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The nautical environment has been challenging for women. However, interviewing experienced female sailors, we noticed that despite the adversity they face, they consider the experience of sailing as something profoundly impactful and powerful in their lives. This research discusses the power of the aesthetic experience of sailing for women, thus adding to the gender discussion. In order to do so, we make use of a theoretical framework that addresses the relationship between being and the materiality of the world. In describing these aesthetic experiences lived in the body, Bachelard's phenomenology of the image stands out. By productive imagination and poetic images found in the field research and characterized as powerful by the sailors, the social construction of gender and the images between adventure and delicacy appears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does congruence between auditory and visual modalities affect aesthetic experience? While cross-modal correspondences between vision and hearing are well-documented, previous studies show conflicting results regarding whether audiovisual correspondence affects subjective aesthetic experience. Here, in collaboration with the Kentler International Drawing Space (NYC, USA), we depart from previous research by using music specifically composed to pair with visual art in the professionally-curated Music as Image and Metaphor exhibition. Our pre-registered online experiment consisted of 4 conditions: Audio, Visual, Audio-Visual-Intended (artist-intended pairing of art/music), and Audio-Visual-Random (random shuffling). Participants (N = 201) were presented with 16 pieces and could click to proceed to the next piece whenever they liked. We used time spent as an implicit index of aesthetic interest. Additionally, after each piece, participants were asked about their subjective experience (e.g., feeling moved). We found that participants spent significantly more time with Audio, followed by Audiovisual, followed by Visual pieces; however, they felt most moved in the Audiovisual (bi-modal) conditions. Ratings of audiovisual correspondence were significantly higher for the Audiovisual-Intended compared to Audiovisual-Random condition; interestingly, though, there were no significant differences between intended and random conditions on any other subjective rating scale, or for time spent. Collectively, these results call into question the relationship between cross-modal correspondence and aesthetic appreciation. Additionally, the results complicate the use of time spent as an implicit measure of aesthetic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art research has long aimed to unravel the complex associations between specific attributes, such as color, complexity, and emotional expressiveness, and art judgments, including beauty, creativity, and liking. However, the fundamental distinction between attributes as inherent characteristics or features of the artwork and judgments as subjective evaluations remains an exciting topic. This paper reviews the literature of the last half century, to identify key attributes, and employs machine learning, specifically Gradient Boosted Decision Trees (GBDT), to predict 13 art judgments along 17 attributes. Ratings from 78 art novice participants were collected for 54 Western artworks. Our GBDT models successfully predicted 13 judgments significantly. Notably, judged creativity and disturbing/irritating judgments showed the highest predictability, with the models explaining 31% and 32% of the variance, respectively. The attributes emotional expressiveness, valence, symbolism, as well as complexity emerged as consistent and significant contributors to the models' performance. Content-representational attributes played a more prominent role than formal-perceptual attributes. Moreover, we found in some cases non-linear relationships between attributes and judgments with sudden inclines or declines around medium levels of the rating scales. By uncovering these underlying patterns and dynamics in art judgment behavior, our research provides valuable insights to advance the understanding of aesthetic experiences considering visual art, inform cultural practices, and inspire future research in the field of art appreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document titled "Philosophical Abstracts" provides summaries of articles from different philosophical journals, covering a wide range of topics. The articles offer diverse perspectives and arguments on subjects such as the existence of God, moral responsibility, discrimination, and Aristotle's phronesis. The collection also includes articles that focus on African and Black perspectives, challenging dominant Western frameworks and highlighting the importance of diverse voices in philosophy. Another article explores the concept of shared agency, emphasizing the importance of mutual recognition and cooperation in collective action. The issue of Phronesis covers various topics, including practical wisdom, metaphysics, and ancient philosophers. Each article offers unique insights and contributes to ongoing philosophical discussions. [Extracted from the article]

