AESTHETIC PHENOMENON AND ART: A MARCUSE’S CONCEIVEMENT

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Analyzing complete works author attempts to demonstrate Marcuse’s conceivement of aesthetic phenomena and art with the emphasis on the relation of art and revolution. In the article attention is firstly drawn to Marcuse’s doctoral dissertation. This text has significance in that Marcuse already here discerns a periphery subject (artist) as a subject of liberation. Author then offers a detailed examination of orphic-narcissistic civilization. That is the origin of aesthetic-sensuous revolution within framework of Freud’s theory. A status of art in capitalistic and in a version of socialistic society is then examined. While in the capitalistic society art is banalised by mass consumption in the socialist society art is instrumentally used for glorification and preservation of political order. Finally, author analyses qualitative change into society of aesthetic ethos which is rendered possible by sensitive cooperation of art and technology. Author’s intention is to offer critical, coherent and contextually situated interpretation of Marcuse’s art and aesthetic revolution.

COMPETING FOR THEATRE AUDIENCE IN DIGITAL AGE

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The main objective of this paper is to point out that it is possible to draw attention of a large number of people, in spite of their daily exposure to abundant media content, by using an original approach combined with an unexpected and imaginative idea and presenting the creative result via digital media. The paper will present the most successful guerrilla marketing campaign ever realized in Serbia for theatre art, named “Taxi drama”. The campaign was created for the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade in 2014, and had over 200 000 views on YouTube in a single day. The main conclusion of the paper is that creativity is crucial for attracting art audiences. Once more it has been confirmed that the new media have become indispensable when communicating with the audience.

RETHINKING THE POSSIBILITY OF CHARACTERIZING LIGHT FORMS OF VOJIN BAKIĆ AS MINIMAL ART

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This paper focuses on sculptures of Vojin Bakić and on their forms from the perspective of formal and contextual analysis. The paper will try to answer the question if his sculptures ‘Light forms’ (1963-1964) can be considered minimal art or not and why, and thus which arguments in defying and contextualizing art as minimal can be used to characterize his artworks. Also, for understanding these artworks it is necessary to take into consideration the context of their occurrence as well as the influence made by other movements and artists. I will provide arguments of other art historians but also my own reflections about this subject. The paper will try to place Bakić’s ‘Light forms’ in already given categories. The wider contextualization of his ‘Light forms’ and rethinking its characteristics as minimal art can serve as directions for further research and possible definitions of the art of the 60s in Yugoslavia.

THE ASPECTS OF MINIMALISM IN THE ART OF THE NINETIES: MIRJANA ĐORĐEVIĆ AND IVAN ILIĆ

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The paper focuses on mapping out the elements of historical Minimalism on the art scene in Serbia during the nineties. Modular structures, repeated units, serial syntax, reductive, primary and/or geometric forms, were all present in the art of Serbia (and Yugoslavia) during the sixties and the seventies, although more systematic reference to historical Minimalism and its formal and conceptual aspects will be featured in some art practices during the nineties. Artistic practice of Belgrade artists Mirjana Đorđević and Ivan Ilić (who spent some time at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with the professor Klaus Rinke and Jannis Kounellis, respectively) in the late eighties and during the nineties served as study cases in this research of the nature and meaning of the aspects of Minimalism in the art of the last decade of the 20th century. Therefore the paper investigates whether the formal codes of Minimal art presented in their artworks from that period have been the outcome of some kind of critical reception as was the most common case in the worldwide art productions during this decade, or they have been related to contemporary visual culture that inclined to reductive and minimal ‘look’ and aesthetics. Ilić and Đorđević certainly were not the only artists in Serbia who, under the influence of the ‘cool’ and hi tech industrial design, adopted the essential minimalist lexicon, but they have been very consistent in pursuing and developing in different ways. Their art practices were beyond question in terms of historical Minimalism. as much as the Minimalist aesthetics fashioned the visual horizon of the nineties and as much as the new technology and the possibilities based on logical structures and algorithms produced series, difference, subjects, objects, representations and reality and by the Minimalist model became desirable and included into process of making art. In the worldwide art of the nineties the artists have adapted the forms of historical Minimalism for their own use: the cold, precise, calculated, reserved Minimalist aesthetics was replaced by relational aesthetics, i. e. by interactive human relations and social exchange de facto following the processes of establishing the postindustrial society. In the circumstances of different kind of transition or more precise double transition: from Socialism to Capitalism and from industrial to postindustrial, post-Minimalism reflects the transition desire created and modelled by commodification and ideology of choice.

MINIMALISM AS AN EXPRESSION OF VISUAL IDENTITY ON THE SEPHARDIC TOMBSTONES AT THE BELGRADE JEWISH CEMETERY

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Sephardic tombstones at the Belgrade Jewish Cemetery provide a significant topic in studying the visual identity of the Jewish community in Serbia. Being symbols of the cultural history of a nation, they are also evidence of a style which became typical of the Sephardic Jews in the entire Balkans in the 18th and the 19th century. With their simplicity and minimalistic monumentality, they induced a certain contemplativeness in the observer, and their refined form inspired those who studied the funerary art to analyse their style which was created as a blend of ’traditions’ of two nations. Here, we will try to connect this style of funerary art with the philosophical minimalism, which in case of the Jewish people occurred due to many historical and social circumstances. Not wishing to overrule the philosophical grounds on which this art school was born in the 1960s, the paper rather aims to recognize its first beginnings in the cult tombstone art, which in time gained on historical and religious value which the newly started art school excluded from its symbolism. If we place these types of tombstones into Einstein’s relative time and space from which they emanate a different energy, then we can evoke the motto of the minimalistic art forms – The Less is More – where a deliberate absence of objectivity speaks louder than the objects themselves. 

