Notes Towards a Zonal Aesthetics

This paper offers the “zonality” as a nickname for a speculative conception of the work of art as relatively autonomous and constitutively “siteless” site. Drawing upon the works of James Turrell, I argue that any such treatment demands strategic and hypothetical “dislocation” of the art object fro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Calum Hazell
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Simon Dawes, Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) 2022-11-01
Series:Media Theory
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/671
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper offers the “zonality” as a nickname for a speculative conception of the work of art as relatively autonomous and constitutively “siteless” site. Drawing upon the works of James Turrell, I argue that any such treatment demands strategic and hypothetical “dislocation” of the art object from the spatiotemporal horizons and socio-political conditions contextually at issue, and the recognition – performed and embodied in thought – of its “radical foreclosure” to anthropic determination or embrace. Ultimately, through my proposal for an aesthetic strategy in “thinking-with the artwork,” I propose provisional terms for a novel experience of the extractions, abstractions, and subtractions the zonal artwork practices upon, and undergoes in relation to, its ambient environment and the attendant human subject.  
ISSN:2557-826X