Susanne Fessé is invited to present her study at AICA Online International Conference 2020, AICA Turkey,November 25–27, 2020 with the tematic: Artworld, Reflexes and Alternative New Worlds.
Abstract
WRITING ABOUT EMOTIONS: A STUDY OF HOW THEORY OF AFFECT CAN BE APPLIED AT THE INTERSECTION OF PLACE AND WORK
In time of crisis, art can be seen as an alternative language, to raise complex political, and existential questions about what it means to be human. But how can this alternative voice reach out to people? One of the "functions" of art can be seen to touch the beholder. An emotion or a bodily affect may appear in the meeting with art, and this can lead to reflections on complex questions. If art make us feel, it may function as an important way for people to care, reflect, and act. But how can we write and talk about emotions in an art discourse? It is important to highlight emotions as something significant in all disciplines, not least in humanistic, as something rigid, valid and important alongside other accepted philosophical aspects. In art analysis it's common to look at form, color, historical context, originator, network relations and idea/concept. There is, however, no analytical models to describe an emotional meeting that can arise at the intersection of work and place, the point where the viewer is located. I have explored new ways of writing/talking about emotions within an art discourse and propose in the paper the concept of affective relation. The study is in the field of affect theory, which is at the forefront of research in postcolonial, feminist and queer studies, as well as in other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, technology and economics.
Keywords: affect, affective relation, emotion, public art, site-specific art.
Paper proposal based on my MA essay "Writing about emotions: a study of how theory of affect can be applied at the intersection of place and work", Uppsala University, Department of Art History, 2019.
Paper has been presented the international conference: Art — What is it good for? Education, mediation, criticism at Linnaeus University, in Växjö, Sweden, August 19–20, 2020.
