The authors requested to add the following to the Acknowledgments section of the original publication (Lončar and Pavlović 2024): We want to thank Martin Depken (TU Delft) for his kindness in opening the door to art and science dialogues, organizing concerts and lectures, and establishing links with the scientists at the Bionanoscience department, TU Delft [...]

Recent evidence suggests that the artwork of an experienced artist is usually more expensive than that of a beginner. Additionally, the artwork of a man is often more expensive than that of a woman, and a painting is typically more expensive than graphics. However, this research aims to contrast the influence of the author's age and sex on the price with the influence of the artwork's material and

Contemporary art consumption is predominantly online, driven by algorithmic recommendation systems that dictate artwork visibility. Despite not being designed for curation, these algorithms’ machinic ways of seeing play a pivotal role in shaping visual culture, influencing artistic creation, visibility, and associated social and financial benefits. The Algorithmic Pedestal was a gallery, practice-based

In this paper, I take the cultural effects of generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) as a context for examining a broader perspective of AI’s impact on contemporary art notions. After the introductory overview of generative AI, I summarize the distinct but often confused aspects of art notions and review the principal lines in which AI influences them: the strategic normalization of AI

The present study tested the effect of title type on the aesthetic evaluation of Japanese poetry. Ninety participants read a Japanese poem presented with either a “descriptive” title, an “elaborative” title, or no title. Participants then gave ratings according to their aesthetic experiences on the poem. The results revealed that the title type significantly influenced the readers’ aesthetic evaluations

Body dissatisfaction is likely to be particularly salient in aesthetically focused professions, including the performing arts. However, there is a paucity of research involving male theatre performers. This study addressed this omission by exploring how male musical theatre actors experience body image. Interviews were conducted with 7 male performers and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis

This study aims to explore how Confucius is recharacterised in the multimodal translation of The Analects from verbal (analects) to verbal-visual (comics) texts. The focus is on the interpersonal/i...

There are tens of thousands of painted rock art motifs in the Serranía de la Lindosa in the Colombian Amazon, including humans, animals, therianthropes, geometrics, and flora. For most of the last 100 years, inaccessibility and political unrest has limited research activities in the region. In this paper, we discuss findings from six years of field research and consider the role of rock art as a manifestation

This article proposes a methodology to identify rhetorical energies that form within the diegetic timeline of movies and to translate these to creative sculpting of spacetime designs. In turn, the ...

This paper is part of a series of research that these authors are conducting to study the linguistic landscape of the Tokyo megacity. In this instance, our focus lies on Shinjuku city. However, our examination does not extend to the linguistic landscape of the city itself; rather, it zeroes in on a café situated at its core, the Café Lavandería. How did Café Lavandería contribute to the development

Through two interviews conducted two years apart, the author and artist Joey Terrill offer an intimate historical trajectory rooted in the singular voice of the artist through the discussion of artworks in the exhibitions “Joey Terrill: Still Here” and “Joey Terrill: Once Upon A Time: Paintings, 1981–2015”. The method of storytelling, interview, and art representation chronicles the artist’s emotional

Openness to experience is one of the least studied traits in relation to subjective well-being, despite its potential as a resource that enables flourishing. In this study, we therefore focused on this particular trait and examined whether its relation to subjective well-being is explained by receptive (Studies 1 and 2) and participatory arts engagement (Study 2) using data from the GESIS Panel ( N

Military images of the ancient Near East during the Early Bronze Age are characterized by one of their main features: the serial reproduction of soldiers and prisoners, side by side, the former clearly identifiable by the visual signs of power they bear and the latter by their humiliation. These images are usually and almost naturally conceived as the ideological prerogative of city-states in conflict

Published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)

The essays gathered in this Special Issue of Arts concern artists working in the United States and Europe since the 1960s who have leveraged sculptural abstraction to address topical issues without ceding to the classical framework of figuration [...]

The term nomadic material culture refers to the tools, equipment, and other tangible items associated with communities that are characterized by a high degree of residential mobility [...]