Aesthetic experiences, emerging saliently in the arts, play a pivotal role in transformative learning and creative processes that elicit physiological, affective, and cognitive responses associated with mental health indices. Interactions between subjects and aesthetic objects (e.g., visual artwork, music, and moving bodies) often entail elements of surprise and uncertainty that drive the inference of the hidden causes in the subject's internal and external environment. These generate dynamics that align with the action-oriented Predictive Processing framework of brain function. Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) harness these dynamics by cultivating relational engagement using the arts modalities, prompting affective and cognitive processing. In this manuscript, we offer a review and conceptual analysis of recent empirical findings and theoretical premises that underpin aesthetic experiences and their relation to the psychotherapeutic use of the arts with a broad spectrum of populations and mental health conditions. We present a neuroscience-based approach to aesthetic intra- and inter-personal experiences, integrating therapeutic change factors of externalization-concretization, embodiment, and symbolization with functional network configurations, and interpersonal brain-to-brain coupling, to support predictive processing, learning, and creativity. Present and future interdisciplinary collaborations are underlined to elucidate the neurodynamic mechanisms driving psychological transformations, bridging neuroaesthetics and CATs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines experiences with aesthetic bias as perceived by individuals with physical disabilities (i.e., vision, hearing, orthopedic/mobility). We used the concept of aesthetic bias to guide our quantitative and qualitative data analysis. A quantitative Needs Assessment Survey (NAS) gathered demographic information, degree of appearance management behavior and assessed participants' perspectives on their experience with aesthetic bias during the interviewing process and in the workplace environment. In addition, we conducted interviews with 12 participants that assessed their experiences with aesthetic biases. The results revealed four themes: appearance creditability, concealing or revealing the disability, inconsistent feedback from others, and disability awareness. The findings add value to the extant research and the community and can be incorporated into workshops and education sessions on aesthetic bias and disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are inundated with readily accessible entertainment media choices. Recommender systems are frequently utilized to support people's media selection and engagement. The psychological factors that influence people's engagement with recommender systems and entertainment content is an under-explored area. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study where users' explicit experiences of audiovisual media services (e.g., Netflix, TikTok, YouTube, HBO Max) and their recommender systems were examined through an online survey (n = 339). Thematic analysis, factor analysis, and path analysis were used to evaluate the data. The results indicate that (1) recommender systems influence users' emotions and media use, (2) people prefer personalized compared to generic recommendation lists, (3) the temporal length of recommended content influences people's interest, and (4) perceived utility leads to the endorsement of recommender systems and may influence users' well-being. The findings point to wider psychological implications associated with user awareness of recommender systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kant-Studien is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: In recent years, computational aesthetics and neuroaesthetics have provided novel insights into understanding beauty. Building upon the findings of traditional aesthetics, this study aims to combine these two research methods to explore an interdisciplinary approach to studying aesthetics. Method: Abstract artworks were used as experimental materials. Based on traditional aesthetics and in combination, features of composition, tone, and texture were selected. Computational aesthetic methods were then employed to correspond these features to physical quantities: blank space, gray histogram, Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), and Gabor filters. An electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment was carried out, in which participants conducted aesthetic evaluations of the experimental materials in different contexts (genuine, fake), and their EEG data were recorded to analyze the impact of various feature classes in the aesthetic evaluation process. Finally, a Support Vector Machines (SVMs) was utilized to model the feature data, Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), context data, and subjective aesthetic evaluation data. Result: Behavioral data revealed higher aesthetic ratings in the genuine context. ERP data indicated that genuine contexts elicited more negative deflections in the prefrontal lobes between 200 and 1000 ms. Class II compositions demonstrated more positive deflections in the parietal lobes at 50–120 ms, while Class I tones evoked more positive amplitudes in the occipital lobes at 200–300 ms. Gabor features showed significant variations in the parieto-occipital area at an early stage. Class II LBP elicited a prefrontal negative wave with a larger amplitude. The results of the SVM models indicated that the model incorporating aesthetic subject and context data (ACC = 0.76866) outperforms the model using only parameters of the aesthetic object (ACC = 0.68657). Conclusion: A positive context tends to provide participants with a more positive aesthetic experience, but abstract artworks may not respond to this positivity. During aesthetic evaluation, the ERP data activated by different features show a trend from global to local. The SVM model based on multimodal data fusion effectively predicts aesthetics, further demonstrating the feasibility of the combined research approach of computational aesthetics and neuroaesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document is a collection of three letters written by M. Masud R. Khan to Svetlana Beriosova. In the first letter, Khan discusses his admiration for Beriosova's dancing and references a passage from Sir Anthony Blunt's book on artistic theory. He also comments on the concept of grace in art and its absence in certain performances. In the second letter, Khan shares a folk story from a book about the experiences of African Americans during slavery. He contrasts the simplicity and directness of these narratives with the convoluted and pseudo-psychological style of Beatnik writers. In the third letter, Khan discusses T.S. Eliot as a nonsense poet and explores the concept of Nonsense literature in various art forms. He also mentions his reading of a biography of James Joyce and reflects on the parallels between Joyce's life and his daughter's mental illness. [Extracted from the article]

