the Occupied Territories, the photography collective worked in collaboration with the female villagers to produce a series of images based on their own lives. Thus, firstly, I will explore how the photo-essay challenges the universal legibility of an individual photo, interrupting the visual order by which the Palestinian is most commonly framed. Secondly, by focusing specifically on the collaboration between Israeli citizen and unrecognized Palestinian, I will identify how visual activism promotes a widening of the space in which politics can be conceived and performed. By creating new visibilities, in a political process that Jacques Rancière defines as a ‘sense-making practice’, visual activism tackles the issues of democracy creatively, not as a goal but as a practice that is democratic in its very development. (shrink)

This article offers a pragmatic and relational analysis of the controversial heuristic of cultural resistance and presents some of the problems that affect the production and distribution of the poetic discourses of resistance and emancipation. To that end, it focuses on the incorporation of the historicity and the historic contingency of conflict as key elements of the subjectification constituted by the poem of resistance as “poem for the political”. It also explores the applicability of certain notions common to the contemporary (...) critical tradition, as developed by scholars such as Badiou, Mouffe, Rancière, Bal and Žižek. (shrink)

En el presente escrito se intentará explicar de manera estructurada la compleja propuesta del filósofo francés Jacques Rancière acerca del vínculo entre el arte y la política, para luego llevar a cabo una consideración crítica de dicha postura.

Can an understanding be formed of how sensory experience might be presented or manipulated in visual art in order to promote a relational concept of the senses, in opposition to the customary, capitalist notion of sensation as a private possession, as a sensory impression that is mine? I ask the question in the light of recent visual art theory and practice which pursue relational, ecological ambitions. As Arnold Berleant, Nicolas Bourriaud, and Grant Kester see it, ecological ambition and artistic form (...) should correspond, but they fail to recognize sensation as a site where the ecological cause can be fought. Jacques Rancière argues for the political force of the senses, but his distribution of the sensible does not address the particularity of sensory experience. I identify the difference between these approaches within recent relational or ecological aesthetics and my position on sensibility, and indicate some of the problems involved in referring to the senses. I set out the concepts that are central to the cultivation of relational sensibility: style, autofiguration, and the mobility of sensory meaning, extrapolated from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s discussion of Paul Cézanne. They amount to positioning the senses ontologically as movements along lines of conceptual-sensory connection and implication, based on the transfer of meanings created artistically through style and autofiguration. (shrink)

Jacques Rancière has defined the 'distribution of the sensible' as the effect of a type of aesthetico-political decision making that creates a partitioning of the realm of the perceivable in relation to both art and society. The artworld itself constructs its own particular types of curatorial partitioning: between art and non-art, between 'dominant, residual and emergent', and between mainstream and periphery. This essay examines certain 'boundary effects' that come into being as a result of the act of the partitioning itself, (...) and makes a close examination of what are arguably two new categories in contemporary art, defined as either 'crossover' or 'interventionist.' Both these categories have a certain relationship to a culturally constructed boundary or partition. In the former case, we see a type of artwork emerge that is the result of the overdetermination of the partition itself. In the latter case, artworks appear that are antinomically situated at both sides of a partition simultaneously. (shrink)

The concept of intellectual equality dominates Jacques Rancière’s prolific bibliography and remains fundamental to his aesthetic philosophy. Whereas equality’s relationship to Rancièrean pedagogy, politics, and literature has been discussed at length in recent years, however, I argue that translation represents a sustained and specific focus in Rancière’s political-aesthetic framework, one that scholarship has so far overlooked. This article considers the important but rarely-cited essay “Politics, Identification, and Subjectivization” alongside several of Rancière’s more canonical works in order to trace the role (...) of translation as a metonymy, a scholarly style, and a political activity in his philosophical thought. The intersection of translation with ways of “doing, being, and saying” clarifies Rancière’s elegant elision of poetics and politics and ultimately sheds new light on his specific contribution to literary studies. (shrink)

This book is a critical introduction to contemporary French philosopher Jacques Rancière. It is the first introduction in any language to cover all of his major work and offers an accessible presentation and searching evaluation of his significant contributions to the fields of politics, pedagogy, history, literature, film theory and aesthetics. This book traces the emergence of Rancière’s thought over the last forty-five years and situates it in the diverse intellectual contexts in which it intervenes. Beginning with his egalitarian critique (...) of his former teacher Louis Althusser, the book tracks the subsequent elaboration of Rancière’s highly original conception of equality. This approach reveals that a grasp of his early archival and historiographical work is vital for a full understanding both of his later politics and his ongoing investigation of art and aesthetics. Along the way, this book explains and analyses key terms in Rancière’s very distinctive philosophical lexicon, including the ‘police’ order, ‘disagreement’, ‘political subjectivation’, ‘literarity’, the ‘part which has no part’, the ‘regimes of art’ and ‘the distribution of the sensory’. This book argues that Rancière’s work sets a new standard in contestatory critique and concludes by reflecting on the philosophical and policy implications of his singular project. (shrink)

