First Meeting of Aesthetics Work Group

Hi, All. There was no unanimity, but the vast majority of you can meet on Friday, Sept 7th at 3:15. The first meeting will be in 14 Glebe, but we might migrate someplace nearby if lots of people show up.

Since this is relatively late notice, we won’t do anything too heavy for this first meeting. First, we will talk a bit about the schedule, see who wants to present some work or has something the group could take a look at. Then, since the Philosophy Club is talking about the politics of performance art and has made the lovely flyer attached to this email, I thought we might read a bit about to political actions of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot. Here are a couple of random-ish links to catch up, for those of you who haven’t been following the story:

Arrest (with links to the band’s website, etc.) https://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/06/russian-punks-pussy-riot-putin-protest
Conviction: https://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/17/pussy-riot-sentenced-prison-putin?intcmp=239
Closing statements in court by band members: https://nplusonemag.com/pussy-riot-closing-statements
International protests: https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/scenes-from-the-pussy-riot-protests/261300/

General question to start things rolling: there have been a number of protests of Putin and his politics. Why all the fuss over this one? What does art (music? Punk music? Feminist punk music?) bring to the debate that a good old fashioned demonstration or political-protest intervention doesn’t? Is there something about an artistic/aesthetic intervention into politics that makes a difference?

I’m looking forward to Friday.

jn
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Jonathan A. Neufeld
Department of Philosophy