Aesthetic Experience and the Negativity of Art

• Grant number: 25/01315-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Rúrion Soares Melo
• Grantee: Ricardo Ribeiro Lira da Silva
• Supervisor: Juliane Rebentisch
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Hochschule Für Bildende Künste Hamburg, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/08521-9 - Spontaneity and subjectivation of domination: the actuality of Theodor W. Adorno's critical theory of music, BP.PD

Abstract

This proposal is part of my ongoing postdoctoral project, titled "Spontaneity and the Subjectification of Domination: An Actualization of Adorno's Critical Theory of Music". In this project, I explore the complex outcomes of the critical reception of Adorno's aesthetics by the so-called "second generation" of Critical Theory, especially in terms of understanding the relationship between art, politics, and society. In this context, during the proposed research internship at the HFBK Hamburg, I intend to address the issue of the relationship between aesthetic experience and the negativity of art, with a focus on Wellmer's work. On one hand, Wellmer's shift toward the communicative dimension of aesthetic experience, which largely aligned with Habermas's communicative turn, makes explicit the limits of the Adornian critical model, particularly concerning the metaphysical and historical-philosophical assumptions underlying its concept of artistic material and its elitist implications. On the other hand, especially in his later writings on music, Wellmer reengages with Adorno by reframing the problem of the negativity of aesthetic experience in terms of its relation to the world and to other social practices.He not only attempts to translate the negative dimension of aesthetic experience into hermeneutic-communicative terms, but also, through close analysis of the contemporary musical repertoire, points to its concrete manifestation in a much more pluralistic way than Adorno would allow. In this sense, the central aim of this research is to examine the extent to which this new articulation between aesthetic experience and negativity - which also involves a reframing of central concepts such as the artwork, the autonomy of art, as well as the formulation of a pluralistic yet not relativistic conception of artistic material - could overcome the limitations of the Adornian model, without abandoning its critical impetus.