The article aims to frame the issue of authenticity regarding street artworks. By introducing and analyzing the concept of artification, which refers to the situation when non-art is modified by art, I argue that street art manifests its authenticity through transforming the space around particular artworks. This transformation amounts to two facts: sanctioning certain practices which change our perception of the urban environment, and creating new aesthetic objects which are art-like.

The aim of this paper is to argue that proper artistic failure may turn out to be artistically appreciated and even considered as artistically successful. A set of arguments is provided in order to overcome intentionalism, the widely accepted view according to which an artist’s intentions fix the artwork’s meaning. Instead, we propose and elaborate an alternative model: emergentism of artistic meaning and value. Emergentism explains how artistic failure can turn out to be artistically successful. That is, artworks may succeed (...) despite the failure of the realization of artistic intentions. It is argued that such a rehabilitation of artistic failures, perceiving them as not necessarily doomed, paves the path for experiencing failures as not merely failures. The paper suggests that under defined circum- stances it is possible to receive aesthetic satisfaction from failures. Moreover, the possibility of treating failures as valuable, yet risky, artistic strategy is suggested. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to sketch a framework for perceiving the act of consumption as an aesthetic phenomenon. I shall argue that, under some circumstances, it is possible to receive aesthetic satisfaction from the act of eating food, in which the object of one’s appreciation is, for the most part, considered separately from what is actually eaten. I propose to call such a process “aesthetic eating” and argue that due to its aesthetic autonomy it might be a potential (...) factor in enjoying certain kinds of food. This phenomenon is apparent in the case of the types of food that are acquired tastes. It is plausible that distinguishing the aesthetic pleasures of food from the ones associated with the act of eating can not only enrich our aesthetic life but also deepen the aesthetics of our overall gustatory experience. (shrink)

The article seeks to explain what it means to say that an object has the status of being made art-like. I have reconstructed and analysed Ossi Naukkarinen and Yuriko Saito’s definition of artification and flagged up its methodological limitations. My conclusions serve as a starting point for describing the nature of artified objects, the way they are individuated, and how they persist. I consider the question of what can and what cannot be artified. Finally, I propose that artification be redefined (...) in such a way as to render it informative on the grounds of the largest number of existing aesthetic theories of art. (shrink)

The question of whether food is art depends primarily on the definition of art that we agree to accept. The article proposes a model that helps us to focus our mind on what could be, and how we should understand the art of food, if we accept, having applied a fairly liberal theory of art, that food can actually be art. It is argued that there are no methodological or factual constraints indicating that food could not, under some circumstances, be (...) high art. This hypothetical form of art is called ‘edible art’. (shrink)

This paper is an introduction for the special issue of “Rivista di estetica” devoted to the role of ontology in contemporary aesthetics and philosophy of art. It describes the most dominating trends within current ontological inquiry in aesthetics and philosophy of art as well as presents papers collected in the issue.

The main subject of the article is a critical analysis of the functions of the criteria of identity. The author presents a methodological stance called criterialism which claims that the criteria of identity play an important role and have a vast application in both science and philosophy. A set of arguments is presented then to show a polemic stance that the criteria of identity are not responsible for individuation. The author nevertheless acknowledges a positive function of the criteria of identity, (...) which is stated under the name of ontological clarification. (shrink)

In the paper, classical assumptions of the problem of change are presented and analyzed. The author considers following assumptions which make theses about: (i) identity and persistence through time; (ii) a conceptual change; (iii) intrinsic properties; and (iv) the Leibniz's Law. In the light of the analyses, it is shown that the problem of change does not have substantial nature and therefore cannot be treated as legitimization of the theories of persistence. Finally, the author acknowledges a relationship between the rethought (...) matter of change and the theories of persistence. (shrink)

The paper aims at an analysis of the concept of landscape, offering an ontological approach. Our claim is that such a perspective is hardly ever assumed in philosophical aesthetics, even if theories of landscape appreciation are in fact based on tacit ontological assumptions. We argue that having an explicit ontology of landscapes is important, for aesthetic theories of their appreciation are often attacked in terms of the problems caused by their tacit ontologies. Therefore, we sketch an “Experience Ontology” that serves (...) as an alternative to the ontologies implied in the two best known aesthetic approaches to landscapes. We contend that a landscape should not be conceived of as an object or view but as a way of experiencing one’s surroundings, and we argue that our theory is not only free from the shortcomings of the two dominant theories but that it also corresponds better to everyday intuitions. (shrink)

We analyse the role of a theatrical script and its relation to the literary work and the theatrical performance. We put forward an Argument from Modality, which demonstrates structural and functional differences between literary works and theatrical scripts. Next, we answer some potential challenges to our argument. We demonstrate that the failure to realize the far-reaching consequences of a clear distinction between the literary work and the theatrical script is a source of confusion in the debate on the relata of (...) the relation of interpretation. In particular, we show that the relation of interpretation does not hold directly between the literary work and the theatrical performance. It is mediated by the script. The script interprets the literary work by filling in its places of indeterminacy and adjusting it for stage purposes. Moreover, the script, which is a set of instructions, is executed rather than interpreted in a theatrical performance. (shrink)