Critical Perspectives |

Dissertation Proposal OGR

18/02/2018
Rachael Holyhead
Proposed Dissertation Enquiry:

‘An Argument in ‘mimesis’

Dissertation Synopsis
For my dissertation I wish to explore the placement of ‘mimesis’ across the history of art (as influenced by varying ideas around ‘truth’, and ‘function’),
right up to its presence within contemporary culture. Specifically in relation to computer arts and animation, wherein 3D has brought ‘mimesis’ the closest
its ever come to ‘true reality’, in its emphasis as a tool to ‘imitate life’. We see programs such as Maya responding to an increasing emphasis on ‘realism’
within 3D animation, for instance, with it’s introduction of ‘Arnold’ rendering.
The consequence of which being an inability to distinguish imitative reality from the ‘true reality’, with negative consequences (as argued by Baudrillard
1988). A trigger to the human phenomena of ‘the Uncanny Valley’ arguably becomes a reassuring means of preventing the fake reality to excel beyond
the ‘true reality’. If we’ve an innate ability to identify mimicry from ‘true reality’, then it’s possible to dissociated and un-immersed individuals from the text
they consume.

Incidentally this then relates to interpretation, and again, the emphasis on viewer and author within the text they create/consume. How does the author’s
own ‘reality’ towards the commonly referred to: ‘true reality’ differ from the ‘viewers’? How does ‘relative realities’ influence the practise of ‘mimesis’?

The goal for ‘mimesis’ to become the ‘true reality’ seems both desirable and negatively oppressive within contemporary culture.
Will this practise remain ever persistent within the arts, and if so- is there a way to re-evaluate the function of ‘mimesis’ away from it being a mere ‘dead-
end’ in the development of arts, and instead a way to help 3D flourish?
Chapter 1 Synopsis
Chapter 1: Mimesis - A Cultural History Of Man's Preoccupation With Art Imitating Life.

Chapter 1 of my dissertation begins with a cultural history of man’s fixation on ‘Art’ imitating ‘Life’. This fixation being referred to as ‘Mimesis’ (the Greek
work meaning “to imitate”) for purposes of the essay.

This means discussing the act of ‘mimesis’ in arts earliest forms, (the act of ‘drawing’/reproducing reality upon a surface) as a conveyance of visual
information using human re-presentation in the absence of more ‘exact’ technology (i.e. ‘photography), and ‘beauty’ as a particular ‘true reality’ that
‘prompts copies of itself’ (Elaine Scarry, ‘On Beauty’ 2000)…
to it’s re-functioning in ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ in response to the postmodernist mindset, and now its position in contemporary culture.

I wish to discuss Plato, Nietzsche and Aristotle's discussions around mimesis as “the re-presentation of nature”, and their value in regards to ‘truth’
(“…he [Plato] stated [art and poetry] were immoral and untruthful… Nietzsche’s “ re-evaluation of art’s relation or non-relation- to truth”… with
“postmodern philosophers nullified the opposition between truth and falsity”, and Aristotle's ‘riposte’ to Plato’s view on art: revaluing art away from ‘truth
and moral worth’ to it’s ability to evoke “pleasure, understanding and emotion”).

For the purposes of this discussion, I wish to cover both aspects of ‘Mimesis’; mimicking as visual likeness (i.e. robots), and mimicking so to capture
‘believability’ (within animation, even if the subject matter does not exist within the ‘true reality’).

I also shall discuss the presence of ‘relative’ realities, with mimesis as dependent upon ‘author’ and ‘reader’.
Chapter 2 Synopsis
Chapter 2: Hyperrealism & The Uncanny or 'The Problem of Mimesis’

For my second chapter I wish to discuss the implications of mimesis in contemporary culture. Particularly how the 3D environment now allows us to
achieve this ultimate goal for ‘realism’; wherein mimesis crosses the line beyond fake to the ‘true reality’.
This will advance into the inability to determine one from the other, with Baudrillard's argument of ‘hyper-reality’ (1981); the causing intentions and
implications of which sit at the forefront of modern media.

Here I discuss the moral implications of ‘mimesis’ (as seen in Rogue One; reanimating the dead), it’s affect upon the ‘author and ‘reader’ (the idea of
the author being conceal once 'mimesis’ passes across to ‘true reality’), and the need we have for it (i.e. historical purposes for extinct
wildlife/artefacts).

I’ll then introduce Freud’s ‘Uncanny’ theory, as it relates to the ‘uncanny valley’, as a reassuring means of identifying ‘fake from ‘true’ reality. A
preventative precaution against “hyper-reality” that’s naturally hardwired into us as people. Particularly in a culture wherein technologically has begun
to precede human intelligence.

