Aesthetics of Atmosphere, Force, and Breath: Transdisciplinary Explorations/呼吸、氣氛、力量：氣學與美學的跨領域探索
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This workshop will explore the transdisciplinary and transcultural potential of an aesthetics of atmosphere, force, and breath. Atmosphere, force and breath are the English terms through which we suggest to connect with the meanings of 氣/qì/ki in Chinese and Japanese literature and philosophy.
The “learning of breath” (氣學) runs through all aspects of perception and precedes or accompanies all physical and spiritual awareness. Through the act of breathing we touch the world and are touched by it. Expressions such as "I breathe, therefore I am" or "philosophy dies without air" attempt to transcend the prevailing "hegemony of the gaze and the eye" (as articulated by Luce Irigaray) over alternative faculties of perception. This conference will connect “breath-learning” to the development of the “philosophy of breath” or “respiratory philosophy”, which is an important emerging field in contemporary global philosophy.
If both atmospheres and forces are changing modes of "breath," then it is clear that "breath" is both material and spiritual, external and internal, objective and subjective. Within contemporary philosophy, Martin Heidegger, Hermann Schmitz and Gernot Böhme are important predecessors for an “aesthetics of atmosphere”, while Christoph Menke developed an “aesthetics of force”. Both versions of a new aesthetics have already entered into conversation with Eastern philosophies and cultures.
These developments fundamentally challenges conventional European views of human life and the world. Connecting aesthetics and the "learning of qì/ki" (氣學) with reference to atmosphere, force and breath is an attempt to further explore the transdisciplinary and transcultural possibilities of these endeavors for aesthetic theory and practice.
The “learning of breath” (氣學) runs through all aspects of perception and precedes or accompanies all physical and spiritual awareness. Through the act of breathing we touch the world and are touched by it. Expressions such as "I breathe, therefore I am" or "philosophy dies without air" attempt to transcend the prevailing "hegemony of the gaze and the eye" (as articulated by Luce Irigaray) over alternative faculties of perception. This conference will connect “breath-learning” to the development of the “philosophy of breath” or “respiratory philosophy”, which is an important emerging field in contemporary global philosophy.
If both atmospheres and forces are changing modes of "breath," then it is clear that "breath" is both material and spiritual, external and internal, objective and subjective. Within contemporary philosophy, Martin Heidegger, Hermann Schmitz and Gernot Böhme are important predecessors for an “aesthetics of atmosphere”, while Christoph Menke developed an “aesthetics of force”. Both versions of a new aesthetics have already entered into conversation with Eastern philosophies and cultures.
These developments fundamentally challenges conventional European views of human life and the world. Connecting aesthetics and the "learning of qì/ki" (氣學) with reference to atmosphere, force and breath is an attempt to further explore the transdisciplinary and transcultural possibilities of these endeavors for aesthetic theory and practice.