Aesthetic experiences can serve as powerful catalysts for emotional, psychological, and spiritual transformation. More recently, video games have drawn attention as an artistic medium in their own right, capable of inspiring profound transformation in ways similar to conventional art forms. Video games, like other artistic media, can be seen as thresholds to transformative aesthetic experiences, rendering them especially suitable for analysis through the lens of Victor Turner's work on liminality and the liminoid. This article employs these concepts as a framework to assess video games as liminoid structures in which players can engage with simulated liminal experiences and undergo transformative aesthetic experiences through ritual-like, interactive play. In particular, it integrates concepts from games studies to explore how video games have uniquely liminoid characteristics that distinguish them from other liminoid entities, including art and leisure activities. As a case study, this article also explores manifestations of liminality and the liminoid in the setting, narrative, and gameplay of indie video game Before Your Eyes. It examines how these elements act synergistically to provide a nuanced, intimate depiction of terminal illness, coming of age, and existential judgment in the afterlife, encouraging players to surrender themselves to the emotional world portrayed within the game and become transformed in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity as the definitive factor of one’s individuality has been extensively explored from the sociological, psychological, and political perspectives. Of particular importance is the prevailing realization of the pervasiveness of the concept of identity and its fluidity, especially concerning the transcendence of cultural binaries and spaces. According to T.S. Elliot, the discourse of aesthetics is defined by constitutive dialects and is doubly-encoded in the specific and concrete. Thus, aesthetics in literature provides a theory of senses in which production, presentation, and reception of identities, cultures, and other social phenomena can be understood and defined. Within Islamic contexts, therefore, the pursuance of a true identity definition becomes an intricate issue that necessitates the incorporation of both historical and contextual perspectives, as well as the pursuance of aesthetic expressions and experiences at the individual level. With these insights in mind, the current analysis utilized a comprehensive analytical framework that applies Eliot’s assumptions within the interactionist framework with the aim of mapping identity fluidities and ambiguities in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Elif Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love. The findings indicate that Muslim cultural contexts bear apparent aesthetic experiences and ideological multiplicities at the individual level that cut across a variety of spiritual, political, social, and geographic domains. The fluidity and multiplicity of the resulting identities, thus, necessitates the application of suitable identity signifiers to ensure the rational and practical reportage of Muslim identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences of six teacher learners and one teacher educator in a graduate course on aesthetic education at a Midwestern university in the U.S. Using collective autoethnography and arts-practice research, the researcher/participants examine how aesthetic experiences were activated in the learning environment and how this activation supported the development of transformational rethinking that led to the changing of formed habits of teaching. Findings reveal how aesthetic teacher education can be therapeutic, aid in building connections between the teacher and students (and among students), inspire wonder and discovery, facilitate the valuing and including of cultural and linguistic backgrounds of students, compel new perspectives, and promote attunement to process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pregnancy and labor can impact women's body contours. After a cesarean section, some women may experience aesthetic issues such as the formation of a panniculus and a bulging mons pubis. This study aimed to investigate the impact of cesarean sections on the dimensions of the mons pubis and their ratios. Methods: The study included 194 multiparous Caucasian women. Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 40 years, and their BMI ranged from 18 to 30. They were divided into two BMI groups. Each group was further subdivided based on the mode of delivery into vaginal delivery (VD) and cesarean section (CS) groups. Manual measurements of the three dimensions of the mons pubis (monal height, monal width, and monal length) were conducted. Measurements were recorded in centimeters in the lithotomy position using iGaging 8-inch digital outside calipers. Monal height is the distance between the anterior surface of the symphysis pubis and the maximum height of the mons pubis (calculated by measuring the distance between the anterior wall of the vagina and the maximum height of the mons pubis minus the distance between the anterior wall of the vagina and the anterior surface of the symphysis pubis). Monal width is the maximum transverse distance between the merging borders of the mons pubis and the fat of the lower abdominal wall. Monal length is the maximum longitudinal distance between the merging upper border of the mons pubis and the fat of the lower abdominal wall and the upper end of the pudendal cleft. Results: No significant statistical difference was observed between the three dimensions of the mons pubis in vaginal delivery and cesarean section populations in the two groups. The changes in the ratios between the two groups' different monal dimensions in the cesarean section population are minimal and do not follow