EMOTICONS: WEALTH OF MINIMALISM ON THE INTERNET

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Online communication and all the innovations it brings open up many new fields of analysis in areas such as linguistics, psychology or sociology, as well as all their interdisciplinary combinations. One such innovation, to a greatest extent connected with the virtual world and virtual communication, is described in this paper. Emoticons are first defined and then their origin is presented, including the context in which they originated and the reasons for their popularity. The paper then addresses the evolution of the appearance of emoticons from the simplest graphic icons comprising of only punctuation, to the most diverse pictures and stickers representing various objects and concepts. Finally, three functions of emoticons are described in detail: conveying facial expressions, conveying emotions and expressing pragmatic functions such as positive attitudes, irony or hedges that either mitigate face threatening acts such as complaints or requests, or reinforce face saving acts such as promises or thanks.

MINIMALISM IN THE SHORT STORIES OF ANN BEATTIE: LIKE GLASS

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This paper analyses characteristics of minimalism – the narrative poetics that appeared in America in 1980s – on the example of short stories by Ann Beattie in general, and specifically her short story Like Glass. Analysis leads to the conclusion that the main features of the Beattie’s narrative coincide with the typical characteristics of minimalism: first of all simplicity in sentence structure, sparseness of motifs and vocabulary, small number of characters and absence of classical elements of narration like the plot or description, which give way to discovery of visual content i.e. to the visualisation of the narrative as a characteristic technique of Ann Beattie, giving her story such a typical non-linear structure.

STRATEGIES OF FILM MINIMALISM AND THE TRANSCENDENТAL IN THE SCIENCE FICTION FILM ARRIVAL BY DENIS VILLENEUVE

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Science fiction as a film genre often employs strategies of minimalism – through elements such as narrative structure, shots, camera angles, camera movement, composition, lighting, colour, costume, set design and sound narration. The minimalistic technique manifests transcendental style – the way Paul Schrader uses this term in his study Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (although it doesn’t cover this genre). This technique involves the principle of reduction in all possible forms, as well as repetition, abandoning decorative details and expressive techniques, conveying the film narrative to a stasis – a point where sparse means collide. Ontological query posed by SF dramas such as Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, where suspense derives from human contact with the Universe and from transcendence of earthly existence, also frames the film narrative Arrival directed by a Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Consistently executing minimalistic strategies, Villeneuve guides his female protagonist through contact with extra-terrestrial beings into the sphere of transcendental experience. This paper interprets those strategies in a film medium which follow minimalistic practices of painters and visual artists (Frank Stella, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and similar) as well as techniques of music minimalism through sound design and original soundtrack. The protagonist’s contact with heptapods (extra-terrestrials with seven limbs) not only results in deciphering their written language but in her own epiphany: going through transcendental experience she is given a gift of foreseeing her future and making life changing decisions.

DUAL IDENTITY AND LEARNING THROUGH STAGE EXPRESSION

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The art of theatre is a specific and harmonious synthesis of a variety of arts, which is why it has its effect on the viewer not only through words immersed in emotions at the time of their articulation, but also by the aesthetics of the mise-en-scene. This provides the theatre with great capacity for artistic expression as it simultaneously affects the senses, the mind and the emotions of the spectator. The theatre is also very appealing to children, none less than the adults. This is partly due to the fact that the stage presentations mostly feature a sort of ‘purposeful obviousness’ which is also a basic principle of general methodics in any educational work involving children and youth that allow sensory impressions to trigger a child’s imagination, learning process, critical and divergent thought and experience of the reality. Children are therefore especially receptive to the stage art which can deeply mark their personalities. Theatrical production for children as well as the methods and contents of their stimulation are described in the book Mudrost čula peti deo – dečje dramsko stvaralaštvo (The Wisdom of Senses Volume Five: Stage Productions for Children) (2010), which is part of the edition Mudrost čula (The Wisdom of Senses). This paper presents the determinants which constitute the methodics of stage production, also described in this book, with a particular emphasis on the methods.

BEHIND THE MASK: ADULT EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PERFORMANCE

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The paper aims to highlight the importance of play and performance for development and learning at all ages, both in early childhood and in adulthood. The mask and playing with the mask in this context appear as some of the possible tools and means for facilitation of play within the educational process. Performing with masks not only supports learning and development, but represents development in a nutshell: wearing a mask we are at the same time who we are and who we pretend to be. In this way, the mask can be an educational tool that can be used in all phases of the educational process, be part of the process or serve to present it. A mask can be given in advance or made while the process is going on, be one of the activities or serve to summarize the activities, and its use depends on the sensibility of the adult education practitioner.