In the 7th century BCE, the Kushite king Tanwetamani commissioned his “Dream Stela”, which was to be erected in the Amun Temple of Jebel Barkal. The lunette of the stela features a dualistic artistic motif whose composition, meaning, and significance are understudied despite their potential to illuminate important aspects of royal Kushite ideology. On the lunette, there are two back-to-back offering

Afrofuturism (an artistic perspective in which Black voices tell alternative narratives of culture, technology, and the future) and the Dark Fantastic (interrupting negative depictions of Black people through emancipatory interpretations of art) are two interrelated concepts used by Black artists in the Atlantic World to counter negative images and emphasize a story from a Black perspective. Likewise

Contrapposto, an asymmetrical twisting of the hips and shoulders, has historically been associated with beauty and aesthetics in art. While the impact of a female contrapposto posture on perception of attractiveness and visual attention has been studied, its effects on males remain understudied. The current research aims to explore whether contrapposto postures in men influence perceptions of attractiveness

In this text, we discuss the “Beyond Quantum Music” project, which inspired pianists, composers, researchers, and innovators Sonja Lončar and Andrija Pavlović (LP Duo) to go beyond the boundaries of classical and avant-garde practices to create a new style in composition and performance on two unique DUALITY hybrid pianos that they invented and developed to create a new stage design for multimedia

Published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)

In order for scientists and technologists to describe many of their objects, they must observe at a scale that exceeds typical human experience. Atoms and ecologies, microbes and galaxies all exist at scales that require retroactively reconstructing a picture (whether rendered visually, through an alternative visualization, or simply pieced together as a description) of what human perceptual apparatus

This paper discusses hitherto unidentified loose folios of a parchment liturgical and musical book held in the Archdiocesan Archive of Gniezno (Poland), containing the offertory and communion antiphons for the feasts De Trinitate and Corpus Christi. The author provides the codicological description of the leaves (analyzing Latin script, musical notation, ornamentation); identifies the time of their

There is a high interest in art's change potential towards sustainability. Yet, there is still a lot unknown about this change potential, including from the perspective of artists themselves. The research questions, thus, are: Do artists who create climate-related art have goals and target audiences regarding their climate-related work? If so, which goals and audiences do they aim for, and why? 30

Using a digital environment, this study tested how setting (museum vs. street), reputation (established vs. unestablished), and style (abstract vs. representational) affected people's aesthetic perception of art. Art novices, quasi-experts, and experts were randomly assigned to rate paintings that varied in setting, reputation, and style. Although there was no significant main effect of setting, follow-up

Published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)

In the context of the Catholic Reformation serious concerns were expressed about the affective potency of naturalistic depictions of beautiful, sensuous figures in religious art. In theological discourse similar anxieties had long been articulated about potential contiguities between elevating, licit desire for an extraordinarily beautiful divinity and base, illicit feeling. In the later fifteenth

The perception of time undergoes a radical shift between the human scale and the nanoscale. In an age of rapidly evolving media and scientific technologies, we need to understand how these impact human perception and visual culture. This essay explores computational molecular simulations through the lenses of temporal media theory and moving image practice. Emerging from a creative fellowship with

Many youth experience distress around the climate crisis. However, mainstream environmental messages ignore youth concerns, blame individuals, and suggest techno-fixes rather than addressing root causes. Young people need a way to productively process and collectively engage with their complex feelings about the climate crisis. During the spring of 2023, a group of university students facilitated a

Monumental rock-cut tombs decorated with wall paintings or reliefs were rare in New Kingdom colonial Nubia. Exceptions include the 18th Dynasty tombs of Djehutyhotep (Debeira) and Hekanefer (Miam), and the 20th Dynasty tomb of Pennut (Aniba). The three tombs present typical Egyptian artistic representations and inscriptions, which include tomb owners and their families, but also those living under

Modernism has emerged as the preeminent iconic representation of Barcelona. However, the process through which this peculiar style has attained its iconic status is an arduous and multifaceted endeavor. This paper examines the challenges inherent in the categorization and periodization of Modernisme, followed by a succinct review of its initial filmic representations, culminating in a comprehensive

The metaverse brings us not only a flashy phase of new technologies, but also forces us to rethink some fundamental philosophical concepts, among which the theory of objects becomes an important is...

Street art, with a particular emphasis on murals, plays a crucial role in shaping the cultural DNA of contemporary cities. A prime example of this is the mural “Four Seasons with Kora” in Warsaw, which is dedicated to the renowned Polish artist Kora (Olga Jackowska). This large-scale mural, which combines the artist’s portrait with a chestnut tree motif, visually changes with the season, influencing

In his On the Art of Building, Renaissance humanist Leon Battista Alberti wrote that the ancient Egyptians believed that alphabetical languages would one day all be lost, but the pictorial method of writing they used could be understood easily by intellectuals everywhere and far into the future. Amidst a renewed appreciation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics found on obelisks in Italy and the discovery

Published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)

This text aims to revisit a practice developed in a course on art education within the Ph.D. programme in Arts Education at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto. We approached this space through the construction of a workbook that was practised during classes. The exercises aimed to reflect on the positionality we occupy and on art education as a field of practice/research built on several

Academics often comment that their teaching affects their research, but how this manifests is often implicit. In this essay, I explicitly explore the artistic, scholarly, and curatorial research instantiated by an undergraduate class titled “Transgender Studies meets Art History,” which I taught during the fall of 2022. Alongside personal anecdotes—both personal and connected to the class—and a critical

In this article, I consider the global tradition of live art as a pedagogical force that draws on queer affect and resonance. Scholars of performance studies have situated live art in the field of ...

