The Present State of the American Society of Aesthetics

sunrise’speriodicity-the ordered reality perceived at the human scale suggesting a preexisting order encompassing the cosmic scale. References 1. Giorgio Careri, “Onthe Idea of Order in the Natural Sciences and in the Visual Arts’” Leonardo 15NO.1,19-22 (1982). 2. GiorgioCareri, ”Physicistsand Painters:The SimilarSearchfor Meaning,”Leonardo 22 No. 1, 113-115 (1989). 3. RogerPenrose, The Emperor’sNew Mind (Oxford Oxford UniversityPress, 1989) p. 416. 4. MichaelPolany, “Beauty,Elegance and Realityin Science,”in S. Korner, ed., Observation and Interpretation (London: Buttenvorths,1957). 5. Penrose [3] p. 95. 6. MarcelProust,A la Recherche du Temp Perdu (Paris:Gallimard, 1954)Vol. 3, p. 881. GIORGIO CARERI Honoraly Editar Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitadegli studi “LaSapienza,”Piazzale Aldo Moro, 2,140185 Rome, Italy Art and Science No one can deny the use artists have made of science.Until recently, and since the dawn of photography, the artist researched, discovered,invented and, best of all, depicted, recorded and observed.And today?From the beginning of this century,as art turned from mimetic depiction, the artist has looked to science.But what of the uses to which scientistscan put art, art of any style and persuasion? Only occasionallyhave scientists cited in their books some works of modem art or made generalities about the art of today and of the past. Of course,when scientist’swrites specificallyabout creativity, then all the arts are likely to be cited.Agood example of this is Science, orderand Creativityby David Bohm and F. David Peat. There one findsa considerablenumber of references to art of all periods and to, amongstothers,Bach, Beethoven, Biederman,Braque, Brunelleschi, Constable,Delacroix,Matisse, Monet, Mozart, Picasso, Theodore Rousseau, Turner, to writerson art, and to scientists who have also taken an interestin art. Concerning Turner, illustrated in Bohm with an 1837painting and a snowstorm painting, the caption reads: “Towards the end of his life Turner painted from a generative order that involved a violent swirlingmotion, or gyre, of water, light and air. This black and white reproduction does not convey the artist’s use of colour which also became part of this general movement.” In a more recent book, Primo Levialas , like David Bohm, no longer with us-speaks with a friend, the Italian physicist Tullia Regge [2]. the list of fascinatingdialogues. Many others bear citing.Alas, there are also too many that aim in the same direction but are destined to remain no more than period pieces ultimately of interest only to the “forensicculturologists.” This topic-art/science-being so crucial to Leonardo,it might seem that one is unaware of all that goes on between its covers. Indeed Leonardo has, one might say, pioneered a new movement . And the question arises-is it a post-modernist movement?We are surely entitled to an answer to this one. Unless, of course, the unspoken assumption is that one is raising a red herring and the “AffairPO-MO”is a total irrelevancy.For myself, I plead ignorance. I cannot guesswhat individual answers-given by artists “seenand heard” in Leonardemight be. otherwise,I am of the view, especially concerning the former, that we are in for a good deal of chaos. I am not alluding to the current interest amongst these artists in the topic of chaos as propounded by scientists.Yet. .. Catastrophe Theov, toMan we see in these ideas a message to artists? These two books by no means exhaust As for the culturologists, “forensic”or References 1. David Bohm and F. David Peat, Science, Orderand Crcah’uity(NewYork Bantam Books, 1987;U.K: Routledge, 1989). 2. TulliaRegge, Conversations (Penguin, 1992) ANTHONYHILL International Co-Editor 24 Charlotte Street, London W1P lHJ, United Kingdom The Present State of the AmericanSocietyof Aesthetics From the beginning, editor Frank Malina insisted that his periodical, Leonardo,keep abreast of current trends in aesthetics, the philosophy of art. In the United States the major organization devoted to this discipline is the American Society of Aesthetics (ASA). The society is chieflyresponsible for the principal periodical in this area, The Journal ofAesthetics and Art Criticism. I attended my first meeting of the ASA in 1959.The meeting was held in Cincinnati;I was a graduate student of the University of Cincinnati. I have attended several...