Knowing ‘false’ from ‘true reality’ arguably allows for “ a sense of distance between the spectator and the tragic hero” that allows us to “enjoy tragedy
and take aesthetic pleasure in it”, as discussed by Aristotle.
.
Chapter 3 Synopsis
Chapter 3: Post-Realism or The Future of Mimesis: Case-Studies

The ultimate goal for ‘mimesis’ to become the ‘true reality’ currently seems to be a ‘dead-end’ with the development of art; specifically in the field of
computer animation arts, wherein technology has allowed us the closest point to interchangeable reality. A goal that seems both desirable, and negatively
oppressive within contemporary culture. I wish to discuss the new ways of approaching this subject in the current movement of ‘post-realism’; there to help
3D flourish.

Due to the fact this subject is still evolving, existing case studies and discussions are currently in progress.
Thus, I intend to ask people in the field working with these issues currently, their experiences, and new attitudes to approach ‘mimesis’ in a way that
doesn’t limit their input/creativity, and work presently.
I also intend only to discuss one specific area of ‘mimesis’, as the area of this discussion is too wide for the purpose of the essay criteria.
Acknowledging the fact it’s still evolving.

My possible case studies will include

1- One successful text, with a self-aware emphasis on ‘realism’, that doesn’t take away or un-immerse people from itself.
2- One text that mimics reality, but does so with negative effects on the viewer.
Current Research Proforma
Author: Jean Baudrillard [ed. Mark Poster]
Critical Position: French sociologist, philosopher, and cultural theorist.
Title: ‘Jean Baudrillard, Selected Writings: Simulacra and Simulation’
Publisher/Publication: Stanford University Press
Date: 1988
Chapter: ‘Simulacra and Simulations’ [pg 166-184]
Key points and potential use:
Discusses the presence of the ‘hyperreal’, and the ‘simulated’, within ‘contemporary
culture’ and our acknowledgement of such which in turn masks the fact the real
world, for instance, outside of ‘Disneyland’ is just as- if not more so- hyper-real than
the world of Disneyland itself.
I wish to discuss Baudrillard's view of ‘hyper-realism’ as something that’s perhaps
unalterable, and how this manipulation away from the ‘true reality’ provoked such
strong, and forlorn responses from similar theorists in recent history.
Author: Walter Benjamin
Critical Position: Marxist German-Jewish philosopher and theorist.
Title: ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’
Publisher/Publication: In ‘Illuminations’.
Date:1935
Chapter: [All]
Key points and potential use:
Discussing the value of art in the age of replication and exact ‘mimesis’, which
then relates to the ‘aura’ (as a aspect of the original work that is lost in re-
production).
Author: Sigmund Freud
Critical Position: Austrian neurologist and founder of ‘psychoanalysis’
Title: ‘The Uncanny’
Publisher/Publication: Penguin Classics
Date:2003
Chapter: The Uncanny (pg. 121)
Key points and potential use:
Freud discusses the ‘uncanny’, as a marginal aspect of aestheticism/’emotional
impulse’, distinguishable within the field of ‘frightening’. He explains the
characteristics and delicate circumstances perhaps needed to trigger the
‘uncanny’ result, and the way in which it makes people feel.
He argues it as ‘the truth’ we’ve long been familiar with, but –one aspect- has
resurfaced, that we hadn’t otherwise noticed.
This discussion in term relates to the ‘uncanny valley’, (as coined by Masahiro
Mori in his 1970 essay), which can aid my discussion in the ‘uncanny’ being a
‘positive’ means for humans to recognise the act of ‘mimesis’ from ‘true reality’.
Author: Louis Arnaud Reid
Critical Position: A British philosopher, eminent in her field of Philosophy
of Education, at the London University Institute of Education.
Title: ‘Art, Truth and Reality’
Publisher/Publication: Oxford University Press
Date: 1986
Chapter:
Key points and potential use:
Discusses human tendency to assign ‘truth’ and ‘false’ to art texts;
particularly around abstract painting, sculpture or music as representative
arts away from the ‘true reality’.
Author: Christoper Kul-Want Author: Richard Appignanesi; Chris Garratt; Ziauddin Sardar; Patrick
Critical Position: Course Leader of ‘Mres Art’, and the ‘Leader of the Art Curry
Theory and Philosophy pathway at Central Saint Martins”. Critical Position: \
Title: ‘Introducing: Aesthetics’ Title: ‘Introducing: Postmodernism’
Publisher/Publication: Icon Books Ltd. Publisher/Publication: Icon Books Ltd.
Date: 2007 Date: 2004
Chapter: [All] Chapter: ‘Art or Art’s Sake’
Key points and potential use: Key points and potential use:
Discusses the history and theoretic changes in ‘aesthetics’ (i.e. the way Introducing the turning point of modernism and post-modernism, wherein
