Books by Jay Miller
Columbia University Press, 2021
In both politics and art in recent decades, there has been a dramatic shift in emphasis on repres... more In both politics and art in recent decades, there has been a dramatic shift in emphasis on representation of identity. Liberal ideals of universality and individuality have given way to a concern with the visibility and recognition of underrepresented groups. Modernist and postmodernist celebrations of disruption and subversion have been challenged by the view that representation is integral to social change. Despite this convergence, neither political nor aesthetic theory has given much attention to the increasingly central role of art in debates and struggles over cultural identity in the public sphere.
Papers by Jay Miller
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
In this article, I raise a simple but surprisingly vexing question: What makes heavy metal heavy?... more In this article, I raise a simple but surprisingly vexing question: What makes heavy metal heavy? We commonly describe music as "heavy," whether as criticism or praise. But what does "heavy" mean? How is it applied as an aesthetic term? Drawing on sociological and musicological studies of heavy metal, as well as recent work on the aesthetics of rock music, I discuss the relevant musical properties of heaviness. The modest aim of this article, however, is to show the difficulty, if not impossibility, of this seemingly straightforward task. I first address the difficulties of identifying the defining features, or "Gestalt," of heavy metal that would allow us to treat heaviness as a genre concept. Next, I discuss both the merits and the limits of analyzing heaviness in terms of an aesthetics of "noise" in rock music developed in recent philosophy of music. In the remaining sections, I consider other nonaesthetic features relevant to aesthetic judgments of heaviness and show that the term 'heavy' is conceptually inarticulable, if not irreducible. This, I conclude, has partly to do with the radically different, sometimes incompatible, musical properties present in the perception of musical heaviness.
Aesthetics for Birds , 2020
American Society for Aesthetics Newsletter, 2019
One of the most exciting things about working in aesthetics and philosophy of art is that the pur... more One of the most exciting things about working in aesthetics and philosophy of art is that the pursuit of questions about art and beauty allows us, and sometimes forces us, into other fields of inquiry-to the ethical, the political, the metaphysical, the scientific, and so on. We are, by nature if not necessity, interdisciplinary. We enjoy a special kind of intellectual freedom to talk about nearly anything. That doesn't always mean, however, that we we should.
In its relatively short existence, Black Mountain College became a pioneer of a progressive educa... more In its relatively short existence, Black Mountain College became a pioneer of a progressive education movement that put the arts at the center of the liberal arts curriculum. Here I examine a range of reasons advanced by its advocates and show some of the difficulties that arise on the instrumental view of art as an educational asset. Drawing on the educational philosophy of John Dewey, I then develop an alternative approach to the question of art’s educational value. Instead of identifying and articulating the specific sense in which art is useful, what I call the pragmatic approach frames the value of art in terms of its unique capacity to examine and challenge the normative assumptions built into conventional judgments of the “useful.”
In this interview, I pursue with Chin the idea of his work as a
“posthumanist” form of art, not o... more In this interview, I pursue with Chin the idea of his work as a
“posthumanist” form of art, not only in terms of its thematic
occupation with the natural environmental, ecological welfare,
and technological development, but also in terms of its process-oriented
methodology.
This paper aims to reinvigorate a debate between two seemingly opposed approaches of socially eng... more This paper aims to reinvigorate a debate between two seemingly opposed approaches of socially engaged art. In the first part,
Contemporary philosophy of art stands at the intersection of two competing paradigms in the disco... more Contemporary philosophy of art stands at the intersection of two competing paradigms in the discourse on political aesthetics: the critical and the affirmative. Along the critical dimension is the view that art and politics stand in an antagonistic relation. The conservative expression of this antagonism is exempified in Plato’s notorious verdict against poetry as a second-rate and socially corrosive form of imitation; hence Book X of the Republic serves as the classic statement of political power censoring artistic practices on ideological grounds. Along the critical dimension is the view that art can underwrite or advance certain social and political practices, as developed in Friedrich Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Mankind. Schiller’s optimistic vision of post-Revolutionary Europe entails an optimistic conception of aesthetic beauty as the primary vehicle of moral and political reform. But this logic of cultural affirmation through art has in recent decades been coopted to serve the far more sinister ends of political propaganda and fascist ideology. Consequently, modern aesthetic theory has rightly reverted to the antagonistic model while reversing the power relation: art as an effective critical force against dominant political structures (e.g. Ranciere). I argue, however, that this view does not sufficiently accommodate the increasing presence of contemporary art that is both critically subversive and culturally affirmative at once. Focusing specifically on the life and work of Chinese dissident artist, Ai Weiwei, I argue instead that a more complex dynamic exists today between artistic practices, political power, and an increasingly global community, and this that exists today contemporary philosophy of art must draw on both the critical and affirmative paradigms of political aesthetics in order to give full expression to.
Reviews by Jay Miller
Journal of Aesthetic Education, 2024
Reviews of My Book by Jay Miller
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2022
In his debut monograph Ayon Maharaj develops the core argument of his 2009 doctoral dissertation ... more In his debut monograph Ayon Maharaj develops the core argument of his 2009 doctoral dissertation into an original and meticulously crafted account of aesthetic agency in its conceptual evolution from Kant to Adorno. The central argument --that art can offer uniquely valuable and revealing forms of experience --is, of course, nothing new: it is one of the central claims of German Idealism's challenge to the sovereignty of Enlightenment rationality. Similarly, the historical arc is a familiar one, proceeding from Kantian to Romantic to Hegelian aesthetics and culminating with Adorno's post-romantic synthesis of these competing traditions. Nor, for that matter, is the attempt to rescue the claims of Idealist aesthetics for the present without precedent; Maharaj joins a growing chorus of recent thinkers (e.g., Robert Pippin, J.M. Bernstein, William Desmond) attempting to revisit and rethink those claims from a contemporary standpoint.
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Books by Jay Miller
Papers by Jay Miller
“posthumanist” form of art, not only in terms of its thematic
occupation with the natural environmental, ecological welfare,
and technological development, but also in terms of its process-oriented
methodology.
Reviews by Jay Miller
Reviews of My Book by Jay Miller
“posthumanist” form of art, not only in terms of its thematic
occupation with the natural environmental, ecological welfare,
and technological development, but also in terms of its process-oriented
methodology.