Esthétique : l’image contemporaine. L’analyse du concept de l’innovation

(Aesthetics: Contemporary Image. Analysis of the Concept Innovation)

Christiane Wagner holds a Ph.D. with the highest honors (mention très honorable/summa cum laude) in aesthetics and sciences of art from Université Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where the examining board recommended her thesis for publication in book form: “Esthétique : l’image contemporaine. L’analyse du concept de l’innovation” (Aesthetics: contemporary image. Analysis of the concept innovation), published by Blick 2013.

She received a Ph.D. in design and architecture from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (with highest honors) and a master’s degree in science of communication from the School of Communications and Arts (with highest honors). Both schools where she obtained her master’s degree and Ph.D. are part of the University of São Paulo (USP), ranked as the best university in Latin America.

Also, her dissertation “In Art: Invention and Artifice,” received recommendations for publication in book form (published by Blücher 2009).

Ph.D. Thesis Published as a Book

ISBN 978-85-63225-02-3 | ISBN 978-85-61209-76-6

Aesthetics: Contemporary Image. Analysis of the Concept Innovation

Abstract

Aesthetics, as an abstract phenomenon, always acts between form and perception. Its importance is noticeable yet subjective in economic and political relations and in‌ the dynamics of social relationships by configuring images that establish proximity or distance between humans of different cultures. It idealizes the beauty of form and aims to overcome perceived imperfections. However, this aesthetic analysis focuses on different conceptions and new forms, seeking to understand the creative context. Other aesthetic trends and notions are observed, along with art history. In visual and applied arts, examples are observed of the configuration of the perfect form. New shapes and contents appear as transformation processes, implying each culture’s order, values, and rules in building social imagery. With the advent of class society, new standards and conceptions began to obey consumption stratification, conditioning technological evolution, and aesthetic principles established in the universe of communication and art, followed by a sense of innovation in configuring images that would define the contemporary individual’s social status. However, would it be possible to realize innovation by analyzing creativity in new forms and differentiating imagination and fantasy? The image configuration guides itself based on practical reasons to meet social expectations. The social imaginary under the recognition of new paradigms results in innovation. Finally, this work seeks to understand the contemporary image in its aesthetic aspects, contextualizing the global and contemporary dynamics to understand the present better to build the future, even imaginatively, seeking innovation as a social solution through a collective and optimistic process. Book published by Blick, 2013.

Master’s Thesis Published as a Book

In Art: Invention and Artifice

“Technology is a strong example of the invention. As a human creation, it is the invention itself, the result of imagination and thinking. As a creature, it becomes a challenge and demands, from this same human being, imagination and thinking about its influences in the social model and what influences it. Technological development can also be seen as a creator and re-creator of messages. Given that humanity reached development and the “wonders” of technology, the need for a new understanding of its ethical repercussions is stressed. Therefore, it is urgent to explain the imagination and think on the level of human creation, on the level of cultural concreteness, in the various dimensions in which they manifest themselves. Human knowledge about this is still very hazy and has many gaps. Its meticulous study, in any of its dimensions, is always relevant, desirable, and necessary. And what revalues the imagination revalues the subject. This book, authored by Christiane Wagner, fits in there. Focusing on the question of imagination, it innovates by following a model of analysis (perhaps the best expression is a model of understanding) that distances itself from the Cartesian tradition of thinking. It goes far in the search for explanations in which it shows a commitment to focus on the theme of invention and on artifice in the context of broad dimensions.” Paulo de Tarso Oliveira, in the preface to Christiane Wagner’s book, was a member of the scientific advisory board for her dissertation at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo. Book published by Blücher, 2009. 

Research Network

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ORCID | Research Gate Profile | Academia Profile | Web of Science ResearcherID: T-9766-2017