Aesthetics for Birds

Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art for Everyone

January 10, 2020
by Aesthetics for Birds
0 comments

AFB’S Top 5 Posts of 2019

Thanks to our readers for another great year at Aesthetics for Birds! Here were our most-viewed posts this year. Scroll through to make sure you haven’t missed something big! (You can also check out our Top 5 of 2017 and Top 5 of 2018.) Note: Our actual Top 5 by the numbers included a few from previous years (including last year’s #1, 2017’s #5, and one surprise appearance). So below you’ll see the most popular five posts that first appeared in 2019.

February 14, 2018
by Aesthetics for Birds
0 comments

AFB, Now All Atwitter

Sorry for the groan-worthy pun, but we’re very excited to announce that AFB is now on Twitter! Go follow us at @ArtFlockTweets for post updates, announcements, calls/invitations, plus more aesthetics and philosophy of art-related content. And you can slide on into our DMs if you have post tips or other suggestions. Tweets by ArtFlockTweets

September 11, 2017
by Aesthetics for Birds
0 comments

New Faces at Aesthetics for Birds

Welcome back to a new year at Aesthetics for Birds! This year will bring all sorts of new things for the blog, but the most exciting is that we have five new collaborators! With these philosophers on board, we will be able to provide you with much broader, more diverse, and more frequent content. Other changes and new features will accompany this addition, but first the introductions. For those of you who are new to AFB, I will begin by introducing myself and Rebecca. (For more about AFB, visit our About page.) Alex King (Editor-in-Chief and Contributor; handles: aestheticsforbirds*, alexforbirds) Alex (that’s me) owns and is editor-in-chief of AFB. She is currently Assistant Professor at University at Buffalo (= SUNY Buffalo). Her research concerns the relationships among practical, moral, and aesthetic normativity. She also works on ‘ought implies can’ and issues surrounding high and low art (see her post on … Continue reading

May 5, 2017
by Aesthetics for Birds
0 comments

Introducing New Wing Commander: C. Thi Nguyen!

We’d like to welcome to the AFB team our newest Wing Commander (“Assistant Editor” in AFB lingo): C. Thi Nguyen! Here are some fun facts about Thi, so you can get to know him: Current position: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Utah Valley University Background: Once I was a food writer and a restaurant critic for the LA Times. This nearly derailed my graduate school career. Then I had to choose between that and academia. Still unsure if I chose properly. Philosophical interests: Trained as an epistemologist. Currently writing about game aesthetics and food aesthetics and even weirder aesthetics. Also, the epistemology stuff is still alive in a project on understanding how echo chambers work. Also: I swear all these interests are related. Most recent publication: “The Uses of Aesthetic Testimony”, about all the weird kinds of trust relationships our aesthetic lives involve, towards our reviewers, teachers, curators. Other hats: Chair of … Continue reading

September 1, 2016
by Aesthetics for Birds
3 Comments

Return of AFB

Dear Readers, Thank you, first, for your patience. Last year, AFB’s fearless leader Christy Mag Uidhir had a heart attack and literally died. But like another Christ before him, he rose again – and like that other Christ, passed the, uh, blog on to his disciples. [update: To be clear, Christy isn’t dead – he really did rise again and is doing well. But as far as I know, he hasn’t yet ascended.] Welcome, Readers, to the new Aesthetics for Birds blog! In case it’s gotten lost somewhere along the way, here’s a restatement and renewal of our mission. It is this: Aesthetics for Birds is a blog that aims to bring people working in aesthetics and philosophy of art together with each other, as well as with artists, the artworld, and others in philosophy and the academy. We provide a place to share interests, news, and professional concerns. We hope that … Continue reading

September 12, 2014
by Aesthetics for Birds
0 comments

1st Annual AFB Awards (The Ornies)

Aesthetics for Birds is proud to present… The 1st Annual AFB Awards (The Ornies) ********************************* Nominees were limited to Guest Posts and Interviews published in Aesthetics for Birds’ 1st year of operation (07/2013-07/2014) and where needed further narrowed based on total number of pageviews and comments received. A panel of 7 judges reviewed all nominees then rank ordered their preferences in each category with the AFB Award going to the nominee with the greatest weighted average. Winners will have their Ornie mailed to them in the form of a 3″x4″ sticker. Yes, that’s right, the Ornie is a sticker this year. ********************************* Nominees for Outstanding Guest Post: “Seven Puzzles About Pictorial Content” by Gabriel Greenberg “Wonder Works: Renovating Romanticism About Art” by Jesse Prinz “Thoughts on the Philosophy of Dance” by Aili Bresnahan “The Philosophical Importance of Aesthetics” by Anna Christina Ribeiro “A Very Practical Defence of Aesthetic Value” by … Continue reading

September 6, 2014
by Aesthetics for Birds
2 Comments

AFB Covers Contest WINNERS!

The AFB Cover Month Philosophy Contest tasked philosophers with providing (in 50 words or fewer) an answer to the question “Can a Band be its own Cover Band?” I received nearly two dozen entries, which were anonymized and sent along to independent judge P.D. Magnus (Albany). Below are the results, followed by a nice summary from the honorable Judge Magnus. 1st Place: BP Morton (Winner of an AFB T-shirt & Sticker Packet): 2nd Place: Eric Wiland (Winner of an AFB Sticker Packet): Honorable Mentions: Roy T. Cook, Jim Hamlyn, & Jonathan Weinberg ******************************* Judge’s Report The contest grew out of a conversation between Christy and me about whether musicians adopting different personas might do a cover of a song they had recorded earlier. It would have been easy to get caught up in how to define a ‘cover’, but we quickly realized that the meatier philosophical question was about the identity conditions … Continue reading