Published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)

The first decade of the twentieth century marked a turning point for Japanese Buddhism. With the introduction of Western academia, Buddhist scholars began to uncover the history of Buddhism, and through their efforts, they discovered India as the birthplace of Buddhism. As India began to grow in importance for Japanese Buddhist circles, one unexpected area to receive the most influence was Japanese

Ajami, a technique of painted wood paneling, was popular in the Ottoman Empire from the 17th to the late 18th centuries. Ajami art became prominent in Syria after the decline of tile production, and it rose to a sophisticated level of art in both local and global markets. Today, however, Ajami art has become almost forgotten and unknown by the modern generation, due to being an exclusive art that can

Choirs in female monastic and convent communities are spaces whose complexity has been highlighted because of their multipurpose and multifunctional nature. Although they are within the community’s private sphere of prayer of the divine office, it has also been noted that they play a liturgical role as the space from which the nuns ‘hear’ and follow the celebrations taking place in the church and even

This article explores Alicia Little’s presentation of foot-bound women in her travelogues and periodical essays. Her exploration of the anti-footbinding movement saw the dissemination of Western fe...

Published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)

Delving into the various things in Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement, this article seeks to value the being of materiality with inspiration gained from Thing Narratology and New Materialism. Rather...

Among the indicators of the value and power ascribed to statues in Mesopotamia, reuse is a particularly significant one. By studying some of the best-documented examples of the usurpation and reassignment of a new function to sculptures in the round from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, our study reveals the variety of motives and methods employed. We hereafter explore the ways in which the status of

One of the key concerns for present-day society is the need to build the environment in which we live in a sustainable way, using green solutions, but without losing the aesthetic values. The following study proves that, when applied in the right way, façade graphics support sustainability. Art glass placed inside the envelope significantly influences a number of aspects related to how a building functions

The present research analyses the role of the Egyptian artist within the context of New Kingdom art, paying attention to the appearance of new details in Theban tomb chapels that reflect the originality of their creators. On the one hand, the visibility of the case studies investigated is explored, looking for a possible explanation as to their function within the tomb scenes (such as ‘visual hooks’)

In multicultural and multilingual societies like South Africa, newswork, or the practices that underpin the news-making process, is made possible by linguistic and cultural translation. In other wo...

Eviction could hold a different meaning if a home’s immediate surroundings contribute to its residents’ livelihood, especially for informal laborers. This paper explores the notion of the fragility of a home within an expanded space—the space on which a home stands and its surroundings when turned into a contested area. It specifically looks at the slum of Yamuna Pushta in Delhi, which was demolished

In an era of uncertainty, where epistemic freedoms are challenged and where many people feel excluded, how can communication – both as a discipline and a practice – serve to combat these uncertaint...

In this article I present how I use Research-based Theatre (RbT) to better comprehend my own roots, history, and multiple selves. The purpose of this research project is also for me to explore RbT before I invite my oral storytelling students to do the same. Using RbT as my central methodology, I have explored my own and others’ narratives by using an aesthetic, arts-based approach. Drama conventions

The authors position and contextualise Adelheid Frackiewicz’s recent landart amid comparable works by contemporary artists, dealing with land loss, mourning, and migration. Paul Ricoeur’s magnanimo...

Published in Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2024)

In 1969, Lynda Benglis withdrew her large latex floor painting, Contraband, from the exhibition Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials. Looking beyond the logistical problems that caused Benglis to pull the work, I suggest that it challenged the conceptual and formal parameters of the exhibition from its inception. Taking hints from feminism, modernist painting, camp aesthetics, psychedelic imagery, pop

Today’s fleeting spectacles—art fairs, biennials, and NFTs—continue to shape a global consensus about contemporary Latin American art based on practices developed in urban, white, and mestizo middle- and upper-class contexts [...]

In the spring and summer of 1906, while visiting the rural village of Gósol in the Spanish Pyrenees, Picasso executed his first woodcut, made two sculptures out of boxwood, and began to focus on the topoi of wood and the forest as avatars of primal matter and of that which lies beyond civilization. In a subsequent series of paintings, he used wooden supports for images that depict male and female heads

William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay and 9th Earl of Devon (1768–1835), has been most remembered for his romantic relationship with author and slave owner, William Beckford (1760–1844), which scandalized London society in 1784. However, the 9th Earl’s life after this event has received little attention despite his artistic contributions to the built environment of his ancestral home of Powderham