Art as resistance to the erosion of the other in the information society

• Grant number: 22/16476-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Paula Priscila Braga
• Grantee: Eder Aleixo
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this research is to identify the role, possibility, and potential of artistic creation in the information society. The scope of the problem to be explored is defined by two parameters drawn from the work of philosopher Byung-Chul Han: 1) the contemporary crisis in the relationship with otherness; 2) the intensification of this crisis through the digitalization of everyday life, driven by new communication technologies that shape the information society. The study seeks to examine the relationship between otherness and the phenomenon of creation in light of Han's thought, which depicts the contemporary era as marked by the erosion of the Other, that is, the elimination of otherness. According to Han, the self today suffers from a lack of connection with what opposes the regime of the self, with what negates it, living within a self-referential and narrow domain that isolates it from the Other. This scenario is exacerbated by digital media and the uniformity of information they produce. Thus, the aim is to elucidate how creation emerges as a counterforce that pulls the self out of its inwardness and can be mobilized to constitute a broader, communal world where the self and the Other may reconnect and resist the erosion of otherness.