a consistent pattern. There were no significant differences between the dimensions of single and repeated CS populations, with non-trendy changes in the different ratios in the repeated CS group. Conclusion: Even when repeated, cesarean section minimally affects the dimensions and ratios of the mons pubis. However, more studies with standardized fascial and subcutaneous fat closure are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art is a promising pathway to raise emotional engagement with nature, while enabling an indirect exposure to nature through aesthetic experience. However, the precise relationships between aesthetic experiences of art and experiences of nature remain unclear. The aim of this observational study is to highlight the effect of nature experiences on the aesthetic reception art, based on Early Modern paintings (16th-18th century). By focusing on marine ecosystems, that are difficult to directly interact with, the results presented are intended to explore whether marine activities and fish consumption affect the aesthetic reception of artworks depicting marine biodiversity. A photo-questionnaire survey based on four paintings has been conducted with 332 French participants with a diverse range of marine practices, fish consumption and artistic sensitivity. Fish consumption and value attributed to fish as food had a significant positive impact on the aesthetic reception, suggesting that taste and food consumption could be considered as a relevant nature aesthetic experience that elicits affective and emotional responses. Results also showed an indirect effect of fishing and diving on the aesthetic reception of paintings whose iconography relates with the observers' experiences. These findings are of particular interest in both environmental psychology and ecological mediation through art. This study brings evidences of the connection between art and nature experiences, and that art could be an innovative way of experiencing nature. Finally, this study also highlights the need to broaden the scope of nature experiences, for instance by including food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of eleven public concerts (staging chamber music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Brett Dean, Johannes Brahms) was organized with the goal to analyze physiological synchronies within the audiences and associations of synchrony with psychological variables. We hypothesized that the music would induce synchronized physiology, which would be linked to participants' aesthetic experiences, affect, and personality traits. Physiological measures (cardiac, electrodermal, respiration) of 695 participants were recorded during presentations. Before and after concerts, questionnaires provided self-report scales and standardized measures of participants' affectivity, personality traits, aesthetic experiences and listening modes. Synchrony was computed by a cross-correlational algorithm to obtain, for each participant and physiological variable (heart rate, heart-rate variability, respiration rate, respiration, skin-conductance response), how much each individual participant contributed to overall audience synchrony. In hierarchical models, such synchrony contribution was used as the dependent and the various self-report scales as predictor variables. We found that physiology throughout audiences was significantly synchronized, as expected with the exception of breathing behavior. There were links between synchrony and affectivity. Personality moderated the synchrony levels: Openness was positively associated, Extraversion and Neuroticism negatively. Several factors of experiences and listening modes predicted synchrony. Emotional listening was associated with reduced, whereas both structual and sound-focused listening was associated with increased synchrony. We concluded with an updated, nuanced understanding of synchrony on the timescale of whole concerts, inviting elaboration by synchony studies on shorter timescales of music passages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Medical aesthetic practice is growing rapidly in Malaysia due to rising market demand, yet public understanding of these practices remains limited. This study evaluated the awareness and attitudes towards medical aesthetics among Malaysians. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among individuals aged 18 years old in Malaysia from December 2021 to May 2022. The survey was distributed both online and in public settings. The survey comprised of respondents' sociodemographic, perception of physical attractiveness, knowledge and attitude towards medical aesthetic practices. The factors influencing respondents' attitudes towards medical aesthetic practices in the country were analysed using binary logistic regression, with the significance level set at P<0.05. Results: A total of 382 respondents participated in this study with average age of 30.81 (±9.38) years, ranging from 18 to 68 years. e majority were women (77.5%), Malay (53.7%) and Muslim (57.1%). Although most respondents had no prior experience in medical aesthetic treatment (68.1%), 76.2% respondents demonstrated good knowledge and 70.2% had positive attitude towards these services. Additionally, 53.9% of the respondents highly valued the importance of physical attractiveness. Th e Buddhists and Hindus exhibited more positive attitude than the Muslims. Conversely, those who placed higher importance on physical attractiveness were 0.5 times less likely to develop a positive attitude towards medical aesthetic services. Conclusion: In conclusion, despite limited experience in medical aesthetic treatments and practice, most Malaysians possess good knowledge and positive attitudes towards medical aesthetics, indicating a growing interest and potential willingness to consider these services for enhancing their appearance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nowadays museums make large use of digital materials (e.g., virtual tours) to attract visitors. Therefore, it is worthwhile investigating which variables affect the