Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar at the Fairmont San Francisco [source]
Tiki bars exist today as a result of American violence and colonialism in the South Pacific. Despite this, they are idyllic and peaceful spaces where you can sip on a tropical cocktail to escape from your everyday worries. The idealization and exotification of real places seem essential to the escapism of tiki bars, so how can we justify the revival they are experiencing today?
Here is a thought: as much as I like Adult Swim’s original programming, a nice chunk of it is… kinda bad. In the sense that it is often messy, teasing, testing, and many other user-unfriendly things. I mean, just to state an obvious fact about the channel that shows how challenging its experience can be: Adult Swim’s natural habitat is the middle of the night. If you watch AS during the day—like I do, to be honest—you are cheating. However, bad does not mean not worthy.
What follows is an essay written by Aaron Richardson (Simon Fraser University). It is Part Two of a two-part series that Aesthetics for Birds assembled on the topic of alternative text. Part One describes the general problem of alt text and the role it serves in improving accessibility. Part Two focuses on specific issues for writing alt text for artwork. Each essay can be read independently, but together they offer a more complete treatment of alt text.
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter’s genre-hopping and country-influenced new album, Cowboy Carter, has been one of the biggest pop culture events of 2024 so far. It has also been a major event in aesthetics. What do we mean by that? Well, in his groundbreaking 2016 book, Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics, the philosopher Paul Taylor characterizes Black aesthetics in the following way:
to do “black aesthetics” is to use art, criticism, or analysis to explore the role that expressive objects and practices play in creating and maintaining black life-worlds. The appeal to exploration here is more expansive than it may appear. One can explore something by trying to give an account of it, in the manner of a scientist. But one can also explore something by poking around, in the manner of an explorer. In this sense artists explore the roles that expressive objects can play by trying to make them play one role or another, or by participating in and commenting on previous attempts to do this.
On this understanding, Cowboy Carter is itself a work of Black aesthetics, one where Beyoncé explores Black life-worlds through the lens of country and genre, as well as a host of other themes. We invited five scholars working in aesthetics and philosophy of art to comment on the album, and to engage with Beyoncé on these issues. Also, we wanted to make sure that the world knew that aesthetic thought about pop music reaches beyond the orbit of Taylor Swift.
In this roundtable, five aestheticians offer their reflections on the most recent work by Queen Bey:
Jeanette Bicknell (she/her), Independent Scholar and professional mediator
John Dyck (he/him), Lecturer in Philosophy at Auburn University
Charles Peterson (he/him), Associate Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Oberlin College
Corey Reed (he/him), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Butler University
Nicholas Whittaker (they/them), PhD candidate at the City University of New York, Graduate Center
Detail from “The Alchemist” by Joseph Wright (1771) [source]
We usually associate aesthetic experience with the enjoyment of artworks and landscapes, but I have always found incredible pleasure in science and its history. While I value artists and the artifacts they create, to me they are on a par with scientists, who also offer beautiful, awe-inspiring creations. Engaging with nature, the subject matter of science, can itself be the source of deep aesthetic experiences, but so too can engaging with scientific discoveries, instruments, and performances of experiments. Science can evoke unrivaled aesthetic responses in us.
Countless lives inhabit us. I don’t know, when I think or feel, Who it is that thinks and feels. I am merely the place Where things are thought and felt.
I have more than just one soul. There are more I-s than I myself. I exist, nevertheless, Indifferent to them all. I silence them: I speak.
The crossing urges of what I feel or do not feel Struggle in who I am, but I Ignore them. They dictate nothing To the I I know: I write.
Edited by Aaron Meskin (University of Georgia) and Alex King (Simon Fraser University)
A recent New York Times Magazinearticle caught my eye because of its original title: “‘Aesthetics’ Are Not an Identity. Teens Deserve Better.” I thought, wait a second, ‘Aesthetics,’ in the sense in which I use the term, is crucial to my identity, and teenagers talking about the standard of taste is pretty great. But the author, Mireille Silcoff, meant something different by the term. She’s talking about internet “aesthetics” like Dark and Light Academia, Royalcore and Seapunk (see the picture above).
Silcoff argues that aesthetics like these do not offer much for today’s youth. True subcultures—punk, metalheads, skaters, club kids—Silcoff argues, are able to provide community and a robust sense of identity. Internet aesthetics don’t do a good job with these. Or so Silcoff says. Is she right? Alex and I thought we better check with the kids. So we reached out to some Gen Z and Millennial students and faculty for their thoughts.
But before we turn it over to the youth, this old Gen Xer wants to say one thing about subcultures. Back in my day, most teens did not belong to them! There were not—in fact—that many punks, skaters, and goths. They were subcultures. (Note that even being a fan of punk or goth was never enough to be part of those subcultures. I listened to a lot of punk and went to hardcore shows in my teens but was never a punk.) What about preppies? Maybe there was a preppy subculture at one time. If so, I’m not sure it’s one that deserves to be remembered fondly. But back in the 80s and 90s, preppy was—at least for most people—a fashion choice (i.e., an aesthetic) rather than a subculture. So I’m a bit skeptical of Silcoff’s nostalgia for subcultures. They might have offered some people a sense of community and identity, but for the vast majority of teens they did no such thing.
The seven authors of the pieces below provide a nuanced view of the role of aesthetics and subcultures in contemporary youth culture. They give us reason to think that the kids are alright.
— Aaron Meskin
Fisher Benson (he/him), college student in Philosophy, Knox College
Lola Chamberlain (she/they), college student in English and Philosophy, Knox College
Celia Gentle (she/her), Masters student, Simon Fraser University
Alice Harberd (she/her), PhD student in Philosophy, University College London
Nava Karimi (she/her), college student in English and Philosophy, Simon Fraser University
Evan Malone (he/him), Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Lone Star College
Angela Sun (she/her), Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Washington and Lee University
‘Tis the season for year-end recommendations! So some of our staff are bringing you one thing that we experienced this year* that’s worth telling others about.
From all of us, thanks for another great year. Hope you enjoy these, and we’ll see you in 2024!
*Although not necessarily from this year!
Roy T. Cook (he/him), CLA Scholar of the College and Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Anthony Cross (he/him), Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Texas State University
Alex King (she/her), Associate Professor of Philosophy, Simon Fraser University
Matthew Strohl (he/him), Professor of Philosophy, University of Montana
Mary Beth Willard (she/her), Professor of Philosophy, Weber State University
![A title card for Frisky Dingo: On the left, the "[adult swim]" logo and show title appear in white on a crimson background. On the right, with a close-up of cartoonish, skeletal face with crimson eyes appears, lit dramatically from the left side.](https://aestheticsforbirds.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/frisky-dingo-150x150.jpg)
![A title card for Frisky Dingo: On the left, the "[adult swim]" logo and show title appear in white on a crimson background. On the right, with a close-up of cartoonish, skeletal face with crimson eyes appears, lit dramatically from the left side.](https://aestheticsforbirds.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/frisky-dingo-1.jpg)
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