Eric Anthony Bess, IDSVA

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Document Type

Text

Broad Creation Date

2024

Language

English

Location

Portland

Abstract

The technological advancements of recent history have undeniably led to greater comfort in some parts of the world. These technological advancements stem from a pursuit of mastery in scientific endeavors. At their limit, however, these advancements also serve to isolate human beings from one another and from the world they occupy leading to an increase in mental health issues and a lack of empathy. This project addresses this problem by asking, “What if human beings turned toward the pursuit of an aesthetic type of mastery alongside a scientific one?” and “What would comprise the practice of such mastery?” I will argue that the artistic study of the phenomenological world of appearances is the simultaneous practice of empathy which harbors a spiritual connectivity between subject and object. Using Georges Bataille’s notion that the subject is indistinguishable from the object at the limits of the object’s study, Friedrich Nietzsche’s consideration of amor fati, and Soren Kierkegaard’s consideration of sacrifice, Love, and union with God, I will paint a picture of an aesthetic mastery that is grounded upon sincerity, detached-empathy, and patience.

Disciplines

Aesthetics | Arts and Humanities | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Philosophy

Publisher

Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts

City

Portland ME

Emptiness and Empathy: An Artistic-Philosophical Study of Mastery



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