GRK 2477:  Aesthetic Practice

• Subject Area: Philosophy ; Art History, Music, Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 394082147

The RTG 2477 investigates practice dimensions of the European as well as "non-European" arts, but also everyday aesthetic practices beyond the art world. It addresses how works of art and cultural performances can be understood as manifestations of practices, such as exercising, rehearsing, improvising, performing, sketching, or designing. These practices are furthermore considered in their intrinsic aesthetic value, which is not limited to the preparation of an art work, as well as explored in contexts beyond the European art world. In this way, we aim at the development of a postcolonial aesthetics that focuses on practices which are critical to the guiding distinctions and canonizations of European aesthetics. The corresponding studies are supplemented and grounded by investigations of the relationship between action, practice, and aesthetic practice to complement the current praxeological turn in the humanities and social sciences with aesthetic perspectives. In the second funding phase, the transdisciplinary research agenda is based on three pillars: (1) In the course of the analyses of concrete aesthetic practices, we focus on the potential of these practices to generate orientations for a critique, for example of reified forms of practice and life, from the sense of actual performance associated with them. Thus, we investigate critical aesthetic practices and address possible aesthetic forms of articulation of critique. (2) We use the inquiry into "non-European" aesthetic practices which escape the implicit norms of the European system of the arts, as well as corresponding traditions of their theorization, for a decolonization of basic aesthetic concepts and methods. This decolonization does not only take place through a self-critique of European philosophical aesthetics, but takes up a decolonial critique that is articulated from different directions worldwide today. (3) On a methodological level, we investigate how (aesthetic) praxis can be adequately described as praxis. In doing so, we aim at establishing a descriptology of practice that takes into account especially the temporality, processuality, and transformative potential of practices. The research interests are pursued on two levels which are closely intertwined: a research focused on the development of concepts and theory as well as an empirical-oriented cultural studies research. In doing so, we consider aesthetic practice not only as an object, but also as a possible method of research which methodically utilizes the perspectives from within the practical performance as well as the forms of knowledge that are bound to this performance. The qualification program, which is closely aligned with the research agenda, supports the scientific quality of the dissertations and also the interdisciplinary training and further education of the doctoral students and postdocs.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Stiftung Universität Hildesheim
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Michael Corsten; Professor Dr. Rolf Elberfeld; Professorin Dr. Maike Gunsilius; Professor Dr. Andreas Hetzel; Professor Dr. Stefan Krankenhagen; Professorin Dr. Dagmara Elzbieta Kraus; Professor Dr. Thomas Lange; Professorin Dr. Annemarie Matzke; Professor Dr. Matthias Rebstock
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Jens Roselt, from 4/2023 until 3/2028