Lizzo playing James Madison’s crystal flute is a success story for preservationists. Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress is not. Continue reading

December 2, 2022
by Aesthetics for Birds
5 Comments
December 2, 2022
by Aesthetics for Birds
5 Comments
Lizzo playing James Madison’s crystal flute is a success story for preservationists. Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress is not. Continue reading
February 23, 2022
by Aesthetics for Birds
1 Comment
Philosopher Nick Riggle reflects on Yoko Ono’s famous performance work “Cut Piece” Continue reading
October 8, 2021
by Aesthetics for Birds
2 Comments
Why overt or even subtle acts of adornment-based rebellion against cisnormativity make things better for everyone. Continue reading
October 18, 2019
by Aesthetics for Birds
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What follows is a guest post by Marilynn Johnson. A Compulsive Con Man On January 4, 2016, a man who identified himself as Jeremiah Asimov-Beckingham walked into a New York City police station wearing a Harvard sweatshirt, a Wounded Warrior baseball hat, and military dog tags. He had come to inquire about an impounded BMW but was instead quickly arrested and charged with a crime. Why had this wealthy military veteran and Harvard grad been arrested? It turns out his name is Jeremy Wilson, not Jeremiah Asimov-Beckingham, and he had been arrested on charges of fraud. For years he had been traveling the country, adopting different personas. In New York, he had been living as Jeremiah Asimov-Beckingham, but this character was a fabrication.
May 6, 2019
by Aesthetics for Birds
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In preparation for the Met Gala, five scholars look at the history of camp and fashion. Continue reading
July 3, 2018
by Aesthetics for Birds
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What follows is a guest post by Laura T. Di Summa (William Paterson University). Perhaps we can agree on the fact that philosophers have not, for the most part, taken fashion very seriously. There seems to be something wrong, specifically, about being fashionable – about trafficking in the world of glossy magazines, runways, and looks and styles that change, frequently, and at a price. There seems to be something wrong about wearing the very clothes we find in those magazines, about buying them, and about investing energy (and money) in keeping up with them.
February 23, 2018
by Alex King
1 Comment
In a post for the Oxford University Press Blog titled “Cosplay is Meaningless”, G.R.F. Ferrari, a professor of Classics at Berkeley, argues that cosplay is just about perfecting the art of dress-up. He writes: Cosplayers … are not out to intimate something about themselves, or, for that matter, about anything else. As an occasional cosplayer myself, I have to say that I couldn’t disagree more with what Ferrari says. Cosplay is much more aesthetically, socially, and personally important than he gives it credit for.
November 7, 2017
by Alex King
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Tiffany’s is selling a tin can for $1000 and people are PISSED.
October 6, 2016
by Rebecca Millsop
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New York City’s Museum of Modern Art is certainly one of the most important and influential art institutions in the USA and the world. MoMA curators throughout the decades have made decisions that have greatly affected the way the artworld and public understand the nature of art. You can now view all materials from all of MoMA’s exhibitions, beginning with their opening in 1929. Check it out for yourself: MoMA’s Entire Exhibition History After, or perhaps before, check out a recent article in The Atlantic by Robinson Meyer, “The Museum of Modern Art’s Miraculous New Online Archive”, discussing the aesthetic and functional changes in exhibition documentation throughout the years.
April 26, 2016
by Aesthetics for Birds
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This is entry #48 in our 100 Philosophers, 100 Artworks, 100 Words Series.