engagement with art outside the museum, and whether digital reproductions of artworks are as effective as museum originals in producing a satisfying aesthetic experience. Methods: Here we tested the effectiveness of introducing additional informative materials on the artistic enjoyment of contemporary paintings presented on a computer screen. Naïve observers were exposed to essential and descriptive labels before viewing artworks. We flanked traditional measurement methods - viewing times and questionnaires, with biometric parameters - pupil responses, eye movements, heart rate, and electrodermal activity. The results were then compared to our previous museum study that adopted the same experimental paradigm. Results: Our behavioral and psychophysiological data lead to a complex pattern of results. As found in the museum setting, providing detailed descriptions decreases complexity, evokes more positive sensations, and induces pupil dilation but does not enhance aesthetic appreciation. These results suggested that informative labels improve understanding and emotions but have a limited impact on the hedonic evaluation of artworks in both contexts. However, other results do not mirror those found in the museum; in the laboratory setting, participants spend a similar amount of time, have a comparable gaze behavior, and their electrodermal activity and heart rate do not change when viewing artworks with different types of labels. The main difference between the lab and museum settings is the shorter time spent viewing digital reproductions vs. real paintings, although subjective ratings (e.g., liking, interest) are comparable. Discussion: Overall, this study indicates that the environmental context does impact the aesthetic experience; although, some beneficial effects of introducing additional relevant content in labels accompanying artworks can also be acquainted through digital media outside of the museum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphysical experience is one of the most obscure concepts in Adorno's Negative Dialectics. The obscurity stems partly from the way in which metaphysical experience is antinomic. To describe the antinomic character of metaphysical experience, Adorno situates it in relation to Kant's first Critique. He distinguishes two conceptions of antinomy in the first Critique: first, the explicit conception of antinomy that the transcendental dialectic exposes and resolves; and second, the implicit conception of antinomy that remains insoluble and structures the first Critique and Adorno's own concept of metaphysical experience. Yet Adorno does not clarify what he means by the antinomic structure of the first Critique and how this structure underlies his own concept of metaphysical experience. Nor does the scholarship on Adorno. This article reconstructs Adorno's response to these questions, and, in so doing, demonstrates the Kantian origin of Adorno's concept of metaphysical experience in Negative Dialectics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to expand the experience economy model and to determine if this model provides a better understanding of the process of growing intention to continue using religious cultural heritage content delivered digitally and intention to visit religious cultural heritage sites. In particular, it examines the influence of spiritual experience on the evaluation of religious cultural heritage content, comparing delivery via virtual reality (VR) to a web-based experience. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, a representative religious cultural heritage destination, Jerusalem, was chosen as an example for the application. Participants (n = 292) were randomly divided into two groups, one group using the web and the other group experiencing VR. After experiencing the destination virtually, participants completed a survey, the results of which were analyzed using path analysis and multi-group analysis. Findings: The results suggest that spiritual experience mediates the four elements of Pine and Gilmore (1998) experience economy model and the intention to continue engaging with the content virtually. Intellectual awareness of religious cultural heritage strengthens the spiritual experience, which mediates educational and aesthetic experiences and the successful use of VR and the web. Additionally, for participants experiencing VR, the influence of spiritual experience on the intention to continue using the virtual media to consume content related to religious cultural heritage sites and to visit actual religious heritage sites was stronger than for participants using the web. Originality/value: This study based on an expanded experience economy model explores the use of digital technologies for the enhancement of spiritual experience. Comparison of web-based and VR content delivery provides important implications for destination marketers in terms of promoting destinations online and encouraging intention to visit actual sites in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sight and hearing have been privileged in the philosophical formulation of aesthetics, the significance of touch to the experience of art has not enjoyed much attention at all. In order to displace sight and reinstate touch as a viable mode of engagement for the interpretation of visual art, this article reports on a study in which blind individuals and sighted people who were blindfolded were interviewed about their experiences of artworks. The participants were invited to touch selected sculptures in South African artist, Willem Boshoff's Blind Alphabet (1990 – ongoing) installation. The main aim of the study was to investigate the nature of the tactile aesthetic experience elicited by these sculptures when they are handled and not seen. Secondly, the study aimed to reach a deeper understanding of how tactile engagement with art enriches the experience, meaning and power of the work for both those who can and cannot see. Through the investigation it was revealed that visual art can forge a bridge between individuals with and without