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28-29 February 2020

University of Kent

Keynote Speakers: 

Katja Kwastek

Glenn Parsons 

 

The aim of this conference is to bring together aesthetic discussions of two core drivers of change in our world: nature and technology. Our relationship with and aesthetic understanding of the world and its objects is changing. Now more than ever, how we think of our environment and our place within it is being shaped by both rapid developments in technology and our increasing awareness of the precarity of the natural world.

These developments in relation to nature and technology have the potential to fundamentally change our understanding of many concepts in aesthetics. Art is increasingly making use of new technologies; artists are relying on algorithms and computational processing whilst Artificial Intelligence is advancing into near-autonomous artistic creation. At the same time, we are seeing a return in the analytic tradition of aesthetics towards discussions of value in the natural world. The emergence of environmental aesthetics, for instance, has seen a renewed interest in the aesthetics of nature and human environments. Both these trends challenge us now to focus on aesthetic issues that go beyond human.

For any queries, please email beyondhuman.bsa@gmail.com.