Abstract Contemporary aesthetic thought is marked by a persistent tension between accounts that associate our aesthetic encounters with the novel and the non-habitual and those that emphasize the importance of the familiar and the habitual. This article addresses this tension by bringing together the philosophical literature on the role of habit in aesthetic experience and recent psychological evidence on the role of repeated exposure, familiarity, and fluency in aesthetic appreciation. We begin by reviewing evidence commonly taken to support the view that we like stimuli to which we are habituated. We then argue that this same evidence supports an alternative account, according to which aesthetic pleasure arises from the progressive habituation to a stimulus. After defending this account against some objections, we illustrate its explanatory power through a focused case study. We conclude by outlining some of the broader implications of our view for aesthetic theory.
Abstract It might seem that booing’s only function is to draw attention away from a performance and towards an individual booer’s disdain. But booing—or at least a certain kind of booing—can serve a distinctive, positive role in the aesthetic realm. Through collectively expressing collective disapproval, booing can forge and sustain an Audience—a kind of aesthetic community committed to the continued flourishing of a particular aesthetic practice. We have failed to recognize this potential for booing because of an entrenched tendency to theorize about (the expression of an) aesthetic judgement at the level of the individual. This tendency blinds us to cases of collective expression of a collective aesthetic judgement, such as the kind of booing I discuss. Considering this speech act and its value suggests a radically collectivist account of aesthetic engagement, one marked by collective commitment, rather than individual taste.
Abstract As contemporary medicine prolongs lives with chronic and incurable illnesses such as metastatic cancer, grieving one’s own approaching death becomes more common. Yet, multidisciplinary grief research knows little of this grief, which I have named the grief of the dying. Music offers consolation and gives people a means to express and explore grief. This article examines two musical compositions as autobiographical life-writing about the grief of the dying. The compositions are Finnish contemporary composer Kaija Saariaho’s final concerto HUSH (2023) and alternative pop composition SWAN/KOISTINEN EP (2019) by Astrid Swan and Stina Koistinen. Both pieces were made while their composers lived with metastatic cancer. Interpreted as self-life-inscription, music can become an archive and a transmitter of the grief experience. Capable of widening our understanding of the grief of the dying, these compositions use sound, noise, silence, and voice to address the emotional and embodied experiences of cancer and grief.
Abstract This introduction presents the rationale of the special issue ‘Forms of Experience and the System of the Arts’ and the two key notions that are brought together in its title. First, it clarifies the issue’s guiding hypothesis: that the varieties of experience can help us to understand both how different arts can be unified within a system and how their specificities can be understood within that system. Second, it shows how the individual contributions to the issue explore this possibility from different points of view. Finally, it suggests possible avenues for future research.