blindness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Transpecies Society is an association of cyborg artists and activists "that gives voice to nonhuman identities; raises awareness of the challenges transpecies face; advocates for the freedom of self-design and offers the development of new senses and organs." This article explores how members of The Transpecies Society use sensory modification as a form of artistic expression and political activism. It asks, how do transpeciests seek to "stretch the bounds of experience" by developing new senses? Precisely what kind of experiences, and what kind of "sensory orders" are they interested in creating? By using technology to transform their own sensory capacities and connect more intimately with nature, how do transpeciests challenge anthropocentric views of society, and establish recognition and rights for those "who do not identify as 100% human"? I ultimately aim to demonstrate that for transpeciests, the creation of new senses is not just an attempt to refashion the individual body and push the boundaries of aesthetic experience. It is also an attempt to transform the social and political body by making room for new forms of posthuman identity and acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the connections that can be established between Walter Benjamin's aesthetic theory and John Dewey's aesthetic theory. To make this comparison, we first analyze Dewey's approach to the notion of aesthetic experience as a way of reconnecting the realm of art with everyday life, and then we study different texts by Walter Benjamin in which he suggests a form of aesthetic experience based on avant-garde art. This work hypothesizes that in both authors the notion of aesthetic experience is understood similarly and answers common problems concerning the place of art in the modern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is (1) to determine the set of literary and aesthetic competencies when reading literature and (2) to quantify the possible effect for the formation of Literary and Aesthetic competence when using innovative information technologies. The establishment of the array of literary and aesthetic competencies was achieved through the synthesis of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2018) and a comprehensive analysis of relevant scholarly literature. The researchers determined the substantial effect of mobile applications in building three out of five aesthetic competencies (D = 1.12 for expressive perception, D = 1.55 for emotional closeness and D = 0.82 for cognitive elaboration). Hence, based on the research outcomes, the approach adopted by the experimental group (utilisation of mobile applications for reading) facilitates the attainment of heightened literary competence through a more aesthetically comprehensive experiential engagement with the study of literary works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding an artwork is essential for aesthetic experiences. But how does one form an understanding of art? To investigate this still poorly addressed process, we hypothesized that the easier a stimulus is processed (i.e., higher fluency), the easier it should be understood. We focused on artwork inherent features (i.e., style and content) and their interactions affect processing. Making use of the brightness–positivity association, the overall brightness of paintings (i.e., as stylistic feature) was manipulated to match their content (positive vs. negative). We hypothesized that a congruency of style and content would facilitate the processing of paintings resulting in a better understanding, but also, greater liking, and (exploratively) higher artistic value. Our data indicated no congruency effects between brightness and content, but that content alone was a strong predictor for art processing and—in an exploratory approach—highlighted the importance of individual differences in terms of art interest and knowledge in our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Estudios de Filosofía is the property of Universidad de Antioquia, Instituto de Filosofia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Entorno Geográfico is the property of Universidad del Valle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Anuario Electrónico de Estudios en Comunicación Social 'Disertaciones' is the property of Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores ordinary people's involvement in literature. Goed, beter, Betsie, a narrative text read on a community radio station, serves as an example text. It is indicated how the writing of this text makes it possible for Elizabeth Labuschagne-Hull, an author who considers herself to be just an ordinary person, to make sense of her past. The effects that the reading of this narrative text had on community radio listeners, indirect readers who are also seen as ordinary people, are discussed. The article indicates that authors do not necessarily create texts to be critically examined and that the reading of narrative texts do not necessarily need to take place from a theoretical approach in order to be valuable. The conclusion is that ordinary reading is valuable because it could help readers to understand their lives. It is confirmed, based on the aesthetic experience of ordinary readers, that stories do something for and to ordinary people; also that the engagement with literature can change people's lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arcos: Design, Cultura e Visualidade is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Tropelías: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada is the property of Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article explores how Oscar Wilde, in "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.," blurs the line between history and self, revealing a deep connection between personal identity and historical figures. It also discusses three main topics: Wilde's imaginative historiography, the concept of a deliquescent self, and the interchangeability of self and soul in Wilde's aesthetic philosophy.

