Aesthetic practice and critical faculties

01.03.2017
Research project

The research project investigates the role that aesthetic education plays in the formation of critical perception, thinking and action skills. Using a phenomenological inventory of methods, a concentrated qualitative study will be conducted to determine how 14-year-old students from different educational backgrounds deal with situations of aesthetic experience and what they are willing to learn from them.

Project Management
iris Laner (Department of Fine Arts & Design )

Sponsor
fWF | Hertha-Firnberg Program

Duration
01.03.2017 until 31.12.2022

The study is guided by the question of how the students' aesthetic educational history interacts first with their general ability to have aesthetic experiences in the first place and to engage with an aesthetic situation, their aesthetic attitudes, and their understanding of aesthetic activity and agency. Building on this qualitative study, which is exploratory and exemplary in nature, as well as a comprehensive philosophical discussion, the research project aims to develop a differentiated understanding of the critical potential of aesthetic practice that takes into account the factual pedagogical conditions of aesthetic experience.