Open AccessThe Body Artist. An Experience of the Sur-Real in the Context of the Embodied and Aesthetic Abnormality
Author(s) -
Alexander Kozin
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
qualitative sociology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.315
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 1733-8077
DOI - 10.18778/1733-8077.2.2.08
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , phenomenology (philosophy) , narrative , normality , constitution , aesthetics , abnormality , experiential learning , context (archaeology) , modality (human–computer interaction) , sociology , epistemology , psychology , art , philosophy , social psychology , literature , computer science , history , pedagogy , archaeology , human–computer interaction , political science , law
In this essay I explore a possibility of experiential synthesis of an abnormal body of a Contergan person with an aesthetic image of the visual body. For a method, the essay uses phenomenology; I therefore lean in on the studies of embodiment conducted by Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In turn, Max Ernst introduces an aesthetic modality of the artistic body. A personal narrative about meeting sur-real bodies serves as a frame for theorizing abnormality. The study reveals how the encounter with the abnormal ways of constitution suspends normality toward producing sur-real effects.