Basically, humans desire nothing but to be happy. Humans exert much effort to make their lives meaningful and worth living. For humans, obtaining the meaning of existence is the foundation of happiness. However, despite humans' desire to be happy, an ugly truth still remains: life is a tragedy. Friedrich Nietzsche argues that life is a constant struggle and that to live is to suffer. By seeing this ugly picture of life, humans gradually fall into depression. "Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure . . . and may lead to suicide (WHO, 2021)." More so, science contends that specific brain dysfunctions cause depression, and various solutions are offered to address this, like taking anti-depressants and undergoing psychotherapy, but amidst all these, depression remains. In this case, what other means can be utilized to address the problem of depression? Using the philosophical-qualitative method, this paper will attempt to address the perennial issue of depression. This paper attempts to understand the problem of depression by tracing it to the degradation of meaning and will resolve it by explaining the essential role aesthetics plays in man's existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perception of the concept of Eros has evolved through shared cinematic experiences, to the point of shaping collective imagery in Cadiz, Spain. This city is known for its creativity and an extraordinary amount of performances during the period of carnival, and is represented annually by anonymous citizens. The research method employed consisted of an exhaustive analysis of bibliographic, press, and archival references on audience behavior from the introduction of the cinematograph to the present day. The authors have designed a table that organizes the emergence of movie theaters in the city and completed the background information, delving into the historical, geographical, and idiosyncratic factors that have contributed to collective creativity in the city. From there, we analyzed the evolution of the concept of Eros through the perspectives of Byung Chul Han and Georges Bataille. As a result, we recovered the value of projection interruptions in the analog environment as an opportunity for collective interaction, confronting them with the demands of technological perfection. We demonstrated the resilience of the analog through new experiences that show the evolution of the need for collective contact. Future studies will focus on other contexts, such as supermarkets and terraces, to contribute to a broader understanding of urban spaces, social cohesion, and perceptions of Eros. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A series of eleven public concerts (staging chamber music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Brett Dean, Johannes Brahms) was organized with the goal to analyze physiological synchronies within the audiences and associations of synchrony with psychological variables. We hypothesized that the music would induce synchronized physiology, which would be linked to participants’ aesthetic experiences, affect, and personality traits. Physiological measures (cardiac, electrodermal, respiration) of 695 participants were recorded during presentations. Before and after concerts, questionnaires provided self-report scales and standardized measures of participants’ affectivity, personality traits, aesthetic experiences and listening modes. Synchrony was computed by a cross-correlational algorithm to obtain, for each participant and physiological variable (heart rate, heart-rate variability, respiration rate, respiration, skin-conductance response), how much each individual participant contributed to overall audience synchrony. In hierarchical models, such synchrony contribution was used as the dependent and the various self-report scales as predictor variables. We found that physiology throughout audiences was significantly synchronized, as expected with the exception of breathing behavior. There were links between synchrony and affectivity. Personality moderated the synchrony levels: Openness was positively associated, Extraversion and Neuroticism negatively. Several factors of experiences and listening modes predicted synchrony. Emotional listening was associated with reduced, whereas both structual and sound-focused listening was associated with increased synchrony. We concluded with an updated, nuanced understanding of synchrony on the timescale of whole concerts, inviting elaboration by synchony studies on shorter timescales of music passages.

Why are people fascinated by swimming in nature? This article addresses the aesthetic experiences of wild swimming as expressed by five wild swimming authors in their books. Drawing from aesthetic philosophy, we analyze the ways in which the appeal of wild swimming is described on three levels: the allure of water in the environment, the sensory encounter between water and the body, and the experience of moving in water. Furthermore, with reference to Seel's concept of nature aesthetics (1996), the experience of wild swimming is analyzed in terms of contemplation, correspondence, and imagination. We can conclude that the special intensity of the sensory experience of moving in water allows a closer connectedness to the surrounding natural world than land-based activities or swimming in artificial outdoor pools. This leads to a stronger ethical awareness, both regarding protection of natural water as well as the necessity of developing 'water competency' amongst humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine how we ought to distinguish between reference and readers' advisory (RA) service, given the latter's turn toward a whole collection approach. In other words, the paper answers this question: If both reference and RA librarians aim to meet patrons' information needs and may theoretically do so using the same materials, then how are we to differentiate the two services conceptually? Design/methodology/approach: In this conceptual paper, we posit that we can distinguish between RA and reference using Louise Rosenblatt's theory of the aesthetic transaction. With this theory in hand, we can redefine the service distinction in terms of the stance – aesthetic or efferent – that the patron expects to take toward the material they seek. Findings: On our account, the reader's desired stance becomes a kind of hermeneutical lens through which a library worker may productively evaluate plausible pathways and materials. An aesthetic lens is characteristic of RA; it makes features of potential aesthetic transactions between a particular reader and a particular text (or genre or author's oeuvre) salient. Originality/value: The proposed account constitutes a novel application of Rosenblattian response theory, one that grounds and refines the going view that RA's proper focus is on supporting a particular sort of experience rather than providing particular sorts of texts. This theoretical emendation also better aligns the service distinction with contemporary conceptualizations of RA as a "whole collection" service. Important practical and philosophical implications follow from the new account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While experiencing natural beauty is a key appeal of the cinema and other moving-image media, academic film scholarship has rarely paid attention to it. In this article I will use the widespread motif of the gently rustling wind as a pars pro toto to make some general remarks about the experience of natural beauty in film. I will first note the firm place of the motif of the rustling wind in film theoretical debates from the late 19th century until today. Then, I will propose three modes of how viewers can experience this beautiful motif in film. In the following section I will discuss how film's mediation modifies the experience of natural beauty. And in a final step I will explore the reciprocal relation between nature and film, and how one can enhance the appreciation of the other. Ultimately, I follow two – mutually imbricated – goals. On the one hand, I aim to (re)connect the film theoretical discourse about the wind in the trees to natural beauty. On the other hand, I use the motif of the gently rustling wind to say something more general about the aesthetic experience of natural beauty in film.