art ‘looks’). art began to adopt the ‘art for art’s sake’ stance. I.e. art shouldn’t be
Covers: judged or influenced by other areas of society, i.e. religion, politics etc.)
> Plato, Socrates and Aristotle in their impact upon ‘Aestheticism’, around
‘truth’ and ‘mimesis’ as a means of valuing art.
Particularly how cultural ideas around reality and ‘mimesis’, change the Author: Nicholas G. Chernyshevsky
value of art, depending upon relative ‘true realities’. Critical Position: Russian influential critic, revolutionary
> The renaissance democrat, philosopher and socialist.
The revival of Greek concepts on aesthetics, that saw mimesis in relation Title: The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality’
to naturalism and aesthetic ‘likeness’ to ‘true reality’ as paramount, Publisher/Publication: Russian Philosopher Volume II: The
despite the presence of the creator’s views on subject matter in the work Nihilists, The Populists, Critics of Religion and Culture,
they produce (particularly around religion). Quadrangle Books.
> The natural law of ‘perspective’, as featured in religious paintings as a Date: 1965 [first written In 1853]
way of enforcing concept of ‘the Subject’ as ”an ideal of a transcendent, Chapter: [All]
objective Mind”, standing before the painting like “an omnipotent God”. Key points and potential use:
This element of selective- ‘mimesis’ there to enforce the cultural Art as a tool made by humans for humans. Noncomparable to
beliefs of the ‘viewer and ‘author’ at the time. ‘Mimesis’ as ‘reality’ in terms of ‘better’ or ‘worse’.
dependent upon the author and viewer.
 Author: Louise Arnaud Reid
Critical Position: A British philosopher, eminent in her field of Philosophy of Education,
Author: Umberto Eco at the London University Institute of Education.
Critical Position: Italian novelist, literary critic, philosopher and Title: ‘Meaning in the Arts’
university professor. Publisher/Publication: Routledge
Title: ‘On Beauty: A History of a Western idea’ Date:2002
Publisher/Publication: Rizzoli Chapter:
Date:2004 Part 1 | Introductory: On Talking About i- The Arts ii- Criticism and Aesthetics,
Chapter: Chapter 1: ‘The Aesthetic Ideal in Ancient Greece’ (pg’s. 37-48) Part 3 | Representative, Abstract and Other Arts
and ‘Chapter 2: ‘Beauty as Proportion and Harmony” (pgs. 61-90) i- Arts ii- Representative arts, expression and embodiment, iii- Abstract and other arts,
Key points and potential use: Part 4 | Aesthetic Meaning, Knowledge, Truth
‘Beauty’ as the ideal, and it’s relation to ‘truth’ (the accuracy of the art to i- Meaning, feeling, value, symbolism and the arts,
the ‘truth’ of ‘reality’)- as the act of ‘mimesis’ within art- within Greek Ii- Art, knowledge and truth
culture- as influenced by Plato. Iii- Standards and truth, in art and science
Iv- Revelation and the Aesthetic
Key points and potential use:
Author: Elaine Scarry Identifying the aesthetic experience/’object’, as an aspect of humanity that expands out
Critical Position: American essayist and professor of English and beyond merely art. Our existing means of criticism, as it involves interpretation and
American Literature and Language. evaluation (“the judgement of ‘good’ or ‘bad’)- and ‘mimesis’s’ role as ‘accurate’
Title: ‘On Beauty: And Being Just’ depiction within the arts.
Publisher/Publication: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd
Date:2000
Chapter: Part One- ‘On Beauty and Being Wrong’, and Part Two- ‘On Author: David Kenneth Holt
Beauty and Being Fair’ Critical Position: [No available information]
Key points and potential use: Title: ‘The search for aesthetic meaning in the visual arts: The need for the
This ‘beauty’ (i.e. what imitates life closely, and/or functions in a particular aesthetic tradition in contemporary art theory and education’
way in culture/historical terms), as something that “seems to incite, even Publisher/Publication: Bergin & Garvey
to require the act of replication”. The visual act of ‘staring’ evolving within Date: 2001
the arts as this act of replication/mimesis, so to re-capture the original Chapter: [All]
moment/reality. Key points and potential use:
Is this a aspect of humanity that is too deeply engrained within us to The negative effect of postmodern theory and education onto the concept of aesthetic
change? experiences. An argument to re-examine tradition views around art (i.e. ‘aesthetic
tradition’), and use this understanding to “broaden contemporary art theory”, and “aid
individuals who seek aesthetic meaning in the visual arts”.
Books
- ‘Introducing Postmodernism’ (2004) | Appignanesi, Richard; Garratt, Chris; Sardar, Ziauddin and Curry, Patrick

- ‘Art, Truth and Reality’ (1964) | Louis Arnaud Reid

An argument for fictitious reality: with art as a means of bettering our understanding of life.

- ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ (1981) | Jean Baudrillard

- ‘Art’s Claim to Truth’ (1985) | Vattimo, Gianni

- ‘Meaning in the Arts’ (2002) | ‘Louise Arnaud Reid

- ‘Myth, Meaning and Performance: Towards a New Cultural Sociology of the Arts’ (2006) | Ronald Eyerman and Lisa McCormick

The presence of author: cultural to culture (reflection and influence of).

- ‘The search for aesthetic meaning in the visual arts: The need for the aesthetic tradition in contemporary art theory and education’ (1947) David
Kenneth Holt

“Post-modern art theory is characterised by a denial of the validity of a formalistic evaluation of art. Post-modern critics emphasize the contextual meaning of the
work of art and often elucidate its personal or political meaning. Many Post-modern critics believe that High-modernism had become restrictive, elitist, conservative,
sexist or out-dated”.

“Arthur Danto in After the End of Art’ states: “contemporary art unlike all art prior to it, is post-historical, that is, it lacks a stylistic unity and narrative direction”.

- ‘Introducing Aesthetics’ (2007) | Christopher Kul-Want Piero

 “Venturi’s acceptance of this tradition, that art can be adequately understood only considering it to be concerned with intuitive activity is, of course, in direct
opposition to contemporary Post-modern views on art and aesthetics. A central concern for Venturi was that a growing Postivism (as practiced by theorists
such as Hippolyte Taine), was having the detrimental effect of creating an age where one had lost the consciousness of the autonomy or specialness of art
that had existed since classical times. It was the absolute determinism of Postivism that eliminated both the autonomy and distinctiveness of aesthetic
experience from other cognitive experiences. Art had become predetermined not by the genius of the artist but by race and environmental factors. The
concept of art as an intuitive and transcendent activity was being threatened”. – The search for Aesthetic Meaning in the Visual Arts – David Kenneth Holt

- Sigmund Freud – ‘The Uncanny’

(the truth we’ve been familiar with, resurfaces an element of itself that hadn’t otherwise been noticeable).  Relating to the ‘uncanny valley’ and the immersivity
(‘Ludonarrative Dissonance’ (2007) – a “disconnect between the story told by the games mechanical interactions, and the story told by the games narrative
interaction”).
- ‘On Beauty: And Being Just” (2000), “Elaine Scarry” & ‘On Beauty: A History of A Western Idea’ (2004) Umberto Eco.
Beauty as prompting a copy of itself (the visual act of ‘staring’ as appropriated in the arts as “the act of replication”. “Wittgenstein says that when the eye sees
something beautiful, the hand wants to draw it”. (Selective choice on ‘author’s’ part of ‘reality’) – negatively seen as the cause of groups of people imitating
existing ‘styles’ and aesthetics, but positively as a motivating force to ‘creating’ and ‘making’ things.
‘Truth’ as being influenced by societal expectation and the framework of the human mind (human nature). Truth= ‘Good’. Beautiful= ‘Good’
- The sublime (2006) | Philip Shaw

Essays
- ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936) | Walter Benjamin
- ‘The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality’ (1853) | Nicholas G. Chernyshevsky
Art as a tool made by humans for humans. Noncomparable to ‘reality’ in terms of ‘better’ or ‘worse’.
- ‘Aura’ (2004) | Yong, Mike (The University of Chicago)
- ‘The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality’ (1853) | Nicholas G. Chernyshevsky (Transcribed by Harrison Fluss, 2008)
Magazine Articles, Papers and Journals
Helen Charman and Michaela Ross, 'Contemporary Art and the Role of Interpretation', Tate Papers, no.2, Autumn 2004,
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/02/contemporary-art-and-the-role-of-interpretation, [Accessed Date: 28/01/2018]

‘Philosophy Now’ (No Date Provided), ‘What is Art? And/or What is Beauty?’ [Online]. Available at:
https://philosophynow.org/issues/108/What_is_Art_and_or_What_is_Beauty [Accessed Date: 28/01/2018]
“In the context of art, beauty is the gauge of successful communication between participants – the conveyance of a concept between the artist and the perceiver.
Beautiful art is successful in portraying the artist’s most profound intended emotions, the desired concepts, whether they be pretty and bright, or dark and sinister. But
neither the artist nor the observer can be certain of successful communication in the end. So beauty in art is eternally subjective.”
Harbison, Isobel and Charlesworth, JJ (2016), ‘Does beauty still matter in art?’, [Online]. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/does-
beauty-still-matter-art [Accessed Date: 03/02/2018]

Scientific American (2014), ‘Living in an Imaginary World’, [Online]. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/living-in-an-imaginary-world/
[Accessed Date: 28/01/2018]

The mental space of daydreaming as a means of creativity action; fictitious reality vital for functioning in ‘true’ reality. We live in a world made by humans for
humans- the degree of ‘realism’ varies in creative practise and ‘believability’ helps better visualise these alternative ‘realities’.