The French philosopher Jacques Rancière is well known across the world for his groundbreaking contributions to aesthetic and political theory and for his radical rethinking of the question of equality. This much-needed new collection situates Rancière's thought in a range of practical and theoretical contexts. These specially commissioned essays cover the complete history of Rancière's work and reflect its interdisciplinary reach. They span his early historical research of the 1960s and '70s, his celebrated critique of pedagogy and his later political (...) theory of dissensus and disagreement, as well as his ongoing analysis of literature and 'the aesthetic regime of art'. Rancière's resistance to psychoanalytic thinking is also explored, as are his most recent publications on film and film theory. Contributors include Tom Conley, Carolyn Steedman, Geneviève Fraisse, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jeremy Lane, and many more. The book also includes a brand new interview with Rancière, reflecting on his intellectual project and developing new lines of thought from his latest major work, _Aisthesis_. _Rancière Now_ will be essential reading for students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences; it will stimulate and inspire discussion of Rancière’s work for years to come. (shrink)

This book is a critical introduction to contemporary French philosopher Jacques Rancière. It is the first introduction in any language to cover all of his major work and offers an accessible presentation and searching evaluation of his significant contributions to the fields of politics, pedagogy, history, literature, film theory and aesthetics. This book traces the emergence of Rancière’s thought over the last forty-five years and situates it in the diverse intellectual contexts in which it intervenes. Beginning with his egalitarian critique (...) of his former teacher Louis Althusser, the book tracks the subsequent elaboration of Rancière’s highly original conception of equality. This approach reveals that a grasp of his early archival and historiographical work is vital for a full understanding both of his later politics and his ongoing investigation of art and aesthetics. Along the way, this book explains and analyses key terms in Rancière’s very distinctive philosophical lexicon, including the ‘police’ order, ‘disagreement’, ‘political subjectivation’, ‘literarity’, the ‘part which has no part’, the ‘regimes of art’ and ‘the distribution of the sensory’. This book argues that Rancière’s work sets a new standard in contestatory critique and concludes by reflecting on the philosophical and policy implications of his singular project. (shrink)

In this interview philosopher Jacques Rancière looks again at his earlier work on cinema. The interview opens with some remarks on the meaning of cinephilia before moving on to a detailed discussion of the process of aesthetic and political transformation he calls ‘de-figuration’, a process which is central to his work on art and aesthetics. Later in the interview Rancière re-engages with films by directors Jean-Luc Godard and Chris Marker in the light of his more recent work on emancipated spectatorship.

In an interview titled “The Janus-Face of Politicized Art,” Gabriel Rockhill notes that Jacques Rancière’s methodology “[calls] into question the symptomatology that attempts to unveil the truth hidden behind the obscure surface of appearances.”1 But how does Rancière himself avoid “this logic of the hidden and the apparent”? How does Rancière himself describe his own methodology? Rancière’s answer to Rockhill provides some more information: I always try to think in terms of horizontal distributions, combinations between systems of possibilities, not in (...) terms of surface and substratum. Where one searches for the hidden beneath the apparent, a position of mastery is established. I have tried to conceive .. (shrink)

Marcuse emphasizes a dialectical relationship between aesthetics and politics. Art promotes liberation through the education of sensibility and critique of reality—the Great Refusal—while still embodying elements of the ideological system of domination. Thus, although art itself cannot change the world, it can move people to social change. In this respect, the Great Refusal serves an important political role in challenging the Establishment. This paper argues for the continued theoretical relevance of the Great Refusal and for its practical possibilities in transforming (...) society. (shrink)

Este artículo se plantea definir en qué medida la estética de Jacques Rancière constituye un programa a seguir, un nuevo modo de reflexión estética dedicado tanto a la revisión de la historia del arte moderno como a la autocomprensión de la estética. Para ello, se centra en el análisis de la reescritura de la modernidad artística emprendida por el filósofo francés señalando cuáles son sus ejes conceptuales y sus herramientas. Por otra parte, se propone la tesis de que la estética, (...) como formuladora en términos comprensibles del “régimen de identificación del arte”, está determinada a convertir sus conceptos en valores. (shrink)

