Judgement after Kant, Deleuze and television
Panse, Silke (2013) Judgement after Kant, Deleuze and television. In: 6th Deleuze Studies Conference, 8-10 July 2013, University of Lisbon.
- Details
This paper develops research into philosophy and television. While film has become accepted as worthy of philosophy, for most philosophers ephemeral television discounts the eternal truths of philosophy even if they are otherwise not interested in such stratified truths - like Deleuze.
Television is permeated with judgement: of performance in The X-Factor, The Voice or American Idol; of behaviour in Paris Hilton's British, American or Dubai Best Friend; of love in A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila or The Bachelor; of looks in America's, Britain's and Australia's Next Top Model; of matter in Master Chef; and so on. While Kant discusses judgement as external to a work and the beholder judges the art work from outside of it, in what I call 'judgement shows' aesthetic judgement has become the main content of the work itself. Written at a time before the cinematographic realist image (1790) where the image in art was still and an imitation of life, Kant’s Critique of Judgement is based on a separation of art and life. According to Kant, for aesthetic judgement the depicted object or subject does not actually have to exist and we must be disinterested in order to judge aesthetics properly. By contrast, aesthetic judgements of a voice on the X Factor, are causally connected with the emotion of the judges and the judging audience. In television today, it is the emotions that the subject evokes which are judged. In judgement shows, the judges of aesthetics have moved into the work. The judging spectator is now overwhelmed in the image and living subjects have assumed the position of the art object in front of them.
Deleuze describes how generally aesthetic judgement has no effect on what it judges: “The faculty of feeling in its higher form is not legislative (1984: 47); "the faculty of feeling has no domain" and aesthetic judgement is “powerless to legislate over objects” (1984: 48). While the beholder had no effect on the painting they aesthetically judged, the judges in a judgement show have an effect on whom they are aesthetically judging. Only in television, is aesthetic judgement able to "legislate over its subjects" (1984: 48).
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit View |