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Therapeutic aesthetics : performative encounters in moving image artworks / Maria Walsh.

By: Series: Radical aesthetics, radical art | Radical aesthetics, radical artPublication details: London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.Description: 240 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 9781350093133
Subject(s): Available additional physical forms:
  • Also available in printed form ISBN 9781350093157.
Contents:
1. Setting the scene – two supplementary vignettes
2. The imbrication of poison and cure in Harun Farocki
3. Homeopathic mimicry in Omer Fast's war trilogy
4. Melanie Gilligan's signifying semiologies and the micro-resistance of collective subjectivity
5. Pharmacological reparation in Liz Magic Laser's Primal Speech
6. Leigh Ledare's pharmacological aesthetics of group analysis
7. Aesthetic modes of performative truth-telling in The O Show and Self Made
8. The transitional pleasures of emotional labour in Lucy Beech's and Rehana Zaman's videos
Conclusion: Toxicity and self-care – two poles of pharmacological aesthetics
Summary: Over the last century, society has witnessed a dramatic shift away from industrial employment, where profit was largely achieved via physical labour to that in which money is made from mental exertion. In this original and provocative book, Maria Walsh contends that modern neo-liberal conditions have created a world of precarity, in which labour is expendable, material success is essential and technology means that the old work-life balance no longer exists. Even artists, she argues, who previously believed themselves to be removed from the commercial realm, have found themselves labelled as commodities whose work can be marketed for financial gain. In order to process their trauma, and that of the precariat at large, Walsh asserts that moving-image artists have created a slew of works that perform therapeutic techniques such as REBT (Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy) and VRET (Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy) that allow creators and viewers to acknowledge and surmount the increasing cases of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder that precarity and instability have wrought upon modern life. Walsh's case studies ensure that this book is useful for students and scholars in the areas of art, philosophy and aesthetics, or those studying the therapeutic qualities of art.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Barcode
Book Book CGLAS Library Cream 615.85156 WAL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 11850

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Setting the scene – two supplementary vignettes

2. The imbrication of poison and cure in Harun Farocki

3. Homeopathic mimicry in Omer Fast's war trilogy

4. Melanie Gilligan's signifying semiologies and the micro-resistance of collective subjectivity

5. Pharmacological reparation in Liz Magic Laser's Primal Speech

6. Leigh Ledare's pharmacological aesthetics of group analysis

7. Aesthetic modes of performative truth-telling in The O Show and Self Made

8. The transitional pleasures of emotional labour in Lucy Beech's and Rehana Zaman's videos

Conclusion: Toxicity and self-care – two poles of pharmacological aesthetics

Over the last century, society has witnessed a dramatic shift away from industrial employment, where profit was largely achieved via physical labour to that in which money is made from mental exertion. In this original and provocative book, Maria Walsh contends that modern neo-liberal conditions have created a world of precarity, in which labour is expendable, material success is essential and technology means that the old work-life balance no longer exists. Even artists, she argues, who previously believed themselves to be removed from the commercial realm, have found themselves labelled as commodities whose work can be marketed for financial gain. In order to process their trauma, and that of the precariat at large, Walsh asserts that moving-image artists have created a slew of works that perform therapeutic techniques such as REBT (Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy) and VRET (Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy) that allow creators and viewers to acknowledge and surmount the increasing cases of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder that precarity and instability have wrought upon modern life. Walsh's case studies ensure that this book is useful for students and scholars in the areas of art, philosophy and aesthetics, or those studying the therapeutic qualities of art.

Also available in printed form ISBN 9781350093157.

Electronic reproduction. Askews and Holts. Mode of access: World Wide Web.