Although relatively unknown a decade ago, the work of Jacques Ranciere is fast becoming a central reference in the humanities and social sciences. His thinking brings a fresh, innovative approach to many fields, notably the study of work, education, politics, literature, film, art, as well as philosophy. This is the first, full-length introduction to Ranciere's work and covers the full range of his contribution to contemporary thought, presenting in clear, succinct chapters the key concepts Ranciere has developed in his writings (...) over the last forty years. Students new to Ranciere will find this work accessible and comprehensive, an ideal introduction to this major thinker. For readers already familiar with Ranciere, the in-depth analysis of each key concept, written by leading scholars, should provide an ideal reference. (shrink)

The book forms the first critical study of Jacques Rancière’s impact and contribution to contemporary theoreticaland interdisciplinary studies. It showcases the work of leading scholars infields such as political theory, history and aesthetic theory; each of whom areuniquely situated to engage with the novelty of Rancière’s thinking withintheir respective fields. Each of the essays provides aninvestigation into the critical stance Rancière takes towards hiscontemporaries, concentrating on the versatile application of his thought todiverse fields of study. The aim ofthis collection is (...) to use the critical interventions Rancière’s writing makeson current topics and themes as a way of offering new critical perspectives onhis thought. Wielding their individual expertise, each contributor assesses hisperspectives and positions on thinkers and topics of contemporary importance.The edition includes a new essay by Jacques Rancière, which charts thedifferent problems and motivations that have shaped his work. (shrink)

A keynote Speech at the 2017 Annual Conference of the Society for Photographic Education, Orlando Florida. Using Jacques Rancière’s theoretical development of an a priori logic of an equality of intelligence, I will examine how an assumed equality of intelligence, applied across all the various forms of photography can provide a more productive framework to consider how images are used and reused. It will be argued that by assuming this a priori logic, we can move the debate beyond questions that (...) are concerned with the originality of an image or its status as document and allows for a reconsideration of its use as a catalyst for debate. What is called for is a photographic discourse that reformulates the role of documentary photography as a means to engage with the reader’s imagination as an explicit challenge to perception. This new discourse re-frames the photograph as a vehicle for debate, as a discursive document. (shrink)

Using Jacques Rancière’s theoretical development of an a priori logic of an equality of intelligence, I will examine how an assumed equality of intelligence, applied across all the various forms of photography can provide a more productive framework to consider how images are used and reused. It will be argued that by assuming this a priori logic, we can move the debate beyond questions that are concerned with the originality of an image or its status as document and allows for (...) a reconsideration of its use as a catalyst for debate. What is called for is a photographic discourse that reformulates the role of documentary photography as a means to engage with the reader’s imagination as an explicit challenge to perception. This new discourse re-frames the photograph as a vehicle for debate, as a discursive document. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to discuss the ethical and political problems that we face when we think of transgenic art. The paper is articulated in three parts that seek, in the first place, to give readers the conceptual tools necessary to think of the transgenic art inserted within the panorama of contemporary aesthetics. In order to fulfill this purpose the paper presents two Works by Eduardo Kac, leading exponent of the movement: Genesis and GFP Bunny. Later, visiting some (...) ideas of Jacques Rancière, an ethicalpolitical reading of transgenic art is proposed and a path of discussion is opened to think the role of bioethics in a world where genetic manipulation and the upgrade of bodies is a reality. (shrink)

The present paper aims to investigate the critique of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière to a traditional way of looking the relationship between politics and art appropriated for a specific current of social criticism that examines political vocation of artistic creation as simple privileged means of showing the real domination behind the numerous other images released to us. Against this perspective, Rancière proposes to reconsider the logic that is involved in the common distribution of the sensible, the audible and speakable (...) while real political vocation of art, since he believes that political action is precisely the one that changes the places and the calculation of bodies organized by police device. (shrink)

This article examines Rancière’s political reading of aesthetics through a historical analysis into the two aesthetic theories of freedom at work in Rancière’s philosophy; Kant’s freedom as self-governance and Schiller’s freedom as harmony. While aesthetic experience is considered morally conducive through its association with freedom, this article argues that Rancière translates such discussions of freedom into that of equality by extracting the political dimensions of aesthetic experience. Given that art has the unique ability to empower the spectator through its aesthetic (...) experience of equality, the true political potential of art arises from its power to redistribute the sensible rather than through the overt expression of political themes. By juxtaposing Rancière’s politics of art with Kant’s beauty as the symbol of morality, this article argues that art becomes a symbol of political emancipation for Rancière in its capacity to generate the experience of equality. Inasmuch as Rancière attributes the aesthetic revolution to the eighteenth century, it becomes evident that the empowerment of the spectator has been central to art since the inauguration of the aesthetic regime. (shrink)