The attributes and cultural meanings of the table as a place for coexistence around food are sources of relevance for the study of the history and daily life of families from the past. The aim of this article is to analyze the social value given by families to the shared act of consuming food at elite 19th-century Mexican tables. This is done through the documentary study of two early and unpublished family culinary manuscripts, handwritten cookbooks created and in use in the period around the declaration of independence of Mexico in 1821. The identification of technical language and words that express affection in recipes, as well as table-mounting related sections in these manuscripts, allows for the assessment of females' practice or male's intention of transmitting culinary knowledge orally and in writing. The importance of seasoning as a cultural identity trait is also evident, as well as the weight given by families to affection and aesthetics when transforming, serving, and sharing food in both intimate and public tables. The capacity of Mexican consumption spaces and their associated practices to communicate, maintain or increase prestige is observed as well. These results could be comparable with other environments and historical contexts with similar characteristics and deserve further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of music in eliciting emotional states among the Hamdouchiya Sufi order in Morocco. It highlights the aesthetic aspects of Sufi rituals as relational activities that impact sensory perceptions and mystical experiences. Music serves as a medium through which emotions are expressed, self-imagination takes form, and challenges to the study of rituals are presented. Aesthetics plays a pivotal role in Sufi practice and belief, involving the body as a vessel for spiritual transformation and interaction with music as reflections of the divine. The article also discusses the concept of aesthetics within a cultural context, emphasising its influence on socialisation and morality. Sufism provides an opportunity to contemplate the limits of the mind, self and emotions, thereby unveiling the ritualistic shaping of one's spiritual existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the work of Louise Rosenblatt and her transactional theory of reading, this article examines the experiential nature of literature. Challenging notions of literature that rely solely on fixed categories, the writings of Louise Rosenblatt emphasize the dynamic nature of the literary work. A poem, a novel, or a play, Rosenblatt argues, is not an object but a lived event requiring the reader's active participation. By exploring the concept of literary transaction, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the evolving role of the reader in producing and shaping the literary work. An analysis of the reader's engagement with the potentialities of the text reveals the literary work as an interactive process of assembling and sharing meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empathy, or Einfühlung as it was originally coined, first entered the psychological lexicon when it was used to describe the embodiment of artistic emotive qualities. Based on the empirical aesthetics literature, we explored this construct in the framework of visual attention in conjunction with analyses of aesthetic engagement and interest. A visual search paradigm was employed to examine the preattentive prioritization of components of emotive visual artworks between individuals scoring high or low on a validated questionnaire of empathy. Reaction times were significantly faster across all artworks, and several specific locations were responded to faster by highly empathic individuals. High empathy was associated with an enriched aesthetic experience, indexed by aesthetic interest and emotional engagement, to the most emotive artwork of the set. Qualitative measures provided further insights into the qualities of the artworks that may account for the differences reported here. The findings further contribute to understanding the myriad of psychological variables that influence our experience of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aesthetic experience of a group of artworks—such as an afternoon spent wandering in a museum—is not simply the sum of experiences of the individual works. In the present research, we explored visit-level aesthetic experiences in a field study of 298 visitors to a museum of modern and contemporary art. In particular, we focused on emotional diversity: the richness, complexity, and heterogeneity of the emotions that people experienced during their visit. After their visit, participants reported the degree to which they experienced, if at all, 10 emotions, from which we calculated diversity metrics reflecting their emotional variety (the number of emotions experienced) and emotional balance (the relative evenness between emotions or dominance of a single emotion) during the visit. Overall, the sample reported a rich aesthetic experience, but there was wide and predictable variability. Among other findings, emotional variety was higher for people with greater openness to experience and among first-time visitors to the museum; emotional balance was higher among people high in openness to experience and people with greater interest in art. The concept of diversity—the richness and complexity of someone's emotional experience of the arts—appears promising for understanding holistic aesthetic experiences, such as entire museum visits rather than single works, as well as for many other questions in empirical aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]