Have you ever heard of aesthetic disobedience?  If not, you are not alone.  This new concept is in its beginning stages of being explored.  Just recently, a conference (founded by the IFK) in Vienna, Austria was co-organized by Department of Philosophy’s Dr. Jonanthan Neufeld in order to talk about and better understand aesthetic disobedience.  Because of the success of the conference, it has been covered in Austrian press (be sure to translate from German to English!) and articles, which will be out in January, by Der Standard and Ö1 radio.

Part of the success of the conference can be attributed to our own CofC faculty and students who participate in a discussion group called the Aesthetics Work Group.  Dr. Neufeld explains:

“The most interesting thing, it seems to me, is that the groundwork for my participation was laid by discussions I had with the Aesthetics Work Group here at the College of Charleston—an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students who meet several times a term to discuss pieces that we are working on. Last spring, thanks to a Dean’s Discretionary Fund grant, we were able to study and discuss a new book by Nato Thompson on participation, political protest, and art called Living as FormIn an extremely productive roundtable discussion that I led at the conference in Vienna, I raised particularly interesting examples that we had discussed here at CofC. That professional discussion was enriched because of the work students and faculty did together here.

So what IS aesthetic disobedience?  Although it is a fairly new term and concept,Dr. Neufeld was able to come up with a definition, or set of characteristics, of an act of aesthetic disobedience for our better understanding.  He explains:

“This account is a parallel to acts of Civil Disobedience, which
“aesthetic disobedience” is meant to echo. An act of Aesthetic Disobedience is one that violates a norm, or a set of norms, of political or art world practice; where the aesthetic disobedients accept the normative consequences of their actions; where the acts are performed publicly and where the aesthetic structure of the act is an integral part of its public function; where the acts draw attention to a conflict between normative commitments and their institutionalization; and where they promote a change within the institutionalization of our normative commitments. This is just a rough first brush at some characteristics of aesthetic disobedience. It’s loose enough that artists can engage in AD, as can performers, audiences, curators, etc.”